American Reconstruction

We, the Freedman's Party, believe in freedom and equality of all rights for each and every citizen.

I. [Should Congress pass Civil Rights legislation and/or constitutional amendments guaranteeing blacks the right to vote and/or any other civil rights, or should the federal government stay out of this area?]

We believe that the congress of the United States should pass a Civil Right's Legislation for Black Rights. We have been freed from our slavery but that is not enough. The congress has passed the right to free us from slavery; why shouldn't they go the rest of the way and grant us all of our rights as a U.S Citizen? Currently, we are in limbo. We do not have the right to own property, to vote, or to become educated or any of the natural rights given to a citizen. We are free men and it means nothing. We are not protected from the Black Codes that the Southerners have made against us. Because of the Black Codes we can not enjoy the freedom we have been graciously granted. We need help in overcoming these new codes. President Lincoln has said on this topic: "And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such state government in relation to the freed people of such state, which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National Executive" (Lincoln, 19). The African-American race is no less qualified as a person than anyone else. We can do jobs just as well as the whites, if not better, since we have been doing their dirty work for years. The Freedmen's says "His personal rights as a freedman once recognized in law and assured in practice, there is little reason to doubt that he will become a useful member of the great industrial family of nations. Once released from the disabilities of bondage, he will somewhere find, and will maintain, his own appropriate social position" (Final, 26).

Currently, the freedmen are waiting patiently for the federal government to come to their senses and grant us our civil rights. However, if this does not occur soon, there will be a bigger problem. The Office of American Freedmen says: "The negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights. We cannot expect, in a democratic republic, to main domestic tranquility if we deprive millions of freemen of their civil rights" (Final, 25).

As the freemen party, we wish for equal rights for all and every citizen. We want an amendment passed such as this "Slavery shall not be permitted, and no discrimination shall be made, as to the civil or political rights of persons, because of color" (Final, 26).

II. [Insert text of question your party ranked second in importance]

We believe that the South must form a fair and slavery-free constitution of government, admitted and Okayed by the U.S. Government, before they can rejoin the Union with full representation in the congress. As the Freedmen Party, we have first hand experience with the South. For years, they have enslaved our people, treated them unfairly and given them none of their constitutional or natural rights. We have fought a war for the freedom of our people and after many years of struggle, we have won our victory. However, we do not want to once again lose our rights to people of the South. We are afraid that they will try to restore slavery in at least substance, if not in name. To avoid this, we believe that the South must constitute its own constitution to follow and within it, promising all former slaves free men. Frederick Douglass, one of our leaders once said: "I hold that the American people are bound, not only in self-defense, to extend this right to Freedmen of the South, but they are bound by the love of their country, and by all regard for the future safety of their Southern States, to do this--to do it as a measure essential to the preservation of peace there" (What, 35). We cannot trust the Southern states to succumb to the abolition of slavery only because they have lost the war. States that were not invaded by the armies may continue life as before; with slaves. (Reconstruction, 14) The South must agree to a written law abolishing slavery before they are given back their rights. "They ought never be recognized as capable of acting in the Union, or of being counted as valid states, until the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make it what its framers intended" (Stevens, 54)

III. [Insert text of question your party ranked third in importance]

We believe that the Federal Government should supply us blacks with a Freedmen's Bureau, as well as the right to acquire personal property.

We believe that now, because we are as free a man as any man, we deserve the same rights as any man and should be treated as any other free man. Within those rights, is the right to property. "For a time we need a Freedman's bureau, but not because these people are Negroes, only because they are men who have been, for generations, despoiled of their rights" (Final, 28). We also think that the Freedmen's Bureau would be a necessary assistant for the transition for whites