It is recorded of the English statesman, Charles James Fox, that, after voting at a contested election, and finding his coachman, who had driven him to the polls, voting the other way, he protested pleasantly that the coachman should have told him in advance how he was to vote, that the two might have paired off and stayed at home. Here is Fox at the polls neutralized by his coachman. A similar incident is told of Judge Story, here in Cambridge. Both stories have been used to discredit suffrage by the people. They have not this effect on my mind. On the contrary, I find in them a beautiful illustration of that Equality before the Law which is the promise of republican institutions. At the ballot-box the humblest citizen is the equal of the great statesman or the great judge. If this seems unreasonable, it must not be forgotten that the eminent citizen exercises an influence which is not confined to his vote. It extends with his fame or position, so that, though he has only a single vote, there are many, perhaps multitudes, swayed by his example. This is the sufficient compensation for talent and education exerted for the public weal, without denying to anybody his vote. The common man may counterbalance the vote of the great statesman or great judge, but he cannot counterbalance this influence. The common man has nothing but his vote. Who would rob him of this? * * * * * Thus far I have shown the Reconstruction Acts to be constitutional, natural, and valid, in contradiction to the Rebel platform, asserting them to be “unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.” But these Acts may be seen in other aspects. I have shown what they accomplish. See now what they prevent; and here is another series of questions, every one of which is an issue on which you are to vote. * * * * * Are you ready for the revival of Slavery? I put this question plainly; for this is involved in the irreversibility of the Reconstruction Acts. Let these be overthrown or abandoned, and I know no adequate safeguard against an outrageous oppression of the freedman, which will be Slavery under another name. The original type, as received from Africa and perpetuated here, might not appear; but this is not the only form of the hateful wrong. Not to speak of peonage, as it existed in Mexico, there is a denial of rights, with exclusion from all participation in the Government and subjection to oppressive restraints, which of itself is a most direful slavery, under which the wretched bondman smarts as beneath the lash. And such a slavery has been deliberately planned by the Rebels. It would be organized, if they again had power. Of this there can be no doubt. The evidence is explicit and authentic.