Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1866-12-01
Democracy Demanding Negro Suf-
-. IL. ------- trapA,
From the Chicago Times. Nov, 10,

'' rroh inc Cnlcago Times, Nov. 10. g.
The present is the crisis of the Demo-
cratic party, which has no precedent In
its history, rs it is a crisis in the progress
fof the country, which is also without
precedent. Never before has the Demo-
cratic party encountered events SO Sc
rleusly affecting its future validity as
now. Not that it beholds itself dimin-
bished in the magnitude of its number
for it is numerically stronger than it has
ever been before-but that, having been
| beaten on great national issue as to
which it believed itself to be wholly
right and the opposition wholly wrong,
and still so believe, it must nevertheless
abandon that issue-for the decision of it
Is flnal-and either sit down in helpless
and dccaying inactivity or strike boldly
out upon new line, selected with pecu-
liar reference, not to things as we would
have them, but to things as they actually
are, and in pursuing which line it shall
cease to be hold-back or "conserya-
tive" party, and become, what it was in
ITS palmy days, progressive and aggres-
sive party. These are the alternatives.
1t will not sit down in helplessness and
decaying inactivity.
What then shall the new line be ? In
the first place, must we cut loose from
the administration of Andrew johnson.
and leave that hybrid concern to float on
the sea of public contempt into whicL
1t some time since entered. and from
which no power can rescue it? Is not
the late defeat attributable more largely
to this Administration than to all other
causes couibinei? What is there in its
composition to command popular conf
dence? Who, belonging to 1t, entitled.
by reason of his antecedents or of his
craftsmanship, to the confidence or the
respect of the Democratic party ? Ger
talnly 1t Is not Andrew johnson. nor
William III. Seward, nor Edwin M. STAN
ton True, this Administration had a
right policy, and the Democratic party.
IN overlooking the chief men COMPRISING
it, and thinking only of the rightfulness
of the policy, displayed a patriotism
whose purity was never excelled; but the
policy having failed-and having failed.
too, through the feebleness and folly and
ottenses against public propriety Of the
A!dmlnistration-why should not the
Democratic party abandon the dead
body, longer adherence to which is
death itself? N.a af .dsfs ah
II What next ? Can the Democratic
party succeed until the negro question
shall be gotten out of the ways It can
not. What next? Is the negro suffrage
inevitable, and is not the. quickest way
to get the negro question out of the way
to at once coneede, the suffrage, making
issue only on the degree to which it shall
be conceded? We know that many
Democrats have not reached this ad-
vapced Wow OF the case, and that such
still feel greatly inclined to revolt at the
of negro suffrage in any de
gree; but let us tell them that it is al
ways wise to accept the inevitable comes.
Negro suffrage, we say, is inevitable, and
whether it shall be qualified or universal
depends upon the promptness foro other
wise with which the Democratic party
shall move with reference to it'll The
South will speedily yield qualified negro
suffrage upon the motion Of the Demo
cratic party, because, il for no other rea-
son, she will soon see, if see does not
already see, that if she does not yield il,
she will ultimately be compelled to ac-
cept universal negro suffrage. 3
"a Qualified negro suffrage yielded by the
South by this we mean impartial Suffrage,
or suffrage dependent upon the intelli-
gence OF the man irrespective OF color, as
is now the rule in Massachusetts---t
negro question will have been disposed
lof, and the Northern RepubIican Ra<e..6al
party will be gone fofeyer. E6f ora
inch of ground viii 1t have tc stand upon.
and the country can once more turn to