Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-01-30

l to be more sound than Southern views of eman-
cipation. after slavery was abolished its sbo-
,ition found advocates and defenders in Southern
States. we believe unrestricted suffrage will yet
find champions on Southern soil. When Gen.
Banks re- organized Louisiana he was opposed to
any suffrage for Freedmen. He has since ad-
vanced, and now advocates universal suffrage,
united only by the educational test and we e1-
pect yet to see him, led by the logicof democracy
and the march of events, take the position 80
ably and clearly and eloquently maintained by
his colleague, Elk Gov. Boutwell,.
We know the opinion is not uncommon that
suffrage should be no where unrestricted. The
rich man thinks, when taxes are to be assessed,
his vote should count more than the poor mans.
The educated man regards himself a. a safer
depostary of political power than the;man who
has none of the knowledge which can be OBJ
tanned from books and the culture of learning
But do not these views, after all, SAVIOR of aris-
tocracy, enc the srstOcracy of wealth, the other
the aristocracy of learning? If man, to be a
voter, must be able to read and write, what
be justice of the peace! how much to be q
d
tor? what menta, e equirements-how well
| must be read and write-will fit man to be
Governor, or member of Congress, or President P
President johnson is self-made man,-was =
tailor-is not, in the strict of the phrase,
an educated man, and the whole democratic
press of the country jeered al. his nomination,
and called him boor, an uneducated tailor -
ri0bt in fhua
was a necessary accomplishment in a Chief
Magistrate
The right of suffrage lies back of all tests and
qualifications. The logic of all monarchies.
aristocracies, and olgsIchies is that one man is
better or has more rights than another, and IS
| therefore righttully his superior, and can with
out injustice exact obediencs. The logic of de-
mocracy is that one man has no rights by birth i,
education or wealth, superior to another, and
when he holds superior positions he holds them
by the consent and agreement of the mass of the
people. The necessity of this consent Is the pro-
lection of the people against the abuse of power,
| as well as the defense which every man has for
bis individual rights. For generations the
blacks Of the South have had opportunities
of edu;atiop, not because they did not desire
| them, but because they were powt rless to obtain
| them. In the city of Washington the white
voters have refused to open schools for the col
ored children. How ignorance to be secure
In its right to education, unless 1t can vote
for that iIght7 And it not urdemocratic to
say that educated persons shall alone vote, in
| localities where the educated men refuse to allow
the unlearned the opportunity to obtain the
| rudiments of knowledge? Shall not the un-
| learned have the power to demand through the
| bailot-box their right to knowledge
We commend the speech of Mr.. Boutwell, to
our readers. we think is clear logic and fore
IDLE presentation OF this question will do much
to clear away the rubbish that is heaped mp
| about it, and convincs the reader that the right
OF suffrage is fundamental, and must be given to
the citizen as the on.y sure security of all b is
other rights, his right to learning and to prop
erty among the rest.