Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1865-06-22
THE RIGHT WAY THE BEST
WAY. efN

THE RIGHT WAY The BES1
~. WAY. ekt
By the necessity of the case the
question of suffrage in certain STATES
of the Union is now to be determined
by the National Government II
Governor Pierpont, as is constantly
reported, is about to issue procla-
nation inviting the loyal citizens OF
Virginia to elect delegates to Con-
pentien, he will do it with the con-
sent and by the authority OF the
President. The qualifications OF the
voters for delegates will not be set
tied by the Stale of Virginia, and
thousands who are empowered to
vote by her old Constitution will
doubtless be excluded by the tests
which the United States authority
will impose.
By the Constitution of the United
States the national authority is hound
to guarantee republican form Of
government to every State: How
can it do that IN the case of Virginia,
where there is now no Government
except that of the military power of
the United States2 Clearly in one
way only; and that is by enfranchi-
sing all the adult male population
who will take an path of uncondition-
al fidelity to the Union; of solemn,
absolute, express remuneration of the
dogme of State sovereignty; and of
entire acquiescenee in the laws Of
Congress, in the acts of the Exec1-
tive, and in total emancipation of
the slaves.
If condition of education be re-
quired, it is unfortunate; but it will
exclude the most trusty citizen of the
State, white and black.
If color shall disqualify, disabili-
ty not authorized by the Constitu-
tion and in direct conflict with the
fundamental principle of the Gov
ernment is introduced.
If a religious test be demanded
the Constitution Is equally violated.
The republican form of govern
ment which Congress is constitu-
tionally bound to secure allows no
arbitrary disqualification upon the
grounds of religion, of race, or of
color. 1t contemplates govern
ment ''of the people by the people
for the people," and by its very
terms is inexorably hostile to an
oligarchy in every form.
1t is of no importance whether the
old Constitution of the State did or
did not prescribe such tests. If
every State which adopted the Con-
stitution of the United States must
be held to have had a republican
form, it is enough that in all those
States, except one, the basis of suf-
frage was such as not to exclude any
considerable body of freemen, what
ever their race, intelligence, OF color
But the question is now freely
encountered. Is that, by any tor
ture of terms, to be justly called a
republican form of government which
arbitrarily disfranchises an immense
body of the adult freemen of State |
because of their complexion or racer
Can they be more righteously dis
iranchised because of their hue than
because of their height Or age or
profession2 They have the same
natural rights as men, they have the
same interests in the commonwealth |
as all others, and their rights and
interests are no safer in the hands of
those others than those of the others
would be in theirs. 1t would be
thought very hard fate if the resi-
dence of the white freemen in Vir-
ginia or North Carolina should be
left to the decision of the black. 1t
is equally hard, unjust, and unrepub
lican that the residence or status of
the black freemen in those States |
should be intrusted to the white.
The difficulties and dangers of
authorizing a general suffrage in
those States are not so evident as
those of refusing it. The refusal
alienates that great mass of the popu
lation lately enslaved; which by
emancipation is now in every sense |
the equal of the poor white popula-
ton of the same States. 1t pro-
longs indefinitely the agitation aris-
ing from an unjust iscrimination |
1t gives national sanction to the
prejudice against color. 1t dis
heartens the colored freemen
whom 1T does not embitter, and re-
Dukes those who claim tor all men
the equal rights to which, by the ack-
nowIedged principal of our system,
all men are entitled. The refusal to |
cnfranchise them is a deliberate re-
pudiation of the fundamental Ameri-
can doctrine that the Governments |
justly exist by the consent of the
governed. 1t emboldens the sneer-
ing skepticIsm which asks whether
it can be SO very wrong industrially
TO enslave those whom it is the right
politically to degrade.
To leave the question to be set
tied by the State Legislatures e. ected
by white citiZers alone is to base the
political freedom of colored citizens
upon the consent of class, and not
upon the same right from which that
class derives its own franchise. And
IN leave If IN he an satf1ed who, fba