Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-06-15
RUTLAND HERALD.
MONDAY, JUNE Il, 1865.
The Negro Suffrage Question.


bleness on the part of a few persons
concerning the negro suffrage question.
They are the persons who never were
and never will be satisfied with any
thing under the sun. They berate Pres
ident johnson for not forcing universal
negro suffrage HStanter upon the South
They say he is guilty Of surrendering
the whole cause for which we have |
been lighting, and the loyal people are |
stripped of the reward for their great |
sacrifices of the past four years. Now
If these men would stop raving and de-
vote themselves to devising some legiu- |
mate method by which the right Of sut- |
frage can be secured to the negro, they
would be furthering the cause which
they are now essentially damaging.
Their unreasonable abuse not only re-
acts upon themselves, but also, uniortu-
nately, upon the cause they advocate
The theory that the Southern States
have never been out of the Union is the
only tenableOne. Otherwise we recog-
nize reasonable ordinances of secession
as legally valid and etfectual TO dissolve
D the Union, and the war on our part to
force the States, legally out of the I'm
ion, back into it, was uDjustifable. The
States never have been out Of the Union;
) there has been no valid secession and
there has been no coercion Of States in this
war. The United States Government
acts only upon individuals who resist its
lawful authority these individuals have
been numerous enough in this war to
temporarily obstruct the wheels of loyal
state governments at the South, but all
their acts including their pretended acts
of secession, were unlawful and void.
When these usurping and traitorous in
dividuals are overcome the wheels of
the lawful state governments start
again; the constitutions of the states
remain the same as before the obstruC-
tion, their legal validity having been in
no wise affected because they may have
been violated by individual traitors no
matter how numerous. Slavery, it is
true is practically abolished by the
course of the war, and by proclamations
or orders issued by the President of the
United States in his military capacity
as communicative chief of the army and
navy-issued in time of war and as
military measures for the suppression
of rebellion and the saving OF the gov
ernment from destruction. But the
permanent abolition of slavery, even, is
not sure without an amendment to the
United States Constitution forever pro-
hibiting it. Now the constitutions and
laws of the several states, south as well
as north, regulate the limitations Of
suffrage in and for each state, and Pres
ident Johnson has no constitutional
power or right to interfere with those
regulations in any state, either north or
south. If they do not conflict with the
United States Constitution, they can be
changed only by the loyal voters of the
several states The President can dis
franchise individual traitors in punish
ment OF persistent disloyalty, but he
cannot cYtend the suffrage to those ex-
cluded by state constitutions. Because
the PTBSlUGuL SG6S anu DGllGNCS tulSj uCA-
ther Wendell Phillips nor any other
man has any right to assume that he is
hostile in opinion to negro suffrage On
the contrary the President, it is said on
good authority, will exert all the infu-
ence he lawfully can in favor of extend
ing the suffrage to negroes. Those who
sustain him are also in favor Of negro
suffrage, either Immediately or as soon
as the blacks can be educated up to an
intelligent use of the ballot; but they
recognize the constitutional obstacles in
the way and would go to work with a
view to removing them legally and
peaceably. The Republican doctrine on
the subject of slavery, was that there
was no right of interference with the in
stitution where 1t was established. The
party was organized to prevent its
spread into free territory. But war in
augurated by the Shareholders has &C
complished the grand work of abolish
ing it. Negro suffrage will come in du,
time. Congress can commence the worl
in the District of Columbia.