American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-06-21
SUFFRAGE IN PENNSYLVANIA


Why should the tax-paying colored
man in Pennsylvania be denied the right
ofsufrage? Can any one give single
good reason for denying him any of the
privileges Of a. Freeman? The relies of
the "relic of barbarism," an unmeaning
and unreasoning prejudice of color, and
an unmanly jealousy of the supposed in
ferior race, deprived the negroes of the
right to vote, and it becomes every good
white citizen in these days, when the ma
ton is returning to the foundation prin-
ciples of the Declaration of Independence,
to discard prejudice, that he may be in
clined to justice. BY prejudice against
color we must not be understood as mean
that moral and proper sense of respect
for the divine arrangements which repels
the idea of intermingling the blood of
| the races. and which we desire to foster
and maintain. We mean that prejudice
which deprives man of the right to lib
erty and the pursuit to happiness, because
he is dark skinned, or of the right TO
vote for the same excuse. Analyzc the
feeling and we find we are no more justifia-
BILE in it than we would be in not fancy
ing red heaired man or man with a
hare-lip, and therefore denying him the
elective franchise.
The original Black code Of Louisiana,
published by the French Governor Bien-
ville as the representative of his sover-
eign, in 1924, and which continued in
force until the cession to Spain and from
Spain to the United States, in 1903. 1t
was more stringent in its provisions to
prevent anal lgamation of the races than
any of the laws enacted uudcr the Anglo
Saxon American rule from that time to
the present. Yet the same code provi-
ded for the citizenship of the freed Slave
The language is worth quoting. eve
grant," says the 34th article, "to manu-
mittod slaves the riflfts, privileges, and
immunities which are enjoyed by ireeborn
persons. II ig our pleasure that their
merit in having acquired their freed IN
shall produce in their favor, not only with
regard to their persons, but also their
property, the same effects which our 9TH
er subjects derive from the happy cicum-
stance of their having been born free"
No other natiou but this ever deprived
men of rights merely because Of o differ
eucc of complexion-and among us the
idea of doing so is of considerably late ori-
gin and is an inspiration of the hateful
spirit of slavery. From the adoption Of
the old Constitution of Pennsylvania in
| 1890 until 1928, the colored man could
vote. 1S37-'38 the word white was
first introduced into the 3D. Article. The
wrong was done under democratic infu-
ences-under guidance of the slave pow
er. Yet there is no principle so danger
Gus to the popular rights as this. If we
admit that we may justly deprive one
class of freemen who pay taxes sustain
the Government of their God-giyen right
of voice in the selection of rulers and
the creation of laws,-then there is no
reason yhy, if deemed expedient, we may
not deprive any other class Of their vote.
A considerable party in this State under
took to say that the soldiers ought not to
vote. Had there been majority of Cop
.perheads in the Legislature, undoubtedly
the heroes who were giving their life's
blood to maintain the privileges Of free
men to us all, would themselves have
been denied the dearest privileges of
Freemen. 1t has been lately suggested
in some quartert that the principles of a
large religious body are dangerous to lib
erty. IF the persons who hold this idea
should become a majority, they may pro-
pose to overcome the danger by depriving
the class of citizens obnoxious to them of
the elective franchise.
They would be as just IN this attempt
to deprive class of fellow citizens of the
right to vote, because they have the pow
| er and think it expedient so to do, as we
have been in depriying the coloIed men
another class-ofthe same right, be-
/ cause we had the power and thought it
expedient. flour government is founded
on equal rights of men, we must build on
that foundation. If, having built, we
4 draw from beneath it one stone, another
is thereby loosened, and one after anoth-
er will be withdrawn, until the structure
shall fall. 1t had begun to tepple-we
have shored it up and are cementing it to
i one endure until tn end of time. Let US
see to it that the two great foundation
stones, equal rights and universal suffrage
are in their places firmly and immovably
fixed. The decaying nations of Europe
have in their foundations class restrict