Washington telegraph., 1865-08-09
VOL. XIV.


from which we COPY the following in ref
erence to Negro Suffrage:
If the people OF the North could be
persuaded to exercise some degree of pa
tience, and TO leave the people of the
Southern States breathing spell, be-
lisre the elective franchise would be ex-
tended to the colored man quite as ex-
tensively as it has been done in some of
the Northern States. | do not know
that the Southern people absolutely claim
the right TO decide who shall and who
shall not vote. Before the war, they GER
tainly did claim that right, and based
the claim upon Constitutional authority
But tn y are now in sort of transition
state they have been defeated i'm their
darling object of Independence and are
dependent upon the victorious North for
such rights as may be conceded to them.
Whether they are to be- allowed any of
the attributes of sovereign States, or to
be treated as dependent provinces or ter
ritories, they are waiting anxiously to
find out If they are to occupy their
old relation of States to the Federal
Union, they would natu ally claim the
right of fixing ami regulating the elec-
tive franchise; for without this right
they could not be regarded as States. OF
course do not undertake to predict au-
thoritatively the extent to which the
elective franchise would be granted to
the colored citizens; some States would
be liberal, and others RESTRICTIVE in their
policy; but all would be governed by
that policy which should be deemed most
conducive TO the general happiness; and
all would, no doubt, extend the right of
voting, more or less, to colored freedmen.
You must f.rget, however, that the
Northern people are somewhat premature
in pressing this question of negro suf-
frage-l mean, in pressing "tne ruling
caste at the South" to indicate their will
iingness to enfranchise the crlored man.
1t remains vet to be definitely settled
who are TO constitute 1.-The ruling caste at
the South" The Southern States are
now being organized for restoration 10
the UniOn-they are in tho act of passing
from state OF war, in which their rea-
tions to the Federal Government wrre
entirely suspended, aud it remains Yet
10 be settled who of the former voters
are to enjoy the elective franchise. It
seens to me that until the Southern
people have had their future political
status distinctly assigned to them, they
ought to De excused from troubling them
Eelves as to the extent to which their
slaves should be allowed the right ui
voting.
Ia, al; g ~. IL
we can do ID TO speculate conjecturailv on
the probable policy that may be adopted
as to negro suffrage Every free man
ought, primz .tdcie, to be voter; but
every free man has not the amount of in
telligence requisite o the exercise Of be
elective franchise. ner has every free man
such character for indus " and hon
esty as would indicate him as safe de-
pository of this invaluable right 1t fol-
lows that absolute universal suffrage is
neither polite nor practicable. Every
one knows that many, very many. of tn.
CO ored men are utterly disqualified for
Intelligent voters. To require State,
therefore, to extend the right of voting
to every male, black or white, over the
age of twenty-one, wIuld be to require
such State to commit a suicidal act Dis
examinations Must necessarily be made
and, it seems To me, they could be much
more satisfactorily by the people of the
State, than by the Federal Executive, or
the military, or Congress
10 repel a free man from the ballot
box simply because lie was once a slave,
or because his SKIN is black. would be to
follnw Il blind prejudice There are in
teIllgent negroes, and Industrious ne
groes, and hone~t negroes Now, if all
negroes are free, those of them who D ,s-
sess reasonable qualifica ions should and
would be admi ted to the. ball0t-box. If
left TO regulate the matter without out
side intermeddling. the white men of the
South would be better qualified to make
Just determinations and classifc.tions of
voters than those having no Immediate
interest in the subject.
There is no such hostility between the
whites and blacks of the South as to
prevent the for"er from deali g fairly
with the latter. The simpI,. fact that
the slave has availei himself of the op-
p riunlty to become FREE. man does not
make his former owner his enemy He
still regards him as belonging to an in
terlor race, and therefore incapable of
becoming an associate on terms of equal
ity IN social life. Whatever feeling of
bitterness he retains for the loss of his
slave is directed toward the peopl. of
the North who waged the war. and not
against the negro, who has stood still
and only came forward to accept freedom
when tendcred to him. He has no fears
from the exercise of the elective fran.
ehise by sach colored men as his expe-
hence and observation would poin. out
as qualified to become voters.
1t remains to be settled by time and
sApenence whether the real happin So
alu solid interests of the colored race
.h a'H De promoted by the change made in
s.. @elr condition by the late war. The
os0"lment of the south was, that domes-
oI servitude is the true condition in
1nich the negro can attain his highest
.,rJoyment. The people of the North
Iousht differently, and have enforced
.Aslr opinion at the bayonets point The
people of the South submit to the decis.
'On from nee ssity, but do not. as a gem