New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-08-06
TIE SUFFRAGE QUESTION.

There being 10 longer question that the mAryred
Uuioui,ts recently murdered in Ncw-Orlcans we've
acknowledgements OF them while they defense.
less prisoners of the Rebel PolcesmplT because they
were peacefully seeking the Acknowledgement Of tho
Blacks, the affiliated Rebel, Coppcrhea1 and johnson
journals are driven 10 the necessity Of jusiyng the
use Of any means deemed requisite to prevent such
acknowledgment. Yet the more recent aposihica
are compelled to eyadc or at least beiog the issue
Thus The n. !. Times says:
There IRE many intelligent wealthy and reputable people
% color N Louisiana ngnin whom there u no lrndoe n
10 ,rs obsi0a ne q safrag. fis c' But
tbs does satisfy adcasIu. Indeed In 20 ei' contol
they would reject proposition vhoh invests Intelligent freed
men with suffrage. They demand nHvef negro suffrage -
So1 Carora may be reeuted by negro men beers o.
Congress"
The Times knows better-knows that there IS not
one Of the lately reyoled States whose cX.Rebels will
consent 70 invc,. intelligent freedmen with sui.
fraee nor cvcnthosc Blacks who born free, and
have made themselves " intelligent, wealthy and
reputable" And, though President Lincoln urged
The Louisiana Union Convention to enfranchise the
very Intelligent and especially those who have fought
calamity in our ranks" (sec his letter TO Hahn,
March Is, -Gi) the Convention did NOT venture TO do
IT, but timdyremited the question to the Legislature
And though President Johnson renewed in substance
this recommendation saying Gin his letter to
Gov. Sharkey, August H. 1861 If you could ey.
tend tho elective franchise to all persons Of color who
could read the Constitution of the United States in
English, and write their names and to all persons Of
color who own real estate valued At no, less than
$3.50, and pay taxes thereon, you would completely
dlsa1n the adversary, and SET an example for other
States to follow neither Mississippi nor any other
reconstructed State has up to this hour conceded the
Right Of Suffrage to any cOlored person whatever
And if they failed 10 DO 50 when urged by President
johnson. what probability exists of their doing it
since he has gone owe to the enemy
Time and again has The Times misreprcsented the
Radical position with regard to Suffrage il defiance
Of our reiterated and explicit corrections Right we'll
does it know that what is demanded is Impartial Suf
fage but II Is resolved that its readers shall be kept
ignorant of the truth. We state therefore, for the
sixth seventh time, that any RESTRICTIONS on he Right
Of Suffrage rhieh shall apply mparfiaiy to Whites and
Blacks rH not be o!ertsd TO BY the Radicals. We pro-
pose none require none but will object to none that
apply to Whites and Blacks alike ii you insist on
reading and writing, any conceivable literary test,
we shall only require that education be free to
ALL and that the mscreants who burn negro school
houses and lynch or ravsh White teachers therein,
shall be punished like other felons. If you exact
property test, shall only insist that the means Of
acquiring property be made as free and secure to
Blacks as to Whites. If you say that criminals
vagabonds, and those who do not usefully their
living be excluded from the polls, We consent if you
make the rule applicable to White and Black alike
1t seems to us setting the thing rather steep to re-
qure voters to be Intelligent, wealthy and reputa
ble;' but we demur only to applying these
tests exclusively to that prosecuted, down.
trodden race, which is denied, so far as possible,
every opportunity to acquire wealth or intelligence
and every Indictment to achieve good reputation.
We demand for the loyal Blacks of the South, and
especially for the Two Hundred Thousand of them
who fought for the Union, all the rights which are
conceded and secured to those who fought to break
up the Union and destroy the Republic This
simple Justice it would be bad faith to require less;
and tho defeated Rebels should be grateful that we
require no more. And though outrage and murder