The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-21
How Would the Negroes Vote

VW WOAAN sAO ANOsANSS
Frsnl the World.
The radicals, who were enraptured two or
three days ago at the sudden conversion of
Senator Stewart, OF Nevada, to negro suffrage
begin to fear they have 'caught Tartar" since
they learn that the resolution offered by M.
Stewart was drawn by his father-in-law, Henry
=. Foote, OK m ember of the defunct Confederate
Congress- Bot they need feel no alarm, as the
sudden admission Of allthe Southern negroes to
the elective franchise is opposed by mass OF
arguments and q mass of prejudice sufficient TO
prevent it apart, and insurmountable together.
Still, Mr.. Stewa1es proposition Is the iairest yet
presented from the negro suffrage side. 1t offers
to the South that If it will accept universal suf-
fraee, 1t shall have, in exchange, universal am
nestJ and complete exemption from all penal
consequences and political disabilities growing
out OF the Rebellion.
II the radicals believe this proposition has
no chance of success, they will advocate il as a
means of covering the odium of naked negro
suffrage. Bat If the South were to show any
symptoms Of accepting 1t, the radicals would
oppose 1t. The question would then be, "How
Will the negroes voter So long as they re-
NAMED the ignorant set of creatures they now
are, they would vote under control of come
kind; and IL would be strange IL the whites
among whom they live, by whom they are en-
| ployed, to whom they owe debts, whose judg
ment they are accustomed to respect, did not
| exert greater ascendancy over them than the
| whites of distant States, who even if they
understood the negro mind, have no easy means
OF communication with 1t. The Southern poll
ticians have great skill in the tactics Of popular
| elections. What could a few stump speakers
| from the North accomplish against the millions
| of Southerners who are on the ground from
| years end to years end constantly moulding the
| negro mind to their purposes?
! As the negroes become enlightened they will
see that their interests are identified with those
OF Their section; that they cannot thrive by
| measures that oppress and impoverlsh the
South. fthe agricultural interest OF the South
is depressed by exorbitant tariffs such of the
negroes as are mere laborers will suffer in their
wages; such of them as rise to be proprietors, in
the prices OF their products; and all alike in the
| high cost OF manufactured goods. There is no
| likelihood that such people would vote with
/ New England against their own interests. As
| they expect to live always IN the South, they
Will naturally have the pride, the preudicCs, the
| sympathies, the antlpathles of their section and
| when some of them begin TO rise in the social
scale, they will be more likely to court the class
| above than the class below them.
Why not, then, accept negro suffrage as the
| speediest solution of the reconstraction problem
Because, in the first place, as President johnson
| has so often asserted, the subject belongs eXclu
siyely to the States and until the Constitution il
| altered, the Federal Government has no juri5
diction over it. When proposed as Constitu
| tional amendment, the eleven States in question
| have complete power to defeat 1t; and the ab
surdity Of making voters of ignorant million!
| who have not AGO ured the Independent spirit o
| freemen, will prevent their ratltying such ar
amendment Another reason for NOS accedins
to this proposition is, that the radicals Will never
| otler il in good faith. So far as they adopt thC
proposition to couple universal amnesty will
universal suffrage, it is a lure to decoy unsus
pecting people into inoautious committals il
favor Of negro voting. They will then turn
around and say, ii 1t is safe with amnesty il can
not be Objectionable without it.
If the Freedmens Bureau bill had been passet
over the veto, the radicals, by carrying the mex
presidential election, would have had an exten
sive agency for controlling the negro vote. B.
keeping out the South till after the election
and manipulating the negroes afterwards the
hoped to protract their ascendancy in the poll
tics of the country. But since the veto, negr
suffrage in the South would not benefit them
and ii they offer to compromise on it and an
nesty. it viii be only because they are Condden
it will not be accepted before the Presidential
election; to carry which by excluding the Soutl
is their last hope for extending short lease c
power