The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1865-07-19

bers to out-vote the more intelligent
though less numerous race
However clear may be the right Of
the General Government to impose
conditions upon the practical return
of the se-called seeded States to tie
Union, and the condition, among 9TH
ars, &that tie negroes shall have an
equal voice with sthe whites Id the
matter Of their reorganization, we
believe it is not contended By aany
one that after said States shall have
been, fully reinstated. in the Union,
the General Government can eontin-
ne to prescribe the qualifications Of
voters therein. Suppose, then. that
the President or Dougress should
prescribe that in the elections to be
held ia the late rebelliaus States pre-
paratory to,their reorganization and
Reinstatement in the Union, negroes
shall have. an equal right With white,
men to vote, what is to prevent the
white ,population being id a majority,
from DISTINGUISHING the negroes as
soon as the reorganization and re In
statement in tho onion is accom-.
plished? Clearly, there would be no
authority.in the General Government
.tolprevent it without the exercise Of
powers which no. one ever imagined
were conferred BY the Constitution.
The New York Times in tie same.
relation remarks =
1t is said that the negroes willknow
that it is not for their interest to keep
the political power in the hands Of.
their old masters. What assurance
have we that they will know it? Ii
was CURSE to the Poor Whites Of
the South to vote as they always did
in the interest Of the slave holders:
and yet these Poor Whites did not.
knoWft. II
We have here in the North hundreds.
of tliousands of the victims Of for
eign oppression who have been vo-
ting for the last four years, with their
whole heart and soul, for the very
men and the very policies that best
suited their old oppressors. Intelli.
gent people have been surprised at
this-have called it incredibly incon-.
sistent and absurd. But we have no
right to apply the rules which govern
intelligent men to any calculations
upon the. conduct of the ignorant.
Ignorance, wherever it exists. always
and deludes: always makes
those cursed with itinsensible to their
most obvious interests, and fits them
to be tl!e'nere tools of the DESIGNING
The Freedmen will be specially ex-I
posed to this effect. Without land
of their own, they will continue toi
work for those who have it. : 9hcyl
will remain dependents upon tIrel
planters, will rely upon them for their
livelihood, aud will be particularly
subject to theft influence,
1t has been said by some discern
ing Union men Of the South that there
could be no surer way Of perpetuatingI
the old class rule Of the South imam
the bestowlng the Suffrage upon
plantation laborers--ti,at it would
practically give tie planter, who hasI
now but q single vote, ten or fifty or
a hundred votes. Whether this would
prove to be the case, we cannot yeti
say. The relations between the races
since Emancipation have not yet ia
ken definite shape enough to Justify
q settled conclusion. But we do say
that no one has any right to assume
that the negroes, having the Suffrage,
would vote to suit Northern men a
thousand miles away, whom they
never saw, and against the wishes
and purposes of their employers.
All the 'antecedent probabilities. are
against it (