The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-01-16
Negro Suffrage i'm washiuKton City.

very conhdent tnatg lne fIesiuenb VIII
veto any bill for the establishment of
negro suffrage in the District of Colum-
bia that the radical majority in Congress
can pass. tits also ascertained that the
negro suffrage bill will not receive the
two-thirds yots of both houses which
will be necessary to carry it over the
Presidents veto. 1t is also surmised
that before any bill in relation to this
subject can be passed by the Congress, 1T
will be so loaded with amendments, re-
strictions and qualifying clauses as to
disappoint and be distasteful even to the
radicals themselves
That these rumors and suppositions
may prove to be correct is earnestly hop
ed for by all believers in the value Of re-
publican institutions, for certainly no
greater outrage upon the rights of any
community has been perpetrated.even in
these days of anti-republican legislation,
than is contemplated in this project OF
forcing negro suffrage upon people
against their almost unanimous will. AT
the election held in Washington City to
ascertain the opinion of the people in
reference to this matter, 6,556 votes were
cast against negro suffrage, and only 80
in its favor 1t has been asserted that
the insignificant vote in favor of extend
ing the suffrage was caused by the re-
fusal of the friends of the meas
ure to cast their ballots, but in opposi-
ton to this explanation we have the fact
that the aggregate vote is really larger
than ever before polled in the city, with
but three exceptions. The whole vote
polled for Mayor in 1856 was 5,940; in
1853, 6,sI3; in 1860. 6975; in 1862, 4,916
in 1864, 6,720 The entire vote upon tl,e
negro suffrage question was G,59l so that
it is fair to conclude that very nearly the
entire voting population of the city cast
their ballots in the recent election and
that the legal voters who support the
negro suffrage scheme do not. all told,ez-
coed thirty five or forty men. 1t is also
highly probable that some of those who
voted in favor of negro suffrage are per
sons who are merely transient residents
in the city who, while they have resided
there long enough to acquire citizen
ship. and are admitted to vote, neyerthe
L. vi, 70 o1Sn IN THAR
respective States and come trooping
home on the eve of every important cleo
ton; it is known that many of this class
are among the petitioners to Congress for
the passage of the bill.
The real truth is that this negro suf
frage scheme is not so much for the pur.
pose of beneftting the blacks of the Dis
trict as it is to punish the whites The
white people of Washington city, not
withstanding the vast amount of radical
logic spouted forth daily in their midst
during the sessions of congress, paying
no heed to the classical orations of SUM
NER and the persuasiy G eloquence of
STEVENS and the windy harangues of
BINGHAM, do not take kindly to the
party of great moral ideas" and stead
tasty persist in electing Democratic
mayors and other municipal officers, to
the intense disgust of the orators and
party aforesaid. Hence. these orators
and this party arc seeking to revenge
themselves upon the refractory white in
habitants of the District, by declaring
that the negroes, black, yellow and
speckled, shall be permitted to vote.
The Washington Chronicle (nothing
seems too low for FoRNEY since he joined
the Republican party favors the scheme,
and intimates that if the returned rebel
soldiers had been debarred the privilege
ofvotipg, the majority against negro sui.
trage in the city would have been insig-
uifcant. The suppositicn bears absurdity
on its very face. To make the majority
against negro suffrage Insignificant
by the exclusion from the polls of those
who had served in the rebel army, would
indicate that more than six thousand
persons must have been in the rebel
army from Washington City alone. If
this were the case, who were the 6,72O
persons WHO voted for Mayor in lS6il
The statement is like many others of
that upscrupulous partisan, q reckless
falsehood Que Of the radical members
of congress afew days ago spoke in SINH
larstrains and denouHced the inhabitants
of the District as copperheads, rebels
and sneaks," when it is an indisputable
fact that under the first call for troops
mode by tho President in 1861, the Dis
trict of Columbia furnished more soldiers
fol the Federal army than the three
States, Vermont New Hampshire and
Rhode Island, and one thousand more
than Massachusetts, herself But the
trouble is, they ,ciH vote the Democratic
ticket, and hence this most odious of all
odieus schemes must be forced upon them
in defiance Of their almost unanimous
wish. If that be republicapism, what