It would be a convenience to have the negro vote in the
reconstruction of the States disorganized by secession, for it
would secure their re-construction with antislavery
constitutions, and also make sure of the proposed antislavery
amendment to the Constitution of the United States; but there is
no power in Congress to enfranchise the negroes in the States
needing reconstruction, and, once assured of their freedom, the
freedmen would care little for the Union, of which they
understand nothing. They would vote, for the most part, with
their former masters, their employers, the wealthier and more
intelligent classes, whether loyal or disloyal; for, as a rule,
these will treat them with greater personal consideration and
kindness than others. The dislike of the negro, and hostility to
negro equality, increase as you descend in the social scale. The
freedmen, without political instruction or experience, who have
had no country, no domicile, understand nothing of loyalty or of
disloyalty. They have strong local attachments, but they can
have no patriotism. If they adhered to the Union in the
rebellion, fought for it, bled for it, it was not from loyalty,
but because they knew that their freedom could come only from the
success of the Union arms. That freedom secured, they have no
longer any interest in the Union, and their local attachments,
personal associations, habits, tastes, likes and dislikes, are
Southern, not Northern.
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