Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-07-06

State shall have the qualification requisite
for electors ofthe most numerous branch uf
the State Legislature TdnWhipg rs clear,
IL rs that The frume,s ofthe Constitution meant
that each State should prescribe cho should
rofe."
Thus much for where the power resides
What is he nature Of this poworP Is it
not plainly one to regulate, hy neediu and
necessary rules, the exercise Of tho elective
franchise: and not a mower to create the
right itself? The right to vote belongs to
each male citizen oftwenty one years ofage.
1t is his by birth; and he by operation Of
law, becomes citizen Of the United States
and entitled to all rights, privileges ard
immunities through the relations of his
native State to the National Union. The
elective franchise is his inherent rtght-the
exercise alone is subject to State regulation.
Congress has the exclusive power 10 make
a uniform law of naturalization. By birth
or by naturalization the relation OF the
citizen to the State and United States is
created. The slave trade has been discon-
tinued since 1908 and therefore we assume
that the blacks in the Southern Sta .es are
nearly all natives Of this country. Hereto,
fore nothing stood between them and JWt
citizenship, bat their condition OF voluntary
servitudc; Compromising expedient, OF the
Constitution which regards them ms an
hdbitdatS, but AS debascd GySerctudc below
the equal level of free inhabitants, which
regards the Si,ve as dvested vt two itths OF
the man." Even under this "expodicnt'
they bore political relation, through then
owners, to society," aud wore 4through them
repres nted much in the mode III which au
| infant or married woman is related and
represented through the father or husband.
The exact legal aud political condition OF tie
slave in this country has not always been
clearly appreciated An eminent wiitel
well defines him to he "a person who Is re
lated to society through another person,
called a master, to whnm he owes due ser
vice or labor, and from whom he is entitled
to receive support and protection Moth
ing stood between the slave and full citizen
ship but this involuntary serIce-tha
impedmcnt is gone through the actua
operation OF the war, ani the liberated blacl
stands himself, a citizen in his own proper
person, AMI not through the relation Of an
other called master" Then if thu
abstract right to vote iahcres in every citizeI
why not in the native black man? Wha
rule Of law denies him that right? Is it
cnnlldly, in the power Of the State or Of tn
National Government to give or to with
hold the right? Is it not his absolute per
sonai right HO,o Hlnt he is liberated? And i
it is his, who shall take it from him, o
who shall come between him and the State
of which he is citizen? 1t, az all other civi
rights, may be forfeited by an adequate
crime. But this is common to all citizens.
The States of the South will, each for it
self. according to their own honor and polio
and not at the imperiineut dictation Of out
sders, regulate this undoubtcd right as Ne,
York, Illinois Massachusetts, and othe
States regulate it; but with such humane
providrnt; and economical regulations tina
this political power will not, in the hands q
the Snu.h, be n barren scepter III l.' ir grir
TO the consideration of the method, an,
rules OF this regulation we cannot to da
allow spac,; our oljse in this article hein
to show that the States North and South
dsinctiyry End separately, have the at
solu.e clntrol Of the mower, and that th
power is merely one for regulation.