Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1866-08-30
esIIipplis 5pnrna,
eALLrpoLIs. AUGUST 80, 1866
Negro Suffrage.

We again feel called upon 70 no
+;ce the false issues raised by our
Democrat,e friends before the peo-
nle Tn Kentucky, where public SEN
t;,rent was such as to admit of the
e,perlment, they boldly and square
" me. the true and only issue now
before the American people, the
great question whether rebels or
Iovsl men shall control the admins
tration of the Government. And
upon that issue they carried the State
of Kentucky by a large and over
whelming majority, aided and rein
forced as they were by the votes of
thousands of returned confederate
officers and soldiers. And every
where throughout the South the Dem
scratic party will be found boldly ad-
vocating the policy of repeating all
test oaths, of breaking down all dis
tinctions between traitors and loyal
men, and of returning to positions of
power and trust the very men who
led off in the late attempt to dis
member the Union and destroy the
Government. In that section of the
country they show their true colors
and aver their real principles. But
in Ohio they adopt q different plan
of campaign. Ohio is and has al
ways been too loyal. She has suf
fered and sacrificed too much for the
cause of the Union ever to consent
TO the immediate and unconditional
restoration of traitors to full and en-
tire control of the general Govern
ment. The Democratic party of
Ohio fully appreciate this fact, and
therefore endeayor to cover up the
true issue before the people by rails
ing thousand false ones.
Hence we see Vallandigham and
other lesser lights of the Democratic
faith constantly reiterating all over
the State, that negro suffrage and
negro equality, are the real questions
in issue before the people, and fran
tically calling upon the good people
10 save them and themselses from
the horrible calamity Of being made
equal TO negroes. Negro suffrage
the issue in Ohio? A blacker false
hood was never uttered. 1t can not
be found in our platform. Not a
Union paper in all the State, not a
prominent membes Of the.party, has
ever declared in sesfor of that doc
trine. Any intelligent man can'test
the matter for himself. Let him look
round his own neighborhood, run
over the list of his acquaintances
who are members of the Union party,
and ask him self how many of them
are in favor of negro suffrage And
invariably he will be compelled to
answer, not ene. And what the Un-
ion party is in his neighborhood, that
he will find it to be all over the State
and throughout the country If the
question of making negro suffrage
an issue in Ohio. had been presented
to the late Union Convention at Co.
lumbus, the idea would have been
secuted, and have found no sympa-
thy among the members of that body.
And if the question were to- day sub
mitted to the Union party Of the
State, it could not command q thou
sand votes.
The truth is that neither the Union
party in Ohio nor in the country at
large, has ever in any manner, form
or degree, accepted that principle or
made it part of their political creed.
In Congress il has refused to apply
1t to the nation as q whole, or even
to give the nation a chance 10 vote
upon its application; it has refused
to demand it of the rebellious States,
and although that measure was
strongly urged by few extreme
men in Congress, the Union mem
bers almost without exception voted
against the proposition, and willing
ly left all questions of suffrage to be
determined by the States themselves.
It has also refused to enforce it in
the District of Columbia; and when
upon the admission of Tennessee,
Mr.. Sumner in the Senate and Mr..
Boutwell, in the House, tried to exact
it Of that State, the principle did not
receive dozen votes in both Houses.
The Union members voted as unani-
meusly against it, as the Democratic
members themselves. So again in
the case of Nebraska, Sumner could
get only five votes out of forty Re
publican Senators to insist that she
should adopt the principals of uni
yersal suffrage. Upon this question
the record of the Union party is
clean, and it is an absurd and false
pretension to claim that they have in
any manner or degree identified
themselves with that doctrine.
1t is true, that there are in different
sections of the country few extreme
men, men of theories rather than of