The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-14

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND IMPARTIAL
SUFFRAGE.
One of the proudest boasts of the
Democratic party is it's antiquity. The
principles which rest at its foundation
were anterior to the Government: were
coeVaI with civilization, For they are
| the assertion of the unalienable riDhts
OF man against kingly prerogative.
Their earliest development may be
traced in those ancient Saxon conStitI-
tlons, born of the spirit of offreedom, and
fashioned by the genius of the great
Alfred into a body OF laws of such won
drous excellence that since their over
throw by the Norman conquerors the
struggle of succeeding generations, has
been, not to inaugurIte new theories.
but to restore the old liberties OF the
people. For a Thousand wears, this
struggle of popular liberty on the one
hand, against despotic power on the
other = this contest of democracy
against aristocracy-has proceeded
Whatever in that struggle has wrenched
prerogative from power, has restored,
not granted, franchises whereof the peo-
pie had been unjustly deprived. Magma
| charta, habeas corpus, the abolition of
teudal slavery, were but important
steps in the gradual reclamation by the
people OF their ancient rights, the foun-
datlon ofall which, under the ancient
Gothic constitutions, was the right OF
every man to be governed upon a basis
OF equality with every other man
through his own assent-the democrat
tc right of impartial suffrage.
The separation of the American colo
nies from the British crown, gave to this
restoration OF popular liberty an i'm
petus on this side of the Atlantic
which it has not yet attained on the
other. 1t cut Off at one blow every re-
naming prerOgative which despotism
planted on the island of Great Britain.
1t brought the people of America at
once to the broad basis of those fuuda-
mental truths which the Saxon ances-
tors had recognized and proclaimed.
1t IS most remarkable fact that the
principles of government enunciated
in the declaration of American inde-
pendence are identical with those upon
which the earliest nationality of our
race was founded more than a thousand
years ago. Those principles were the
foundation and have been the life OF
the Democratic party.
The earliest division of the people
of this country into political parties
TOOK place with reference to the Struc-
ture of the Government itself. 1t was
the only divisiOn-the old contest be-
tween liberty and prerogative. Fortu-
nately for their descendants, the friends
of liberty triumphed, although the tri-
umph invoked concessions and COM
promises which are not even yet al
together done away.
The grand democratic principle
which was the recognized foundation
of the Government. was the absolute
right OF every individual who con-
tributed to the support of the Govern
ment to have voice in the Govern
ment. mo taxation without represent
tation" was not an idle sentiment: it
was principle held vital by every
| N01saF -t,sN Il tod NH,N
rule in America. We find it, therefore
recognized and affirmed in the organic
law of every one of the sixteen States
which entered originally into the forma-
ton of the Government, excepting only
the State of South Carolina.
The Democractic principle of IMPAIR
TIAL SUFFRAGE was affirmed in the
Constitution of Maryland in the follow
ing words:
"That the right in the people to par
ticipate in the Legislature is the best
security of liberty and the foundation
of all free government; for this purpose
elections ought to be free, and every
man having property in, "a common in
terest with, and an attachment to, the
community, ought to have right of
suffrage"
In Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Vermont, New Hampshire, the same
principle was affirmed in almost the
/ same "uEuSs III TWO OF three OIL the
States it was slightly varied. In North
Carolina the language ofthe Constitu-
tion was:
''That the people of this State ought
not to be taxed, or made subject to the
payment of any impOst or duty, with
out the consent of themselves, or their
representatives in general assembly,
freely given"
In every one of the States, even South
| Carolina, it was recognized as "A funda-
mental principle that there should be
"no taxation without representation" !"
The property qualification was estab-
lished in every State, but it was made
uniform and impartial lin all but one)
as respects different classes or races of
1 persons. There was no distinction on
account OF color. The word "white' is
not found in any of the original consti-
tutions, save only in that of South Car
olina. In every other State, negroes
who possessed the qualifications that
were required "impartially" of all men,
were admitted to vote. And mauy of
that race did vote in the Southern as
well as in the Northern States. And,
moreover, they voted the Democratic
ticket, for it was the Democratic party
of that day which affirmed their right
in that respect upon an impartial basis
with white men. All Democrats can
not, even at this day, have forgotten
the statement of General Jackson that
| he was supported for the Presidency by
negro voters in the State of Tennessee.
How did it happen that the qualificu-
| tionS which admitted negroes to the
right of suffrage came to be changed?
| What was it which caused the Demo-
cratic party to abandon the broad plat
| form of impartial suffrage, upon which
| it originally stood, and TO adopt, to pub
| lie appearance, at least, an attitude IA
| voring impartial suffrage?
| The answer is furnished by history;
! it was the agitation of the slavery ques-
| ton by Northern Abolitionists. The
regulation of the suffrage was matter
which belonged to the States. The Fed
eraI Government had no power over it,
| no right to interfere with it any way.
| So, likewise, of the institution of slave
ry. But Northern Abolitionists resolved
to have something to do with it. The
only way open to them was agitation
| in the press, the forum, and the pulpit,
| and a persistent effort to force that Rgi-
| tatiOn into the halls of Congress and
| into the slave States. With the ballot
in the hands of the negroes, the slave
States readily perceived that an auxil-
| iary of the Northern anti-slavery agi-
! tRtion might exist in their own midst.
| Accordingly they proceeded, in the ex-
! ercise of an undoubted State right, to
| linhibit the negro from the ballot-box.
| The anti-slavery agitation made its
| first appearance in politics in the shape
| of the famous Missouri controversy in
! 1919 90. But one of the States in which
! impartial suffrage existed had, prior to
| that time, inserted the word white" in
| its coustitution-the State of Kentucky.
Connecticut inserted that word in ISIS;
| Maryland and Virginia in 1929; Della
| ware in 1881; Tennessee in 1884; North
! Carolina in 1885; Pennsylvania in 1898,