The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-13
Political RECOMMENDATION.

The time has come to open the next Presi-
dental campaign. 1t is too soon for the nomi-
nations or for personal preferences, but organi-
cation should be made now. The problem is
to reconstruct the South so that its electoral
votes shall be cast for progress. While the
South is being reconstructed into States. we
should reconstruct the politics of the States.
To do this, two lines of policy should be
adopted. What we impose on the South by
virtue of success in war; we should accent
ourselves. We are not prepared to discuss
questions of interference with the suffrage,
for such questions are not practical. Congress-
we think has too much confidence in the loyal
people OF the Northern States to suppose they
VIII hesitate to remove every law that makes
distinctions in suffrage. We believe the Repub-
lcan party is warm for this work. Politicians
IN pennsylvania, the large minority in Con-
necticut-a few facing -both-ways individuals
in New York, under the uneasy leadership of
the ItmeS-may have retarded the enthusiasm
OF the mass of the party; but we feel that their
influence is dead, and that, in view of Con-
necticut, and of the great work now ripening
in the South, there is not sincere Republican
who is not willing to remove every restriction
| OF caste, color, or race and proclaim, in its
most absolute sense, impartial suffrage and
universal liberty.
! Where is our work to be doneY In Con-,
necticut we must have the law of disfran-
chisement repealed. Upon that subject, our
friends must continue to agitate until they are
successful In New York, if it is well that
the negro should be worth $3.50 before he can
vote, then it is well that the white man should
be worth the same amount of money. We do
not discuss suffrage-tests of education, pro-
perty, and naturalization; but we insist that
every test shall alike apply to black and
white. We trust to have this made right in
the new Constitution. But whether now,
or twenty years from now the party must
labor without ceasing and again and again
advance to the contest, until it is successful.
In Maryland, universal liberty does not
exist. 1t required the authority of the
national Government to prevent men from
being sold into perpetual slavery for petty
crimes. So long as village justices of the
peace can put up human beings on the auc-
! ton block, and reduce them to slavery there
is no liberty. In the Carolinas, General
Sickles was compelled to suppress the lash
and whipping post with his sword, notwith-
! standing the Constitutional amendment.
While that amendment abolished thu legal
fact of slavery, it did not abolish the conse-
! quences of causes or that fact. The men who
! prospered by slavery; the reverend gentlemen
| who preached about Onesimus; the dema-
! gogues Who traficked in prejudice the Simon
! Legrees who revelled in atrocity and crime,
| were not abolished. They had votes, and
constituencies, and strength; and, so long as
! their votes had power to re-establish the pill
| lory and the slave shambles, there was no
! liberty in the South. In the Southern States
these wrongs were permitted only because a
disloyal minority possessed the power to make
laws, and loyal majority was disfranChised
because of difference in color.
! Our immediate work is with the South.
/ There, by the law of Congress, the negro is
! permitted to vote. This negro vote is fact.
! Under proper influences, it may be induced to
act with the Union party. There is a large
white element, especially in Virginia, North
/ Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana, which
was consistently Union, even in the presence
| of successful Rebellion. This vote is in full
sympathy with the Union party. There is a
healthy German element in Texas, which is
as radical as in Wisconsin. We have no
doubt the Union party in the South, not
counting the negro vote is as strong as the
/ Free Soil party in the North before the Kansas
Nebraska excitement. 1t needs encourage
ment, and that must come from us. 1t needs
organization. 1t must see that we in the North
are fighting the same battle. 1t should feel
that an election in Connecticut and New York
represents the same issues as an election in
Alabama. The negro should be encouraged
and enlightened. He should be made to feel
that the ballot means liberty, and home, and
education for his children, the possession OF
his farm absolute equality before the law. By
that talisman, he becomes an American citizen
politically, our fellow. He will soon find
preudices disappear. The negro without the
ballot was a chattel; with it he is man, with
Offices to give, and as much power for good or
evil in law-malzing as General Lee or Mr..
Davis. 1t is feared that the old masters may
coax the negroes to the ballot-boX, as in other
DAYS they drove them to their quarters. We
take that risk The mere fact that he is in a
position to be coaxed-that he is an object OF
interest and power, and not of tyranny
{ shows that emancipation has, even now, given
him blessings of inestimable value. We take
the chance of his voting with his masters, Just
as we take the chance of the Irishman voting
? with his Saxon oppressors.
Far be it from us to advise a campaign o.
bitterness. We do not propose to influence
= the negro by exciting in his mind hatred o
o his former masters. Nor should we advise
! any organization antagonistic to those masters
d Agitators like Mr. Hunnicutt in Virginia may
> mean well, but their zeal is bitter anC
II offensive. To organize campaign ON th'
o hunnlcutt plan is to abandon any hope OF
r permanent Union party in the South. W.
IL cannot afford to array the white against th'
e DiaGk, or the black against the white
u "Wmte mems tickets" and "Black men
s tlckets any ticket, indeed, which repre-
o sents a prejudice, or a grievance, or the re
memOrahce OF any wrong, any party O
a vengeance and wrath, we shall oppose
} We desire TO see Republican party in tn
South irrespective of color or condition. w
:, count the negro as an accession-an integra
)t part OF the constituency-an element to b
d enrolled; but we also count the white
10 whether Democrat or not. We build up on