Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-10-16

5llluLlOn was 10 create 3 gov
eminent for National purposes; and
wherever it forbade the exercise Of q
power by a State, that was done for the
protection Of the citizens Of the other
States.
Certainly the Constitution cannot be
amended 50 as to legalize polygamy, or
snnul the institution Of marriage, or
destroy all ownership Of lands, or make
negroes competent to be jurors and wit
nesses in the Courts Of the States, or to
legalize marriages between them and
whites, or to legitimate children born
bsstsrds, or to establish 8 State religion
or prescribe a particular creed, or change
the laws Of descent, or the rules Of the
commercial or civil law, or to abolish
capital punishment, or deprive the States
Of the power Of creating corporations.
The States did not iuUeSt HreefOu-th8
Of their number wih the po0er Of de-
stroyjHg the sovereignty and iHdepend-
encco Of the rest. 1t was for a long time,
and justly, denied that Congress could
abolish slavery in the District Of Column
bis, without the consent Of Virginia and
Maryland, which had ceded the District
to the Nation: and there is no omnipo-
tent virtue in 81 amendment 10 the Con-
stitUtion, more than in an act Of Con-
gress, that enables it to destroy private
rights OF strip a State Of its p~rerogatives
against its consent.
One thing, be sure, some Of the North
ern States will hoId,-thst negroes can
not be imposed on them IS voters, or
even as citizens, by an amendment Of
the Constitution. The great States will
not agree that their imperial p~rerogatives
Of sovereignty are SO held at the suffer
sucs Of negroes and Of new States that
have proceeded from their loins.
II the right Of amendment is unlim-
tied, it will reach a very long way, and
New England may st no distant day
End it turned against herself. Her
States, more than any others except
Delaware, ought to be jealous Of their
prerogatives, and hold that the Coastitu-
ton cannot be so amended as to destroy
them.
But it is also plain that if the Constitu-
ton could be made efectual, by an
amendment, to destroy slavery, and
make the e~mancipated negroes citizens
Of the United States, it can also be
amended so as to invest them with all
thu privileges Of citizens Of any State in
which they may reside, and to include
the right Of suffrage among those privi-
leges and it is no doubt the general
opinion Of the Northern people that the
right Of suffrage can so be conferred upon
them. Negro-egUality in the South
inevitably makes the negro-States Of the
South the peers aud equals Of the white
States Of the North, in the Senate, in
enscting an amendment to the Consti-
tuition, and in eiecting the President and
Nice-Presideut when there is no choice
by the Electoral Colleges. For negro
equality in that aspect, and amendments
to the Constitution so to be choked down
their throsts, the Northern States are
not quite prepared. They have not
wholly lost their pride Of race and re-
gard for their interests and safety.
We may, therefore, reasonably regard
the vote Of Ohio against negro suffrage
for herself, as a protest against it here.
If the people Of that State will not
accept negroes at home as their equals,
it may fairly be concluded that they
are not willing that negroes shall sit
with their Representatives and Senators
in Congress, and measures odiOus and
injurious to them be carried there by
negro votes. The greater always in
cludes the less. 1t may with the same
reason be fairly concluded that they do
not consent that men elected by negro
votes, and representing negro constitu-
enCies, how white sOever their skins may
be, shall sit ia Congress and enact Jaws
to govern them. The Representative is
no better than his constituency. It sits
there, though black as EREBUs, in his
person. That is the very meaning Of
representation. The representative Of
the negro is to all legal intents the negro
himself.
We give little weight here to the con-
sideration that there must be conscious
ness in the Northern mind Of the mon
strOus unfairuess and meanness Of
imposing on the Southern States a curse
and degradation at which the stomachs
and souls Of the PEOPLE Of the North
revolt. Nevertheless, that must to some
extent operate on 3 few. Nor do we give
much weight TO the consideration that
the Northern people cannot but know
that it is utterly uncertain how the ne
groes viii cote at any election or on any
question hereafter. They are as tickle
and chaugeabIe as the winds, and their
ignorance and stupidity are as dense as
Egyptian darkness. Aiming them with
the ballot is like arming a lunatic with a
deadly weapon. The man who does it is
himself mad, or deserves to be hung. 1t
is q crime Of unparalleled enormity: be-
cause those who do it, the leaders, at
least, are not ignorant Of the Internal
consequences that must result. If there
can be no republicanism without negro
suffrage, then republicanism is itself A
miserable sham. No man has ever seen
a more disgusting spectacle than an cleo
ton at which the negroes outnumbered
the whites and crowded them from the
polls. Until a man has seen that, be
cannot know the in6nitude Of human
folly.
We give little weight, also, to the con-
siderstion that the people Of the North
must be conscious that the instability Of
the Government and the constantly re-
follies and disturbances that
be consequent on negro suffrage,
cannot but operate ~injuriously on the
currency and finances OF the country,
damage the credit Of the Government,
and entail upon the nation the necessity
Of d large standing army and enormous
expenditures. But we DO not doubt the
immense value Of Tennessee in her pres
snt wretehed and shameful condition, as
40 example and q warning. Her fruit
Of folly is indeed ~exhaustless; and
{ is not to be doubted that the people Of
ohio do not wish that ten more States
shall be, like her, the shame and weak
less OF the Uuion.
Neither can we believe that the North
IN people are achOLLy unaffected by the
spectacle Of the fantastic tricks
by SICKLEs, and SHERIDAN and
;CHoFIELD. They must be lost indeed