The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-02-01
THE GATE CITY.
L1nITAT1oHs 0p SUFFRAGE.

Republican or Democratic system Of Govern
ment, is the sovereignty Of the people, based
on the equal rights of the governed and con-
ceding to every man an equal voice in the
Government. Other systems of Government
have other vital principles, and are based on
other ideas of sovereignty, and exclude the
masses of the people from voice in the Gov
ernment All such Governments may be le-
gitimate, in a sense, and the welfare of the
people may be more or less conserved under
their administration, but they are not Repub
hcan Governments. They do not recognize
the principles at the foundation of Republican
Government they ignore the sovereignty
and the equality of the people, and deny them
q voice in the Government. Our Revolution
ary forefathers expressly repudiated such
Governments in their theories and practices,
and proclaimed "a the true system, one in di.
rect opposition to them in principle and in
mode of administration. The Divine Right
of Kings, the Hereditary Rights of Rulers,
the vested Rights of Aristocracy, or the supe-
rior rights of the learned, the wealthy and the
well born to a controlling voice in the Gov
ernment, was once and forever repudiated by
the founders of our Government And they
declared the inherent rights of man, and that
Governments WEI instituted to protect these
rights, and that the assent of the governed,
voice in the Government, was the essential
characteristic of a just Government This
principle is essential to Republican Gov.
ernment, and just so far as we fail to realize
it, and give it practical application, in that
degree we violate the distinctive principle of
Free Government, and just so far fall short of
having just Government.
Of course, persons under the influence and
control of others, by the fundamental princi-
pies of social organization, and who are con-
sequently restrained of free choice and vol
untary action, cannot properly exercise the
sovereignty of government. Neither can par
ties non compos memtis. And persons guilty and
convicted of infamous crimes against the Gov
ernment, may well be excluded from a voice
in the Government by way of punishment, and
for the preservation Of the safety, the purity
and honor of their fellow citizens, against
whom they have so grossly offended. In such
cases as the foregoing, there are general and
palpable grounds for the exclusion of persons
from a voice in the Government, or a share
in the primary sovereignty inhering in the
people under Republican system.
But to exclude man because he is rich, or
because he is poor, because he is learned, or
because he is ignorant; because he is fat, or
because he is lean; because he is tall, or be-
cause he is short because he has straight
hair, or curly hair or because he has dark
complexion or fair one, is simply to create
arbitrary and und unjust distinctions, in vio-
lation of the principles of equality, of justice,
and ofa free Republican government And,
when we once commence excluding portions
of the people by these arbitrary distinctions,
there can be no limit in principle to the
grounds of exclusion: and eventually by
qualifications of the right of suffrage exclu-
ding classes on account of their race, their
color, their property, their ignorance and
this, that and the other disqualification, we
will at last reduce the socereign people to
select aristocracy, and realize in our own
experience the maxim deduced from history,
that 'Power is ever stealing from the many
TO the few"
Now, with these views, we should feel at
perfect liberty as a citizen in Missouri or
Tennessee toexclude, traitors who triedt to de-
stroy the Government, from a voice in the
administration, on the ground that they had
forfeited their rights, and that it was unsafe
to commit the keeping of the Government to
hands which had sought its dettru ctiou, and
were still actuated by spirit Of opp ,sition to
the Government and hatred of IL cir loyal fel-
low-citizens. The dement's of th . Q ass of
Iowa citizens who bore arms against the gov--
ernment of their country are even greater
than the same class of Southern citizens, and
they have justly forfeited their share in the
government Of their country by seeking to
destroy it, and battling in the ranks Of its
enemies and shedding the blood Of its defend
ers on the field of battle But as there is no
peril to be encountered here in Iowa, by suf-
fering them to vote, it is a mere question of
sentiment and of policy, whether those who
fought against the government or skedaddled
when called to enlist in its service should
be excluded from voice in its future control
in our State.
The mere fact that we regulate the right of
suffrage and place limitations and conditions
on its exercise, does not, as some vainly sup
pose, disprove that it is an inherent right of
manhood, under Republican system and
on principles which expressly declare the
equal rights of men, and the sovereignty of the
people. Ifthe mere fact that rights are denied
men, proves that they are entitled to no such
rights, then slaves have no inalienable rights,
simply because society or Government in its
own wrong has deprived them of the inalien-
able right.
Yet with this and a thousand similar facts
and illustrations before their eyes, men in
their self-oonceit, or their hypocrisy, conf
IDENTITY proclaim that suffrage is not right,
bnt n privilege. That it is not an inherent
right of manhood in our Republican Govern
ment, because all men are not in the enjoy
ment of it.
Now liberty is an inalienable right, and it
is franchise and a privilege, too, - many
freedmen will testify, and yet many men in
this land were long denied it, and many now
have but recently acquired the enjoyment and
exercise of this inalienable right by virtue of
Governmental Proclamation, Constitutional
provision and legal enactment. So Of suf-
frage 1t is right conceded and demanded for