The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-08-23

functions under the eye of their peo
Pile; the Federal Government vii
perform its few and conspicuous du-
ties under the direction of its constit
uent republics. The States will Civ,
dignity and power and splendor t.
the Federal government, which, il
turn, will reflect on them the luste
of its borrowed greatness.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
The constitutional Amendmen N
confers suffrage on the negro, and
takes it away from the white man.
We hear many theories on this ques
ton of vOting-universnl suffrage
manhood suffrage! Gentlemen, 1 will
not stop to analyze them all, nor
trace in each ofthe premises to its log
ical conclusion. But this l will affirm
that never in history--never in any
governm nment-never by any party in
any government &C even including
prolific New England, has the right
of suffrage been in practice held to
be natural right. Women are ex-
cluded-aliens are excluded. Pure
minded, well informed, patriotic per
sOns-not stained with crime-not
tainted with montal moral defect
for some reason or other have al
ways been excluded; and that exclu-
sion has proven that the right is nei-
ther natural nor universal. The ne
cessity of the State--the good of the
comunity-political wisdom have al
ways controlled the enjoyment of this
right-and have established, as far as
uniform practice can establish it, that
the governing power of every civil
society may, subject to moral laws
and the revolutionary right of every
minority, decide in whom the politi-
cal power shall reside. In England
the rule of wealth has been the rule
of exclusion-perhaps ought to say
the rule of. admission. In France,
even since the Constituent Assembly
decreed universal suffrage, nativity
and residence have been the tests.
In New York, and perhaps some
other States, while white male citi
zens have been all admitted to suf-
frage, negroes were required to have
property qualification. In the
Western States negroes were not adj
mitted to suffrage on any terms. In
Massachusetts the test is not color
or wealth, but their capacity to read
the Constitution. In the South to-
day, as administered by military
power, inspired by the ideas of the
Republican party, neither universal
suffrage, nor manhood suffrage pre-
walls. The distinction of color alone
is destroyed, but the rule of sex,
birth, residence, age, sanity, and
above all, loyalty is maintained.--
Wonderful (. is it not, that amid all
the rules heretofore adopted, no in
ldividual, no self-rIghteous commu-
nifty has invented or adopted the rule
of intelligence, or virtue, or fitness?
The right OF suffrage then is not
natural. 1t is given or withheld ac-
cording to the discretion of the gov
erning power. Shall it IN Ohio be
given to the negroes? | answer no.
l disdain to respond to the mere vul-
gar abuse that this is prejudice, or
caste, Or association. L disdain TO
answer that brutal levitv which as-
Iserts this opinion to belong 10 those
who would delight in inflicting cor
poral punishment or separating fam
lilies. l know and respect many col
ored men and women. They are
honest, Industrious, virtuous. l
would not only do them no harm, l
would do them good. l would open
every avenue of mental, and moral,
and physical advancement. The
means OF acquiring wealth and edu-
cation should be within their reach.
But would not give them political
power. They belong to different
race. They have different blood,
and bones, and organization. They
have different tastes, and habits, ana
capacities. 1t is not merely diff
ference Of climate, or sun, or birth,
or education, or color. Ii is an in
herent and radical difference of race,
Of bio ood, Of nature, of intellect, of
capacity, which no training can eff
face, no associations, or habits, or
discipline can extinguish. God made
them different, man cannot make them
different, man cannot make them the
same or equal And all the teaching
of history, and all the observation of
our experience is that the comming-
ling of the blood of the white and
black races Injuries both. Go into
the Southern States, where circum.
stances have been favorable TO this
amalgamation; 60 into our cities,
where affection has sought to estab-
lish the happiness of the hybrid off
spring, and you will see that every
animal passion is more developed,
every moral quality more depressed,
every physical infirmity more exag-
gerated than in either of the pure
races. The elements of contrariety
are SO strong that combination de-
velopas the worst qualities of both.
There is philosophic wisdom in the
Governments of Liberia and Hay ii,
which exclude white men from pol
itical power. 1t is the philosophy of
the separation of the races; not the
of distance, but of CON-
munion. 1t affords to the negro the
only chance of independence-it en- I,
ables him to prove whether he is ca
pable of the cares of government. 1t
is the same philosophy which is ex-
dressed in the doctrine so often re-
peated by Douglas, that this is
white mans government, established
by white men, to be administered by
white men, for them and their p os-
terity."
Neither Pennsylvania, nor India /
ma, nor Wisconsin, nor Michigan
admit negroes to suffrage. Shall we,
by granting extraordinary privileges
invite an immigration of this charac-
terf Do the laboring men OF the
State want either the contact or the |
competition: Will the resources of
the State be built up by the access
ion2
The tyranny of the Federal Gov
ernment may enforce negro suffrage
in the Southern States. 1t may by
the unlawful exercise Of mere brute
force reduce those States to negro
communities. Shall we open our
doors to receive their superabundant
negro population, and thus reduce