The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1865-12-16
Universal Suffrage and Recon.
structiOn.

The following extracts from Winter Davis
letter. published in The Nation of Novcm.
Der 3Oth show the opinions of that distin,
guishGd leader 81 what is termed the raiicat
.rarty, on the vital issues Of the day, the gues-
lions of reconstruction and universal suf-
fiage:
4 State may arbitrarily exclude from pow
or one man, or Il family, or II thousand fam,
proportion Of those who have renowned
their allegiance and delicd its laws, and yet
not affect the republican character of the
Government. BIT republican government
in the American sense is the government by
the mass of citizens through their represen-
tatives. Wherever, therefore, the mass of
citizens or any great proportion of them is
excluded from political power, yet required
TO submit to its laws. the government ceases
TO be republican and Congress cannot
teco snizc it as such. Here the question
is not of the rights of man to voice in
the government, but Of the meaning of re-
pablican government required to be guaran-
tced in the Constitution.
Connecticut has just refused to admit ne
groes to vote but that does not touch the
republicanism of her government; for the
persons excluded form no material or ap.
preciabie portion Of her citizens. But ne.
groe suffrage is one thing in Connecticut and
another thing in South Carolina. In the
latter State, the negro ci liens form two.
thirds of the whole body Of citizens. To
deny them a vote and subject them to the
will of the one-N third is absolutely in conflict
with a republican form of government. 1t
Is not merely an aristocracy of race, it is an
uisarchy. If the Constitution Of the United
States permits the ostracizing Of two.thrds
of the citizens and their subsection to one,
third, the guarantee is one of itere FORM
\ tenth may as well rule as II third, or one
man as well as a tenth
1t is an accident that the line of disfran,
chiSement and c0ldr are the same; it is not
IA question of race but of rcpublicansm-
If twothirds who are black may be excluded
in South Carolina, two-thirds who are white
may be excluded by the blacks in North
Carolina; and one is just as republican as
The other. The Constitution makes no dis.
tincton of color. Its only distinction is
that between free and Stare inhabiants.-
The slaves were always excluded irrespec
tive of numbers for they were not citizens.
Iiut free negroes were citizens of the United
States. They were never declared by any
State not to be citizens at the time of tile
adoption of the Constitution. They have
never been declared not to be citizens by
any department of the Government The
bred Scott case has been ignorantly quoted
to settle that point; but it decided not that
a free negro could not be a citizen, bnt that
a stare is not a cii2en; and nobody evel
supposed he could be. But free negroes arc
citizens of the United States by the unani
nous Judgment of all departments of the
Govcrnn ent That is now settled point
And the Constitution draws no distinction
between black citizen and a white citizen.
Congress has never acknowledged State
government to be republican which ostra.
csed two-thrds or a half or one -third of its
citizens. At the adoption of the Constitu
ton the free negroes were in no State tenth
of the whole population. In Virginia they
were one to thirty-six in South Caroline
one to seventy seven ; in Georgia one to one
hundred and twenty and they voted
in neithcr State, though in Virginia declared
by law to be citizens. In Maryland the,
were one to twenty-Gvc; in North Carolin;
one to SIXTY; and they voted in both. Thu
largest proportion excluded at that time wa
in Delaware, where they were one to eleven
In Tennessee, the first State admitted, the
were one to nine, and they roted In Ken
lucky. the next State, they were excluded
but they we're only one to fre hundred an