Message of his excellency Rufus B. Bullock Governor, to the General Assembly of Georgia Atlanta, Ga. March 9th, 1869

MESSAGE OF HIS EXCELLENCY
RUFUS B. BULLOCK, GOVERNOR,
To the General Assembly of Georgia.

Executive Department, Atlanta, Ga
., March 9th, 1869.

To the General Assembly:

The following communication has been received from the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States; and is herewith transmitted for the consideration of your Honorable body:
“
United States of America, Department of State
.
“
To all to Whom these Presents shall come, Greeting:

“I certify, that annexed is a true copy of a Concurrent Resolution of Congress, entitled ‘A Resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States,’ the original of which resolution, received to-day, is on file in this Department.
In testimony whereof, I, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, have hereto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-seventh day of February, A. D. 1869, and of
L. S.
the Independence of the United States of America, the ninety-third.

William H. Seward
.”
“Concurrent Resolution, received at Department of State February 27th, 1869.
A RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
“
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled
, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:

ARTICLE XV.

“
Section I.—The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.


“
Section II.—The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.



“
Schuyler Colfax
,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“
B. F. Wade
,
President of the Senate
pro tempore
.
“Attest:
“
Edward McPherson
,
Clerk of House of Representatives.
“
Geo. C. Gorham
,
Secretary of Senate United States.”
It is especially gratifying to learn, as I do from the published proceedings of your Honorable body, that Senators and Representatives who have heretofore acted with a political organization which adopted as one of its principles a denunciation of the Acts of a Republican Congress, as unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void, should now give expression to their anxious desire to lose no time in embracing this opportunity of ratifying one of the fundamental principles of the Republican Party, as herein proposed, by a joint resolution of a Republican Congress; and I very much regret that the preparation necessary for a proper presentation of this subject to your Honorable body has necessarily caused a short delay, and thereby prolonged the suspense of those who are so anxious to concur.
This Amendment is specially designed to secure political privileges to the colored man; and whether its ratification by a General Assembly which has already violently wrested from him privileges to which he was constitutionally entitled in this State, will be recognized as valid by the power proposing it, unless accompanied by a reversal of the action by which those privileges were denied, is a question which we will not delay here to consider.
It is a source of great gratification to the lovers of liberty and of republican principles throughout the country that Congress has given to us this further pledge that the declaration of our fathers—“All men are created equal,”—Shall be recognized as a reality, and that it is no longer a mere empty sound. The equal right of every man, either by himself, or his elected representative, to participate in the framing of the laws by which he is to be governed, and in the selection of the persons who are to execute them, is the very foundation of Republican Government; and, that one race or color shall undertake to exclude from political privilege any other race or color is not only a practical denial of the principle on which our independence was originally declared, and the Government subsequently founded, but displays a thirst for power, natural, it is true, to human nature, but by no means creditable to, “its” sense of justice. “ ‘So use your own rights as not to interfere with the rights of others’: the golden maxim of justice may be appropriate to the weak, but it does not apply to the powerful, when they may venture to evade the law if its assertion is attempted, or to defy it if it seems to be doubtful.”
The colored race is free all over this broad land. One more step was needed, and this amendment, if adopted by three-fourths of the States represented in the Union, completes it. It will then be written in the fundamental law, above the strife of faction, and beyond the reach of passion, that all men, without distinction of race or color, shall have equal political privileges.
Were there any doubt as to the sufficiency of this Amendment to confer equal political privileges, without regard to race or color,—were it urged that the right to vote did not necessarily include the right to hold office, it would certainly be dissipated and answered by the arguments advanced in the debates in Congress on the passage of the Joint Resolution proposing this Amendment, as well as by the expressed opinions of the soundest lawyers in the nation.
It is thus demonstrated that the right to vote carries with it by necessary implication every other political privilege. That this is so, unless there be in the instrument by which it is conferred some positive provision denying it, is beyond all question. This Amendment, being adopted, and becoming a part of the Constitution of the United States, the right of the negro to vote will be guaranteed by the National Constitution; and as there is no restrictive qualification based upon birth, race, or color, in that instrument, except as to the offices of President, Vice President, and Senator, it follows that none can exist elsewhere in any subordinate instrument; and all State laws or Constitutions making class qualifications for office, based upon birth, race, or color, become void.
A
foreigner
, disqualified from voting and from office-holding in his native country, may become a citizen of the United States; and after due compliance with her laws he is enfranchised. Immediately thereafter he is eligible to any office to of which he may be elected, except those of President, Vice President, and Senator. Can a
native-born
citizen, upon becoming enfranchised by the United States, be any less eligible? Certainly not; on the contrary, a native-born negro, having been made a citizen and a voter by the National Constitution, will be eligible to offices which are denied by the Constitution to the enfranchised foreigner.
The adoption of this amendment will, therefore, be hailed as the final triumph of freedom and equal rights for all; and will blot out forever all distinction in political rights, based upon race, color, or previous condition as to slavery. Its adoption by the nation will be the consummation of the progress of the last eight years towards a perfect accord between the theory of Republicanism and its practical enforcement. This great and fundamental principle being incorporated in the National Constitution, it will be placed beyond the caprice and passion of the hour; so that, should the enthusiasm and love of the Union which have been intensified by the triumph of the nation over Secession and Rebellion, ever become cool, it will not be possible for the local prejudice of caste or race, or for partisan desires, to revive and reestablish an injustice that has already too long existed.
The fear is well grounded that even in those States where a large portion of the population is of the colored race, the white race will exercise their present superiority in wealth, education, and other elements of power, in such a manner that in a few years, should the iron hand of the nation be withdrawn, and the selfishness and prejudices of men left to their natural course, the strong would soon overcome the weak, and deny to them those rights which have been so dearly bought, and are so highly prized.
The necessity which exists for a constitutional provisions of the character of this proposed amendment cannot better be illustrated than by a reference to a Bill which, a few days since, received the sanction of a majority of the members of both Houses of your Honorable body, and which was sustained by a majority of the Senate in opposition to the Executive veto. It will be seen that, even at this time, while the victorious armies which gave freedom and the ballot to the bondman, are still within our borders, a disposition to grasp exclusive power, and wrest the priceless boon of liberty from the weak and lowly, is made manifest in the Bill referred to; for, by its provisions, a municipal government was to have been established in which
no citizen was allowed to vote or hold office, unless he was “the owner of a lot
.” This character of legislation, if allowed to stand, would, without doubt, very rapidly extend; and all power would soon be usurped and absorbed by the land-owners. Measures, therefore, for the protection of the weak cannot come too soon.
In ratifying this proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, we should remember that we thereby renew for ourselves obligations which we have not heretofore daily recognized.
To be consistent, and to give evidence that we act in good faith, we must at once voluntarily yield to the colored citizens the right which has been wrested from them, and restore their representatives to their rightful positions, that their voices may be heard in your halls, and their votes recorded upon public measures.
Laws would then be enacted, guaranteeing to them ample protection against the local prejudices which have been allowed heretofore to restrain them by violence, intimidation, and other equally effective means, from enjoying their rights, privileges and immunities, as citizens entitled to all the consideration due to citizens of any other race in the pursuit of their lawful avocations.
The ratification of this Amendment by your honorable body, and a recognition of its requirements as here indicated, together with these of the Fourteenth Amendment—
which

as yet disregarded
—will, I sincerely hope and confidently believe, secure for us full and complete recognition as a State, definitively settle our political differences, and set at rest, finally and forever, the feeling of uncertainty and insecurity which now excite and disturb a large portion of our people.

Rufus B. Bullock
, Governor.

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