Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1865-06-22

WHETHER the time be longer or shorter,
we may conclude with reasonable certainty
that some day or other the negro will be a
voter throughout all the States-as he is
now in several of them. There is grow
ing public sentiment in his favor by reason
of the stress of circumstances in the South.
As an original, disconnected proposition,
there are not many people who would in-
vest those who were so lately slaves, with
the high duties and privileges of citizen
ship, because such an act is felt to be not
in accordance with the "eternal fitness of
things" We have too many ignorant,
purchasable and otherwise unfit people al.
ready voting in this country. To add the
negroes to them is not desirable, except as
matter of necessity in the South. If
the country could feel assured that
there was really the germs of an entente
cordial in the South that the people in
good faith and in hearty good will were
returning to uureserved allegiance toward
the Government; that we should have no
hindrauces from them in elections, and on
the public bustiDgs-then there would be
very little disposition to make negro sut-
ffage an issue iu the work of recopstruc-
s'on. Public distrust, however, of the
South inclines Union people very generally
to look with more or less favor on the pro.
position to give those who fought for the
country, and all their class, a vote, in order
to offset appreheuded trouble from their
laIe rebel masters. Contrary to what most
people suppose, negro voting is no new
thing in the South. 10 Louisiana free ne.
groes voted up to a few years ago. In
Maryland they once voted.
North Carolina. in constitution which
was framed in l776. under the fresh insui.
ration of the Declaration of Independence
declared that call persons possessed o f a
freehold in any town in this State, having
right to representation, and also all free
men who have been inhabitants of any
such town twelve months next before and
at the day of election, and shall have paid
public taxes, shall be entitled to vote ~
Judge CASTOR, in his often cited opinion in
the case of the State vs. Manuel (2 Dew.
& Bat. 2o) declares with respect to this
early provision that ''it is matter of uui.
Versal uotorieIy that under it FREQ persous,
without regard to color, claimed and exer-
ctsed the franchise, until it was taken from
free men of color, few years since. by
our amendad oon.,;,,,;a. % M
made by the amended constitution of 1885
however, was not made without strenuous
resistance. The right of colored men to
vote was abrOgated by vote of 66 10 6l
and the strong minority urged their views
on the bEoAdest ground of tho natural title
of all men to equal rights.
Tennessee appears to have taken her
doctrine in this matter from her parent
State, North Caroliua and the idea Of free
blacks voting was go familiar, that the late
Mr.. Justice Cation, when Chief Justice of
Tennessee, held that the manumission of
slaves by will was imperfect, until the
State assented to the act hich was to give
the community new member. ST is
adopting into the body polite new mem.
ber," he said in the case of Fishers Ne.
gFOes .. Dobbs [e Yerg. l09),-"a vastly
important measure 10 every community,
and especially in ours where the msjority
of free men, over twenty.one years of age,
govern the balance of the people, together
With themselves; where the uegrO's vote
at the polls is of as high value as that of
any man."
Our readers will ind these facts, and
many others to the same purpose, collect.
ed with great industry in an able opinion
given inrls67 (44 Maine, b2l), by Mr.. Jus.
'ice Appleton, of Maine, now Chief Jus.
tice of that State, upon the question pro.
posed by the Legislature of Maine, whether
free cOlored men were voters under the
constitution of the State. Many points
bearing upon this inquiry may also be
found in the dissenting opinion of Mr.. Jus.
tice Curtis in the case of Dred Scott. The
whole of the historical evidence, we may
add, goes to show that in general the
Southern people in the early days of the
republic looked less to color Than to real
qualification as test for the extension OF
the franchise, and that when free blacks
were excluded it was less by reason Of
color than of essential unfitness. How
thoroughly all this is now reversed, We
hardly need say.
The usually we'll informed Washington
correspondent of the Boston Adpsrtiser un.
deFtakes to give the views of the President
and his Cabinet on the ne gro suffrage ques.
ton. From his letter We make the follow.
ing extract;