The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-18

Reconstruction and the Right Ofsuhrage
SoER persons seem 10 suppose that the Oon-
Kressional plan Of reconstruotion, WHOM -
now being worked out with such favorable
LIE. a. tba lats Rebel communities, is In
o.,.,..o,,, NTH the idea Of allowing each State
- roo,,lata the subject Of suffrage for ITSELF
We hear and read great deal OF vapid de-
rnnoiation of Congress for forcing negro suf-
fraee upon the Rebel States. All this is very
wide of the truth. The Congressional plan Of
reconstruction is not in the slightest degree
inconsistent with allowing each State to regu-
late the suffrage for itself, as it may see fit.
Congress, in the work of reconstruction, is
not dealing wah States. 1t is dealing with COM
munities which were once States, but which
lost their Governments through revolution. II
is enabling the people of those communities to
reorganize themselves into States. To do this It
is necessary, as starting point, to determine
achat persons in each community shall take a
part in the proposed work, or, in other words,
who shall exercise the right of suffrage. Now,
what rule shall Congress go by9 All the
native-born or naturalized people of these COM
munities are citizens of the United States.
How shall Congress discriminate between
themH By what right shall it select one and
exclude anotherS By what right shall it
exclude any citizen? If it select a por-
tion of the people, and commit to them the
political power in organizing the new State, to
the exclusion of others, it poisons the very
fountain-head of the State with the pollution
of olgarchy. 1t is manifest there is but one
equitable and safe rule to go by, and that is to
admit to the ballot-box every citizen of the
United States. Congress has no more right to
exclude the blacks than it would have to ex-
clude the whites. It can know neither black
nor white. The Constitution knows no such
distinctions. 1t can only recognize citizens.
Any one can see that this is not forcing either
negro suffrage or white suffrage upon States.
It is merely establishing the political COM
munity, in its earliest stages, according to
the only constitutional and equitable rule by
which Congress can act. How these oommu-
mites, after they shall have organized them
selves into States and shall have been admitted
into the Union, will regulate the matter Of
suffrage, is altogether unknown. That is a
matter beyond the purview of Congress, and
with which it does not attempt to interfere.
When, therefore, Congress is charged with
forcing negro suffrage upon States, the charge
is false. When it is charged with interfering
with the right of suffrage in the States, the
charge is also false. Congress is enabling the
people of the Southern communities to
organize themselves into States, and in so
doing it adopts the only constitutional rule of
suffrage it could adopt to regulate their
action until they become States. After that,
Congress does not attempt to interfere with
them. The fundamental fallacy of the con-
servatives oonsists in calling ,l-AoreN-,zed
munities, without State governments, and
without status in the Union, States. They
are not States. They have none of the rights
of States; and every argument that assumes
them to be States ignores the entire history of
the past six years, and is built upon f"llacy
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