The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-03

be on the spot, at very tavern, at every cross
road, on every plantation, bringing TO Dear on
population bound TO them by various sorts OF
ties all the ats Of the moet adroit and accom-
plished canvassefe. CIV
They have the leisure, the training, and the
experience necessary Tor the work, and VIII do
1t thoroughly. Our orators will not 90 down to
contend with them. Probably their lives
would not be tate 1T they did. By way of counter
acting their schemes, and keeping alive the
fidelity OF the freedmen to the Union and TO
liberty, we shall deliver lectures at lyceums in
CNew England and the Northwest stirring
haranPues at the Cooper Institute, New York,
and publish ardent editorials in the Tribune and
Indtpendent, which haf million of Northern
whites VIII read, but never a Southern black.
Does any calm and candid observer suppose
that, alter five years OF this sort of regime, we
should not have completely lost the new con
stituency we are now calling into existence;
that the negroes would not be driven into the
Southern net just as completely as the igno-
rant whites of the South and the ignorant Irish
of the North have been?
We must, when the negro Is enfranchised, If
we mean to "NoTthernize" the South, keep him
Within the reach of our influence, of our news
papers, of our books, of our speeches and SER
mons. There is only one way of dong this, and
that Is by insisting that, when allowed TO vote,
he shall be taught to read 80 that, when he lis
tens to the sophistries of the local demagogues,
he may be able to receive also our antldote, to
enter into the public life of the North, keep the
run of our IDEAS learn to Judge men and mea.
sures by our standard, and, In short, become la
fact, al d not in form only, member OF our
body polite. Much may be done, and is done,
towards educating kim by the volunteer efforts
of the treedmens aid associations; ten times as
much might be done if these bodies received a
fair amount of public support But we protest
against any grant of general amnesty IN
return for a universal suffrage which does not
require, as part and parcel OF the arrangement.
that the Southern States shall provide their poor
of all classes and coloIs, with good system 0i
education.
This ought not to be left optional, We 90
further, and say that we believe it to be now
possible, for the frst time in our history--lt may
be never so again-to make Federal voting
dependent on ability to vote intelligenty. The
| South would very probably fall in with It, The
class which such qualification would exclude
| qualification would be only temporary. shor
| term might be allowed TO the ounces to learn
and, as far as the negroes are concerned, al
that the immediate possession of the franchise
| would do Tor their comfort and security would
| be done quite as etfectually by the certainty
| that they were to possess IL at a certain fiXeC
| time in the future, say not more than two years
| hence. And the formal legal adoption before
| the world of such basis for our institutions;
| the abolition of every test or distinction, OIL
| discrimination, except the ability to follow in
| telligently the WORKINGS of public opinion, the
| processes by which it is shaped, enuobled, anC
| made fruitful, would make the struggle from
! which we Lave just emerged the most complete
| as well as most splendid contribution 10 human
progress ever witnessed.
We do not cay that an educational test of thli
| kind would be effectual in excluding all the
| ignorant or corrupt from the polls, or filling
| Congress with sages and saints. The millen
MUM cannot be introduced even by an amend
| ment to the Constitution. Nor do we say tina
| such q test could be worked without difficulty
! because nothing which is intended to make the
| world any better or purer than it is, eve
worked without great difficulty.