Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-06-15
President JOhnsOn's Quletus to
the Negro Suffrage Humbug.

had under consideration the question of
extending the right Of suffrage to the
emancipated negroes of the rebellious
States. 1t will be recolected that we took
the position at once, that the question was
one over which neither the President, nor
his Cabinet, nor any other authority of the
Federal Government had any jurisdiction
whatever-and we are glad to observe
from President Johnson's Mississippi
Proclamation that he had forced the dis
cordant elements about him to finally ac-
quiesce in the same view.
In that proclamation he distinctly
announces, that "he State Convention
,Ohen assembled, or The Legislature there
after eonvened, 'ciU prescribe the gualy-
cation of electors and the eligibility Of per.
sons ander The Constitution and la,Cs of
the State a poaoer the people Of the sev-
er0l States comprising The Federal Union
hare righgaiiy exercised from the origin
Of the Government to The present time"
We can heartily and unhesitatingly ap-
plaud this action of President Johnson
1t is the first distinct announcement and
public vindication of the great democratic
doctrine of State Rights that has emanated
from the Federal Government since the
accession of the Republican party to power
in 1861. 1t encourages the hope that our
government will be reconstructed upon
the principles upon which it was establish
ed, instead of the heresy of Federal conso-
lidation, which involves the idea of con-
trolling State communities by the votes of
people outside.
Local Self Government is the cardinal
principle upon which our political system
is founded, and we cannot but regard it
as Providential dispensation that man
who has from his earliest entrance upon
political life, been indoctrinated with
the wholesome ideas of the Democratic
party upon this subject, is at length called,
in this important crisis, to apply them to
the great task of repairing the ravages of
the recent revolution.
MIR. johnson may expect the most un-
relenting hostility upon the part of those
who thought the Almighty had interposed
the removal of Mr.. Lincoln only to give
them an opportunity to put the negro in
this country upon social and political
equality with the white man. Those
people have had no idea of this great po-
litical convulsion except as means to ac-
complish this result. With them the war
meant only the abolition of Slavery, and
the subjugation of all other people to their
own fanaticism. With Mr.. johnson the
war meant the overthrow of armed re-
sstance to the constitutional authority of
the Federal Government, They already
talk see Mr.. Congressman Ashley's
SPECIFY of crushing any man or any party
that stands in the way of their lavorite
heresy ofnegro equality. We will see how
they will fare in a contest with Andrew
johnson. He has met these men before,
and unless we are greatly mistaken in his
character "he wont scare worth a -"
His course is plain one. The rebellion
to the authority of the United States Gov
ernment is overcome. He means to place
the people of Mississippi back in the same
position they occupied on the day anterior
to the passage of the ordinance of Secession
except in so far as that position has been
changed by the accomplished facts of
the last four years. They are again to
constitute State in the Federal Union
and under the Federal Constitution. As
such they are to have all the political
rights to which that position entities them.
The Yankees of New England are not to
be allowed to dictate to them what shall
be the qualifications for electors or office
holders in their State, and the only con-
dition required is to be fidelity to the Con-
stitution and laws of the United States.
This is not the entertainment to which
the abolitionists and negro equality men
expected to be invited-on the crushing
out of the great rebellion--but it is the
entertainment that will be applauded by
all men who love constitutional liberty
and who hope to see its blessings perpe-