Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-28
sUFFRAGE AND AMNESTY.

Northern Views and Expectations.
The New York Times, in discussing the
proposition that the South shall yield to
the principle of impartial suffrage, which
ignores color at the ballot box, in exchange
for general amnesty, which admits all
"rebels to the rights of the franchise and
to Office holding, INDUCES the following re-
Elections: ..-
The right of voting makes laws, chooses
our rulers and carries on the whole ma
chinery of civil society. Nobody capable
of holding any opinion on any subject, can
doubt that making laws choosing rulers
and administering the affairs of great
nation, require some qualifications of in
telIigence and character Everybody
knows, too, that large proportion of the
negroes of the South-thOse employed as
field hands during the rain of slayery-are
utterly ignorant-utterly incapable of ex-
ercising the slightest Judgment, or acting
with the least intelligence, in political mat
tiers. If admitted to the suffrage thes will
not vote: they will be SIMPLY the tools OF
somebody who will. This is a necessity of
buClE COuulllOus II Ab iiOb buC1E ldUll OUT
their misfortune. Not because they are
black, therefore, but because they are ig-
norant-too ignorant to be wisely and
safely intrusted with such power, it is I'M
desirable that all the negroes should be
admitted to vote in the Southern States
Even if the South desired it, it would not
command the approval of the North.
Equally unacceptable would be the pro-
position for a universal amnesty. Such an
amnesty would readmit, to every right of
citizenship, to every civil and political
privilege, to every Office, State and Federal,
in the United States every man who was
engaged in any way in the rebellion. To
this we do not believe that the people win
assent. They may excuse those who were
dragged into secession-or even those who
went into il under sincere belieft that their
first allegiance was due to their State Gov
ernments and they may be willing to see
them again in Office. But they will not
consent that the original authors Of the re-
bellion shall again resume the official pow
er which they so grossly abused. Such a
spectacle would shock the public sense of
justice as well as create Just apprehensions
for the public safety. The people recog-
ME d DIOau ulSlIDCblOu ia the SuliI Ol tue
different classes Of persons who engaged in
the rebellion. and they are willing to make
a corresponding distinction in their treat
ment of them. F=.f 81
Universal suffrage, therefore, instead Of
being an offset to the objections felt against
a universal amnesty, being itself objection
able, would only aggravate the hostility
against that measure. A qualified suffrage
and limited amnesty would be much more
likely to command the approval Of the
people If the South would extend suffrage
to the negroes, in common with all other
citizens, basing it upon certain conditions
intelligence, payment of taxes, or whatever
other qualifications they might prescribe
an amnesty which should remove all dis
abilities from persons engaged in the re
bellion, except that the original authors o
the movement should be forever excluded
from Federal Office, would undoubtedly b,
conceded by the North.