Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1865-07-01
THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE,
BY HORACE GREELEY.


Why would you conc do the right Of
suff age to Negroes, yet denyt to Wo-
men ;.
l would nat deny 1t to Women. / resi-, ,
with regatd TO W9men,. in the presump. ion
that a very large majority Of them deem
their rights and their in erests safe in the
hands Of their fathers, husbands, brothers,
!Mpd sons, and do not choose to DE eutran
chsed. Whenever l Shall be satisfied that
they goneraily wish TO vote, | thall vote
to let Item.
To summon Four Millions or more of
women to he bullotbcx-to require hem
10 do their pa in the work o. eectioneer.
ng. hol1ing political meetings, bringing
uut The isggatd, etc Ito double the nun
Der Of bal!uIs TO he priated, challenged
pollCd, counted and re urned--w ould in
rUlve great extra cost and sihconycnience
aud unless some practical, beniicent eud
he mplated-unless our Legislation,
Public Policy, etc, are 10 be decidedly,
bene6cently affected thereby-I could not
advise women TO demand the Right of Snf-
frage. But Whenever they do preponder.
ousIy demand it, shull vote TO coucede it
Aud, while l believe that our legislators
generally mean to be just TO wcman feel
tha, they have not been wholly so aud l
lind the eln an argument for general en-
ancbscmeut. To my miud, it is unjust
that tue wife, who endows her husband
with an estate, should have but life-iuter-
est in third of that very estate in case she
sut wives him 1t is still harder that a
falhel. dying, should have the legal right
TO will bis aud her children away ON
their mother. The wife's share of the es-
tate, IN case she is left widow, onght to
he The same as the basbaad's v ben he sur,
yves he wife. ] is not just thar her in.
terest in the joint estate should not be
equal aud permanent. .
Aud if men, as is proved. cannot legis-
late justly as between men and women
hose women their own mothers wives,
daughters-how can they be expected TO
do justice to despised, repulsiyo, down
trodden,. alien race We know that they
cannot. iHt'a 'i-
Mans inhumani,y TO Man is O trite, sad
theme. SeiShness blinds unchecked
Power corruptS him. Ii you think Ahub,
Nero, Caligua. supposed themselves bad
uNu ubu odu lOu utS lnloldhtu.-
Each of them, doubtless, deemed himself a
sadly mi,jndged, misuSed, traduced person,
age-soBetimes goaded iuto rough ways,
hut right aud sound at heart. No man
Judges fairly between himself and others
hence, no man should be clothed with the
power Of judging in such case. To set
white men 10 voting whether blacks shall
| also vote, or shall ride III city cars, or enjoy
| any right 10 common With whites, is TO beg
the question in dispute and tempt to ipjus.
! tice al wrong, 1t a rich man were TO die,
leaving eight children, and five os these
were to vote Yea or Nay on The question,
| Shall we divide the paterDal estate into
eight parts, and give one to each child ?
-orinto five, and apportion the whole among
our good, looking selves We all know how
they would generally vote, and how any
probate judge would tell them that their so
voting was of not the slightest consequence.
Law looks with no favor on rapacious jug.
giles designed to fill ones pockets at the
cost of another. r9iioF
In laying the foundations Of a State, the
largest liberty of participation should be
freely accorded. If any class be lft IN.
represented, it should be because of their
manifest incapacity, or their glaring hostil-
ity to the public veal. Iufanis, idiots. fell
ons--the two former for incapacity, the
latter for perilons depravity be
forbidden 10 vo,e The Inhibition should
be very little more sweeping than this =
All being fairly represented in the framing
of the constitution, whatever restrictions
aud limitations shall be therein embodied
may be fairly presumed to have been do.
vised aud adopted for the common good Of
all. .s.-. ..a ~ 81 I. ID .ss d
But why should the blacks vote -