The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-11-01
Rex.l.sie. Of suffrage BY Ae,.1c


dealing too gingerly with the heresies put
forward with so much confidence by your
contributor, Republican" The Constitu-
tlon is an instrument which provides for its
own amendment, and TO subject such an in
strument to the strain of forced interpreta-
tion is, make bold to say, as mdemocratic
as it is unnecessary. The 0,imus OF this
movement Is want of confidence In the
people. In his last article Republican" says
half century may elapse before amend
menis can be carried in the Federal, or failing
that, in all the State constitutions" This is
a confession that the people are not prepared
Tor Impartial suffrage, that they do not want
1t, and yet Republican" proposes to force it
upon them by act of Congress. In his con-
ceptiOn the people OF the United States are
q stupid mass OF blockheads who cannot dis
tinguish good from evil, who do not even
know what they want, but will "acquiesce" in
the action OF Congress after it becomes set
tied fact. | believe, on the contrary, that am
appeal to the conscience and good judgment
of the people on this very point would be
can party csuld not have better platform in
the coming contes. than constitutional
amendment declaring that no distinction in
the qualification of voters shall hereafter be
made on grounds Of race or cOlor. If am
mistaken, If Republican" is right,-if the
people do not want impartial suffrage, nev-
ertheless believe the Republican party can
better afford to be beaten on that issue than
to win on any other,-but do not believe
the people of the United States can be cheat
ed; l do not believe they win "acqulesce" in
what they do not want. Ii we carry I'm
partial suffrage by act of Congress In defiance
OF the popular viii, we shall see the act re-
pealed BY Congress which will represent
the popular will.
inlshort, 1 do not want to see, and do not
expect to see party which represents great
principle, commencing itself to the common
sense OF mankind on the score of justice
and fair play, aiming to succeed by unworthy
tricks and perverse Misrepresentation OF
verg clearly written instrument. The Con-
stitution is compact, and its promises were
not made to be explained away but to lie
kept The Republican party is not, as Mr..
Thaddeas Stevens said, few weeks ago,
working outside of the Constitution, > but it
will get the discredit OF at least tying to
evade the Constitution, if 1t does not take
ground decidedly against such revolutionary
projects as that which your contributor urges
with snch show of learning. The Consti-
tution, repeat, is compact, solemn prom
ise, and it is not the part OF honorable men
to begin any work, however worthy, by dis
ayowing or dishonoring pledges which bind
them. a 7fA
II there were any plausible reasons for this
novel Interpretation, the case would be bet
ter, but there are none. NIL Sumner rests
his case on the anti-slavery amendment; but
anybody can see that il the authority to en-
force the abolition of slavery by appropriate
legislation is to be construed as authorizing
Congress to revise the constitutions of Ohio
and Connecticut, it will authorize anything
under the heavens. The Tribune, which has
taken up Mfr. Summers notion, defines the
word Republican" to suit itself, and then ar
gues that Congress isabound. to guarantee
republican" form of government to the. sew
erai States. "Republiean" adopts the same
line of reasoning, If it can be called reason-
ing. To all this there Is a ready answer. The
State governments were regarded by the au-
thors Of the Constitution as republican.
James Madison, whose casual expressions in
the Virginia Convention are wrested from
their natural meaning by ''RepubIican" TO
suit his purposes, has put his opinion on rec
ord in the Federalist in an unmistakable
manner, ne ssys.- - -a.1
by virtue of this constitutional authority. it
Will % OF course bound to pursue the aut thOri-
ty. But this authority extends no farther
than to guaranty OF q republican form OF
government, aohich sapp0ses a PRE- EXISTING
government Of the form iohich is to be o,iaroa-
tsed. As long, therefore, as the EXISTING re-
publican forms are continued by the States
hnev are guaranteed by the Federal Constit TN
tion.--1he federaiist, No. 43. -
Language could not be framed to express
more positively the belief of Madison and hi,
associates, that the States they represented
were republican, yet in two OF those States, as
you have pointed out, freemen born upon the
soil were net permitted to vote because they
were black. 1t follows as matter of course
that Madison did not regard this circumstance
as affecting the republican character OF their
governments, and yet Republican" says the
construction he gives to the constitution "is
the one that was given by Mr.. Madison, Col
Hamilton and other leading men OF THEN
time"
unfortunate than the citation of Madison's
authority. Hamilton was Federalist, but he
was not such Federalist as to believe thai
the definition of the right OF suffrage ought to
be left "open to the occasional regulation o
Congress" Republican" quotes at length
from Hamilton's paper No. SO, in the Federal
ist, and misconceives and misinterprets it in
the most astonishing fashion. Hamilton i,
writing about the provision authorizing Con
gress to regulate "the time, place and man
ner" Of electing its own members. The whole
passage quoted by Republican" treats these
regulations as matter of ordinary legsla-
tion, which ,,must have been lodged wholly in
the national legislature, or wholly 10 the
State Legislatures, or primarily in the latter
and ultimately In the former" Now as every
body knows and agrees that the definition ol
the right OF suffrage was hot left in the first
instance to the State legislatures but fixed in
the State constitutions, it is plain enough that
whatever Hamilton may have been talking
about it was not the regulation of suffrage
To make assurance doubly sure, let us read
on, beginning at the very point where ''Re-
publican" for reasons OF his own, leaves off:
Suppose an article had been introduced into
the Constitution, empowering the United
States to regulate the elections for the partic-
ular States, would any man hesitate to con-
denim 1t, both as an unwarrantable tran5poS-
ton OF power, and as a premeditated engine
tor the destruction of the State governments? ?
The Federdiist, No. 50.
In view of these words, one of two admis
sions must be made even by Republican: !"
either Hamilton was writing of regulating the
elections simply, without thinking of the
right Of suffrage at all, or else he here dis
tnctly says that the United States have no
authority to regulate the suffrage for the par
ticular States. Either alternative Is fatal te
Republicans" argument, and equally fatal I,
his reputation as constitutional LAWYER Rn
l have not yet done with him. In the next
r,,,v, hor II M attk,..