The Vinton record. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1866-1891, 1866-06-28
NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT.

present session of Congress a bill
was presented to the House of Rep
resentatives comforting unrestrict-
edsuffrage on the negroes of the
District of Columbia. For that
bill every single member of Con-
gress Of the Union party from the
State Of Ohio, voted. My friend,
and our Representative, General
Schenck, among the number, voted
. tosconfer suffrage upon the negroes
Of the District of Columbia; not
upon any property qualification;
not upon any intelligence qualif-
cstion; no, unlimited suffrage upon
all the negroes of the District Of
Columbia, l,. tgag uss4e.r. ...
| Now, who are the people of the
District of Columbia! They have
no representation in Congress, and
yet they perform all the duties of
citizens, and discharge all the OBJ
I legations to the Union of these
States, and sent their full quota to
the battle-felds to put down the
rebellion. Why should negro suf
frage be imposed upon them9
"A word as to the character of the
negroes in the District of Colum-
bia. They are that portion Of the
race, chiefly, who have come in
from the States of Virginia and
Maryland, The better class of the
negroes Of those States, the indus
trious, hard-working men, the we'll
to-do negroes, remained back und-
er, the new system, and entered in
to; contracts for working upon
farms; and it was the more idle and
worthless class that crowded there
in the city of Washington. You
all know the description ofnegroes
who come into the villages, instead
of remaining in the country at
work. This class congregated at
Washington and in the District, to
the number of twenty thousand;
and upon those the House of Rep
resentatives voted for the PROPOSE
ton to confer full and unrestricted
suffrage. Now Gen. Schenck and
Mr.. Ashley, and other Representa-
tives from Ohio, were as much rep
resentatiyes of the people of the
District of Columbia as Represen-
Etatiyes OF the people of their own
Districts, in some sense, because
every member of Congress is re-
garded as the Representative in
part Of the District of Columbia.
And yet they voted to confer ne
gro suffrage on that class of people,
notwithstanding the legitimate vo-
ters of the District had just taken
a vote on the proposition, and vot-
ed 1000 against negro suffrage to
only 70 votes for it. -"
NEGRO SUFFRAGE IMMINENT ELSE
g3l g. WHERE.
I refer to this fact for the pur-
pose of showing that the probabil-
ity is that the object of Congress,
who would vote 10 impose negro
suffrage on the unrepresented Dis
trict of Columbia, would vote to
impose the same system, if they
had the power, upon their own
constituents; and for the further
purpose of showing that this ques-
ton of negro suffrage, desire to
avoid it as we may, is the practical
issue, and one that in my judgment
the Union party ought to meet.
Where meet it? These gentle
men say: o don't express any
opinion here. There is a lengthy
editorial in this weeks organ Of
the Radical element in this county
that says: Don't express any opin-
ion in your primary meetings; but
wait until the higher court issues
its decree as to what the principles
of the party are to be.
NEGRO SUFFRAGE THE PROGRAMME.
All this shows that the doctrine
of President johnson is correct,
that it has always been recognized
as the true doctrine that each
State shall regulate the question
of, suffrage for itself. But the Con-
gress of the United States, a very
large portion Of them, have insisted
upon it that the President of the
United States, and the Congress OF
the United States, before allowing
those, States that were in rebellion
to, be, represented in Congress,
should require them to confer the
right Of, suffrage on this mass of
negroes lately enfranchised as one
of the results of the rebellion.
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