The Portland daily press., 1865-06-07

The Bangor Times, in recent article upon
Negro Suffrage, says:

1toSiO Su-AAc&c3 o"J
"We are not partisan in the strick sense Of
the word. We claim the right to differ with
the administration when we discover GROUNDS
or difference. So of our friends, we 40 not
surrender our Independence az their uiscre-
ton. ~ =
Heretofore we have expressed our belief
that certain deeree Of intelligence should ac-
company the exercise of the right OF suffrage,
aid that al far as the question affected the
Freedmen of the South, 1t could be safely
left where the Constitution leaves 1T, with the
loyal white citizens Of the States in which they
reside"
Will the Times allow US kindly and respect
fully, to put to it few questions, and trust to
the candor ard independence claimed in this
statement, and avouched by Its own manly
course during the recent war, for answers?
Is it just fair to leave to the class, in whose
favor 1t is proposed to exclude part OF the
loyal citizens Of State from their full politi-
cal lights, the question whether those citizens
should be excluded or not9 ss3 a
II the government of Maine had been subvert-
cd and the State was without representation
in Congress, or legal State government,
would 1t be Just, in case the professional men
and merchants proposed to exclude from vot-
ing hereafter all the mechanics and laboring
men, to leave that matter to the professional
men and merchants, alone to decide2
Would you be willing to leave it to $4,000
loyal black citizens Of South Carolina, to de-
eide whether 1000 loyal unite South Carroll
mans should be voters?
Do you believe that native OF the United
States, of African descent, is a citizen of the
United States, or do you believe with Judge
fancy, that such person has no rights that
white men are bound to respect?
Upon what priaciple or philosophy do you
designate certain class OF the loyal citizens
Of State to say who shall enjoy the rights OF
citizens?
II yov say you recognize as voters, those,
who under the subUerted State Constitutions
were voters, and who have not forfeited their
right by treason, why revive these Constitu-
lions for the purpose of doing an injustice to
loyal men, and continuing one Of the abuses
of slavery, when you consider them void as to
everything else? When rebel comes to vote
and brings the old Constitution, you refuse
his vote and say the war has abolished the
State Constitution. When the Negro comes
to vote you cite the abolished Constitution
for his exclusion.
Is this RepublicdR form of government,
Would you recognize as State of this Re-
when the persons constituting the representa-
tives are only caste, class, perhaps small
fraction Of the people Of the StateP
public, q political organization based upon the
citizenship Of the persons only, whose taxable
estates were valued at $4,000, or who had
graduated at some university or college, OF
who held soma title of nobility, or who were
of African or Indian descentP
If the loyal blacks of South Carolina should
reconstruct the State, prohibiting ,obites from
voting and holding Office, would you recog-
nize the new State?
II in State small traction of the people
have the suffrage, while the rest are the con.
stituency, what have you secured but rotten
borough system, where some aristocrat has q
member Of parliament to use for his own in.
terest or sell to his friendsp sfsassf
Is it no interest of the people Of the Free
States, whether, in making laws for the whols
Union, they shall associate with democracie,
like Michigan and Massachusetts, or close
borougbed aristocracies, and must the vote Of
the representative of the Penobscot District
elected BY 10000 voters, be neutralized by the
vote Of the member from Cheraw, s. G, ELECT
ed by 400 white men, the rest of his constitu,
ency being alien enemies and disfranchised
blacks?
Having broken down under system that
allowed the enslavsd blacks, usree-ffths Of a
representation, which they were not allowed tc
constitute, do you propose TO substitute for II
an arrangement giving them a full representa-
ton, with no more power to constitute it,
than II they were slayes2 If the blacks should
go to war for representation denied to peo-
pie burdened with taxation, would not our
Revolutionary maxims plead their justiflca-
ton? 4ss-5..ss--
Do you think State in which half the peo-
pie are deprived Of political power on account
of their color or occupation, and two thirds Of
the remaining half on account Of their disaf.
lection to the governments safe one to live
in, an easy one to manage, and model Re
public to be recommended to other peoples
Having involved ourselves in one horrible
internal convulsion by disregarding the plain
deductions from our own principle of the po-
litical equality of all men, is 1t best to lay the
foundation for another, by cruel, irrational,
and whimsicaE perpetuation Of one of the
abuses Of slavery?
II intelligence be demanded as condition
Of suffrage,-very good! Why should it be
demanded Of black man and not of white
manP Win you make the requirement gener-
alp With two or three transports loaded with
Yankee School-mistresses sent to the South
at the end Of six months what would be the
prevailing color Of the people Of the South
excluded from voting for not knowing how to
read, hack or wsite?