Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1865-06-15
From Harper's Weekly.
The Main Question.

Roger Il. Taney, will be forever Infamous for
dcavoring. under the solemn sanction of the high
est court in the land, to work that utter demorai-
zation OF public opinion which would have made
jefferson Davis's crimes unnecessary, even for his
own purposes. The present Chief Justice Salmon
p. Chase, will be forever honored a. the first emil
nent public man who has proposed that policy
which will render all future crimes like Davis's
abortive. In letter read at the Twelfth American
Congregational Reunion in Brooklyn Chief Justice
Chase writes: 81 would like to saw to the Christ.
ians who shall assemble at your reunion earnest
word the present great national duty Of granting
to the freedmen of the South the right of sefpro-
lection by the ballot"
President Johnson also, in a speech delivered in
Baltimore before the death Of Mr.. Lincoln, after
saying that to save the Union he would be willing
to sink the whole African race, interrupted by
a voice in the crowd which said: Don't do that.
Governor. give them the ballot" to which Mr.,
Johnson instantly replied. "Ecs, and | would do
that, too :" Last week, when deputation of col
orcd men waited upon him, the President said, IN
his reply, that he had always maintained that the
slaves had much right to be free as those who
claimed them property. and that freedom means
liberty to work and enjoy the fruit of your own
toll 'n its most extensive sense" That is to say.
freedom is the right to be protected in the fulfil
mcnt Of all the relations Of citizens exactly rs 9TH
er men are. F. no man has the liberty to work
and enjoy the fruits of work, in its most extensive
sense, who is the victim OF disabilities which arc
not imposed upon other free men.
In this country, where the Government r;ghtful-
" exists BY the consent of the governed, every
man has an equal right to share in political pow
er. Suffrage for colored Americans is, therefore,
not privilege for which we plead-it is a right
which, az American citizens, we consistently de-
mand. Nor is the claim of this right vitiatcd by
anv traditional and uniform exclusion OF colored
citizens from the ballot box. Mr.. Justice Curtis.
in his masterly opinion discerning from that Of
Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case. dis
tinctlv declares that In his opinion, it t-ue that
the Continental Congress intended to say that the
white race exclusively were endowed with the nat
ural rights asserted in the Declaration OF lndepen
dence. Ii is from these rights that political
rights spring. And that there NAV be no doubt
that the fathers did not mean to make color a po
ical disqualification. il is enough TO cite the nc
ton of Congress on the 25th of June, lis, when,
in discussing the articles Of Confederation, South
Carolina. always Tory and arstoc7atic, proposed
the insertion OF the word "white" rs a condition
of general citizenship Eight states voted against
il, two for il and one was divided The Constitu
ton of the United States subsequently adopt
cd by the voters in the several States, and South
Carolina was the only one in which color was a
dis ability.
The condition Of suffrage in the ST ties at the be-
ginning were either of age. personal freedom. prop
erty or residence. except in South Carolina. North
Carolina. Virginia. Georgia, Maryland. Delaware,
all admitted colorcd voters if they were old enough,
had lived long enough in the State and county,
owned sufficient property, or had paid the proper
taxes. The dis ability OF color has creDt into the
State constitutions in exact correspondence with
the increasing decentralization of the public mind
produced by slavery. White citizens at the North
sacrificed Il political rights of their colored fel
low citizens to propitiatc the Southern slave inter
est. The most affect submission the price of
the Southern political alliance. Thus in the State
! of New York, by the first Constitution, ''evcry
male inhabitant OF full age" who hid lived six
months in the county, who hId 4 small freehold
or who had paid n certain rent or taxes was a vo-
\ ter. Ii cnly in 1929 that New York conde-
sccnded to tarnish her fame by making mn's
compile xion vitiate his natural rights; and the pro-
/ vision in her present Constitution OF 1876, which
DEGREES that "no man of color" shall vote unless
| he has lived in the State three times lJngcr than
! is required of any other citizen and has paid tax
which others are not Obliged to pay is as absolute
and arbitrary violation OF the principle OF our
Government rs il it declared that no man between
the ages OF forty FIVE should have the right Of vo
ting. Complexion is No more an actual disability
than rcd hair. Habtual drunkenness is a disabili
ty vet it does not disqualify.
We nav add that slavery was not satisfied will
restricting or destroying the political equality ri
colored citizens in the free States. But the law:
passed in some Of these States to protect the per
sonal liberty Of colorcd men, TO prevent the native
free inhabitants Of Wisconsin and Massachusetts
from being kidnapped by james VI. Mason and hi
nedcrates and sold in Virginia and elsewhere a
slaves, among the prcicnses for rebellion which
Mason and his party put forth, ut the South, anC
which were al.el ed in e:tenuaon of treason b,
Mason's political allies at the North. The poti
cal franchise Of coloied citizens is no thing
II il older than the Constitution of the Unite,
1 Ir loJb b,-t a.
our surprise is only ancvidencc Of the terrible trall
dom in which we have been held by the sav,
power.
But aside from the undoub.cd original right, i
il enough TO urge the voting Of the blacks at tn,
South upon President Johnson's own ground
Political Acknowledgement is indispensable in orle
to secure to the late laves the lib r,y to work an,
live. "in its most extensive sense" The whit
population at the South have been educated in ;
contempt for colored men OF every degree as an in
ferior race. Mr.. Johnson undoubtedly expressed
exactly the general Border State feeling a5ou
them in his Baltimore speech, to which We haYe nj
luded. He was willing either 10 exterminate then
or TO cnfranchise them, a means of conquerin:
the rebellion. We do not mean, howcver i'm thes,
days, when We grow ten years in ten hours, to ho,
public men too precisely TO words even to opin
ions; and Frederick Douglass is doubtless right il
saying that il was only Mr.. Johnson's wav of ex
pressing preference for his own color We mere
ly mention the fact 10 illustrate the universal feel
ing Of men who have been educated amidst tn
influences Of slavery.
II this be SO, and the political power in the lat
insurrectonary States be intrusted exclusively {,
ihe whites. the colored population will be left en-
tirely at the mercy Of those who have always re
garded them with contempt, and who doubles
feel bitterly toward them as the real cause Of the
| war which has desolated he South. IL coloret
men are not to be cnfranchised, it may be made
pcnil offensc in the reorganized States to teacl
them to read They may be deprived Of the righ
| to testify in courts Of law, and any villain ma,
enter the house Of a colored man, may c m
nit what atroeity he will, If only in presenc,
Of the family. and 60 un cathed. They may b,
forbidden to bear arms; to attend church; to ST
upon iures. Their wages may be restricted
There is no cnormity whatever Of which they ma
not be made the victims, if they are not to be en-
franchised.- II the sole. final law in the State is
be the will OF those who are unfriendly to them, i
10 doubtful whether mere emancipation is an advan
tage. And as men of practical wisdom, KNOWN!
history and hum,n nature, we have no right to re
fuse. while We have the power, to secure TO tn
Southern freedmen the right to work and enjoy
"in its most extensive sense"
1t is said that il is foolish to suppose the whit
citizens would lay the black under Disabilities
Why sol Are those who wero perfectly willing L
sell other mems children likely to shrink from
forbidding those men to learn to read or to bea
arms1 Are those who were willing that other
l. - l.. n