Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-08
NEGRO SUFFRAGE AND THE RADI.

GALS
Some Of the Radical Journals are be
ginning to express doubts as to whether
should the leaders of that party accom-
plish their scheme for negro suffrage il
the South, that the benefits of the mea
sure would inure 10 them They are NOT
50 certain that the negro, if allowed the
ballot, would east it in the interest of the
Radicals, and hence they hesitate, and
entreat their leaders to canvass the mat
ter ell before they take step which
may be the death-knell Of their party.
Prominent among the Radical organs
which now look with disfayor upon negro
suffrage, is the New York Nation, one
of the aBlest in the interest of that party.
In leading article on Universal Suf
frage and Universal Amnesty, in recent
issue, the Nation says;
"Now, If we absolve the Southern lead
ers from all their sins and arm the blacks
with the ballot, the first result will be that
the persecution of the freedmen will in
stantly cease. So far, so good. But at the
same time the Southern politicians will 90
TO work diligently TO cultivate the good
will of the negroes-to practice on their
preiudices, on their ignorance, on their
weaknesses of all kinds. AZ this game
they will certainly beat all competitors.
They will be on the spot, at every tavern,
at every cross road, on every plantation,
bringing to bear on population bound to
them by various sorts of ties all the arts of
the most adroit and accomplished canvass
ers They have the leisure, the training
and experience necessary for the work, and
will do it thoroughly. Our orators will
not go down to contend with them. Pro-
badly their lives would not be safe if they
did. BY way of counteracting their
schemes, and keeping alive tho fidelity of
the freedmen to the Union and to liberty,
we shall deliver lectures at lyeeums in
New England and the Northwest, stirring
harangues at the Cooper Institute, New
York, and publish ardent editorials in the
Tribune and Independent, which half mil
lion of Northern whites will read, but
never a Southern black. Does any calm
and candid observer suppose that after five
years Of this sort of regime we should not
have completely lost the new constituency
we are now calling into existence, that the
negroes would not be driven into the South
ern net Just as completely az the ignorant
whites Of the South and the ignorant Irish
of the North have beenr
1t question that scarcely admits Of
doubt that, if the negro were clothed with
the right Of suffrage, he would exercise it
Ia behalf Of those with whom his inter
ests were identified The history of all
hired laboring classes will establish the
truth of this proposition Let the New
England manufacturer speak what he
honestly believes Of his white operatives
in regardto this matter, and scarcely one
will be found who will not confirm this
view of the case. If then white labOrers
will vote in such manner as to please their
employers or promote their interests, is it
not natural that the negro, native and to
the manor born" and being identified in
interest with the southern people, would
vote as they vote? 1t Is very probable
that considerable number would not,
but is almost certain that the great body
Of them would There is not the re-
hottest probability that sufficient NUM-
Der would vote with the Radicals to turn
the scale in their favor So far as the
Southern people arc concerned, It Is sim
ply a question Of eIpedieney whether the
right Of suffrage shall be conferred upon
the negro whether this large body Of I'M
educated people shall be made the equals
of so many intelligent white men at the
ballot.box; whether dangerous element
would net be introduced into our local
politics by so wide an extension Of the
elective franchise, already too much sx-
tended.
As seon as the Radicals become con-
WINGED that the negro win vote with his
former master and present employer, they
will drop their negro suffrage hobby with