Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-07
Negro Hufrage-If Defeated I'm
Ohio Congress Intends to Enforce


Ohio Congress Intends to Enforce
it-HOw TO Prevent IL.
Prior TO the election for members of
Congress in the Northern States last year,
Congress, against the earnest protest of
the people of the District of Columbia,
where that body by the Constitution exer-
cises exclusive legislative jurisdiction,
passed law to allow Negroes to vote.
Ohio returned to Congress a majority of
the delegates from this State who voted
for the bill. Thereupon the Radicals
claimed that the battle was fought upon
that issue, and that as Negro Suffrage was
thus indorsed in Ohio and in other North
ern States, it was equally applicable to the
whole country. sr-+ ~ ~.- III
On the 26th of March, 1867, Mr.. SUMNER
introduced bill, applicable to Ohio, and to
all the Northern and Western States, of like
provisions as the parent iniquity, a synop-
sis of which is here presented:
The first section provides that every citi-
zen of the United States who may have
been q slave or the descendant of slave,
or by reason of race or color deprived of
equal rights, shall, in every State and Ter
ritory, have the right, if not otherwise dis
qualified, to be registered, and to vote at all
elections for members OF Congress, for
Presidential electors, for Representatives
and Senators to State or Territorial Legis-
latures, for all State, county, city, town
and other offices of every kind, upon the
same terms and conditions, and no Others,
as white citizens are and may be allow
ed to be registered and to vote; and every
provision of every State and Territorial
Constitution, statute, and ordinance which
is now or heater may be enacted, and every
custom and principle OF law heretofore rec
ognized in any State or Territory contrary
to the foregoing provisions, are hereby de-
clared null and void. The second section
provides penalty for any one who shall
hinder these new-made electors in Ohio and
other States from voting-the penalty being
a fine of not less than one hundred dollars,
nor more than three Thousand dollars, and
the common jail for not less than thirty
days nor more than one year. Then follow
a third, fourth, and fifth sections, teeming
with penalties and with judicial vengeance
against any and all persons who, under any
pretence whatever, shall interpose against
the complete operation of this proposed
law. .,.---..
This Bill is now pending in the Senate.
If the elections in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Iowa and New York go for the Negro Suf-
trage Ticket, this Bill will promptly be
passed into law, and strong effort made
to enforce it. If these States declare against
Negro Suffrage, and majority of Negro
Suffrage advocates shall be elected to the
Legislatures, then the programme will be
changed so far as to embody Negro Suf-
frage in an amendment to the Constitution
of the United States, which, when ratified,
will be next to an impossibility for the
people to rid themselves.
The amendment to the Constitution is
with the Radicals the preferable plan, be-
cause Senator TRUMBULL, of Illinois, and
other Senators have heretofore committed
themselves against the constitutionality of
a law of Congress regulating the right to
vote in the different States but if driven
tionality of the scheme will weigh not
feathers weight against the pressure that
will be brought to make them change front,
as Senator TRUMBULL has already done on
another occasion. i~
The only way to escape Negro Suffrage
is to vote down the amendment and to vote
solid against those who favor it. -s.g