Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-25
The journal ON the Negro Suffrage
ssSituarfOu.o

The journal ON the Negro Suffrage
s'SitualiOn." =
The Journal OF yesterday has as its leader
q review of "The Situation" of the negro
suffrage party, from the Radical sta nd
conclusion, that work remains to be done,
"much hard work, or both Ticket and prin-
ciples will be overwhelmed" That the
party of negro suffrage will be overwhelm-
ed, we have no doubt. The leaders have
no faith In the success of their Ticket, and
without faith their work will be of no avail.
We copy the following:
"Nothing of party principle has been
changed by the Convention, and no new
position has been taken. For the past half
year it has been apparent to every one, ex-
cepting the political bats and owls of the
party, that will ever persist in lowering in
the twilight of obsolete ideas, that we must
take decided stand in the platform on the
great distinctive principles of the party, as
laid down by Congressional and Legislative
action"
Nothing of party principle has been
changed by the Convention and no new po-
sition has been taken" This in the face of
the fact that Negro Suffrage has now for
the first time been boldly avowed. And
too, in the face of the other fact that the
leaders of the party, of which the Journal
is the exponent, denied with vehemence
two years ago. that it was, or ever could be
Negro Suffrage party. If the Journal is
to be believed now, for years its leaders
have been working with an eye almost sim
gle to this new darling measure, and that
their former denials were made because
they were not then ready to avow the fact.
Shame upon party that will so unblush-
ingly own to its former falsehoods, uttered
to deceive its party friends.
The effort Is made to drive all the Re-
publican organizations into Negro Suffrage,
and in doing its part, the Journal says:
"a few Union men think now that they
will not vote for the amendment, but their
opinions will be modified by the progress
i've heat of the campaign, and the number
so refusing to vote when the election day
comes, will be so Insignificant as to be only
ridiculous, and in another year it will be
impossible to find man who will ackncwl-
edge that he voted against the amendment"
There is it, look at 1t. All Republicans
are expected to swallow the negro who
vote the Ticket. And The Journal is right.
The African is now out of the woodpile.
The platform is made of him-he is the
only principle that is left, the candidates
from Governor down run upon his merits
and upon his strength, and he who votes
unworthy the party, its platform and its
principles. There is much truth in this
mode of reasoning. All on the Ticket are
in favor of negro voting-that principle is
engrafted on the platform and he who
makes two bites of the cherry-refusing to
vote for the negro when he votes for his
worshippers, really strains at the gnat and
swallows the camel.
The other reasoning of the Journal is
bad, for it is contradictory. AS specimen
bricks of the utter confusion of ideas, we
submit the following:
"When the ballot is placed in the hands
of the freedmen in the rebel States, and
with the concurrence of the rebel leaders,
it must satisfy the most stupid conserva-
tive that there i no longer anything to be
gained by refusing the same right in Ohio.
For this reason zoe may eIpect respectable
Democratic Uote for the amendment.
True as this statement of Democratic
decentralization may be we must not pre-
sumo too much on it, nor calculate there
from that that party entertains the least
intention of abandoning the contest with
out struggle. On the contrary, they ,0ilI
the election, eoeu EnOIoig that aoith the negroes
e1franchised their last hope of success disdp-
pears. 1t IoiU be u fight as for their Uery erist-
ence, and every appliance of corrupt politi-
cal intrigue and chicanery will be brought
forward"
In the interval of writing the above the
editor must have refreshed himself with
more thor sZasei Laoers.n Its argument is
this, and we give it in the editors own
words, only ttansposing one of his sem
tences. The Democratic party twill wage
a most desperate combat from now until
the election, well knowing that aoith the
negro er,fTdnchisement their last hope of success
disappears" "For this reason zoe may expect
a respectable Democratic vote for the amend
nsent," which gives negroes the right of
voting. If that is not Journal logic, worthy
of its author and its cause, it would be diff
cult to find an appropriate name for it.
The same confusion of ideas prevails
closes as follows:
''The indications of success are every
where manifest and encouraging, and we
look forward with confidence to this as
the closing campaign OF the great rebel
lion."
..Courase,' he said, and pointed toward the land,
This mOuutain wave will roll us shoreward soon.'"
1t must be highly encouraging for the
Journal when its only hope is that some
mountain wave, much more likely to
engulph than to save, will roll the negro
suffrage party shoreward. When such
waves sweep vessels shoreward, 1t is gen
orally all day with them; and so is it with
the Journal and its crew.