The Vinton record. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1866-1891, 1866-08-23
OPPOSITION ARGUMENTS.
Prepared By one Or their number.
[F0r tie Vinton Record.
Butternuts Fear Negro Equality
Negro Suffrage.


The melancholy wall of the Butternuts
about Negro Suffrage and Negro Equality,
excltes alike our pity and contempt-pity
for those more ignorant Butternuts who do
actually fear Negro Suffrage and Equality,
contempt for the better-informed portion
who amuse themselves with playing the
deuce with the nerves Of the ignorant por-
tion, by frightening them with the idea
that the Negro viii soon be their equal.
A white man, Of ordinary common school
education and moderate sense, is certainly
little frightened when he arguesas But
ternuts do. Their first proposition Is that
God made the Negro for subordinate
place in society and government and lin
tied his capacity to the sphere He intended
him to fill. That is fair statement fthelr
theory, and We are not going to take issue
with them on the proposition.
The more Southern idea Is simply that
the Negro was made for q .slare, and that
he Is not competent to take care Of himself
as q freedman.
We pass that proposition, too.
The Radical proposition is, that "A mig
ger Is Niger, and he wfH be a nfgger,
,ohite-rash aim as you tcilli"
Now, we will not dispute even this prop
osition.
They, then, are one and the same, differ
emily expressed.
We admit, for the present, their truth.
But take the next proposition. The
Butternuts say that the Union party are in
favor of Negro Equality. Do they mean
that the Union party is In favor of all Ne
gros being equal9 or, that we are in favor
of making the whites and blacks equal?
"Ahl that's the point" says my Butter
nut brother.
Well, sir, how9 by legislation?
@Certainly," you say. "The Union party
want the niger to VOTE"
Well, sir, take your first proposition -
God made the Negro your inferior. Can
the Union party, by legislation, destroy
an essential difference between two races
If the Creator made the distinction so slight
that II can be removed by legislation, then
He failed In His effort to preserve the SUI
premacy Of the white race. To make the
proposition plain II the Creator has ac-
tually made distinction Gas we think he
has) between the white and black races,
and given the preference to the white, leg
islation cannot remove the distinction
II the Creator has made no distinction,
and the preference depends on legislation,
| then 1t Is well to talk Of equality being
made by legislating away the Qegal) dis
I tinction.
| Now, we submit our theory: The Gre
ator made distinction; He marked It by
color, and by intellectual superiority, if
you please. He also 'made man upright,
but he has sought out many inventions"
He made the natural distinction of color,
and the white man, especially in the South,
has sought to destroy that distinction, by
producing what the Creatorsnever intend
ed, to wit: mulattoes; and, it is lament
able fact, that these unfortunate creatures
can trace their parentage-origin-to the
great Southern Democracy about as cor
rectly as to any other class of mankind
But little farther: The Creator has filled
the land with men-voters, If you please
of paried intellectual power; to speak it
mildly, different degrees of manliness, if
you please. We are bound to suppose,
however, that he has placed them all abore
the standard of the "nigger race" Now,
we ask, is there any white voter willing to
say that the Creator, who intended him to
be above Negro, has not given him brains
and mdnlinesSto maintain his 'white stand
ard'' Of excellenceS We say that the Gre
ator madethe, distinction. Can legislation
remove IL? If the Creator made the white
race superior, can man reverse the order of
nature, or destroy natural distinctionp
How pitiful the sight to behold WHITE
MAN, made by the great Creator superior
to the Negro, doubling the handiwork of
his God. and asking legislation to preserve
his superiority above the Negro! How
humiliating 1t must be for Butternut to
cry out "nigger equality!" What pite.
GUS confession! Why, bless your souls !!
the Union party would not remove the dis
tinctlon God has made. II you are so low
in the scales OF humanity that there re-
mains in your favor no excellence above
the Negro, save that you can vote and the
Negro can't we of the Union party would
not mortify you by removing that distinc-
ton. If your Creator failed in your case
80 far as to let you down until the right Of
suffrage is all that is between you and mig
ger equality" we would not If we had the
authority, remove the difference between
you and the "niggerp If you are fearful
that the Union party are going to make
you and yours so nearly equal to the dar-
key, and the darkey SO nearly equal to you
and yours, that you will marry miscella-
neously through each other, please quiet
your fears. Already the Union party has
thrown its protecting arms about you, an1
forbidden by statute your intermarriage
Further legislation will be had If you think
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