The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1867-06-13
Manhood SUTrage-HOW
Works i'm Dracfice.

fears as to the practical results Of the
colored men voting,-that it might
lead to disturbances, breaches of the
peace, and even .bloodshed, we hope
the facts stated in regard to the late
elections in Georgetown and Washing
ton City, will dissipato all such
| groundless apprehensions.
The editor of the Journal, Gen.
Comfy, states that he was present last
January in the House of Representa-
tives, when the bill passed comforting
the right of suffrage on the colored
citizens Of the District. After describ-
ing the joy of the spectators belonging
to the newly enfranchised race, he
says:
An acquaintance near by where we
sat ventured the prediction thatsno
negro would ever live to cast his bal
lot under that law, and that the
streets of the city would run blood
before it could be enforced. A chival-
rous old gentleman in the gallery,
with a queue and rufled shirt, call Of
| the Olden time" terrOr-stricken at the
act Just passed, rolled his eyes, elevated
! his hands, and exclaimed in most lu-
gubrious tones "Ohl my God my
! country ~ Copperheads sat in silent
/ terror, as if awaiting the "crack of
doom, which they dated on the 25th
of the following month, when the
municipal election in Georgetown
would be held. Everywhere on the
streets, in the saloons and hotels, in
the lobbies, despite the bitter cold
weather and the driving snow, the
opinion was freely expressed that the
peace Of the city was destroyed, and
the new law was denounced as, an un-
mitigated outrage, which would be re-
sisted to'the DEATH
Well, all this happened five months
ago, and in the meantime two cleo
tions have been held under the law,
vet no blood has been shed-no right
has been trampled upOn-nO property
has been desrOyed-the peace has not
been disturbed, and the two cities are
safer, more pleasant, and better gov
erned to-day than at any previous
period in their history. Bear in
mind also, that the enfranchisement Of
the blacks in the District, unlike a
similar act in Ohio, where they are
numerically weak, has changed at
single election the entire political COM
.pleXicn of both cities, and. given the
political power to that party that has !
heretofore been small minority.
The destruction threatened five
months ago, was, to follow the mere
voting Of the black men what would |
have been threatened in view Of a
sweeping victory through these votes
the world will never know, for'it was
not then even dreamed of.
We desire to call the attention Of |
the voters of Ohio to these, elections |
and ask them to profit by the lesson |
therein so plainly taught. The first |
elections in which the freedmen vote
are peculiarly interesting to our peo- /
pie at this time, and they have shown
with great distinctness two things
that the colOred man is intelligent
enough to distinguish his true friends,
and possesses the independence to
vote accordingly. The fearful results
that were to follow their enfranchise-
ment, on account of their besOtted
ignorance, is nowhere apparent, and
the idea that they would be controlled
by their old employers is most effect
uaIly exploded. On the whole, the
result is a complete vindication of the
action of Congress, and is doing the
work of the friends Of equal rights in
Ohio and elsewhere as nothing else
could do it.
Can our people see nothing in this
result to decide their action at the
next election in this State? One by
one every Copperhead argument falls
to the ground. A little while ago and
it was a s'war of races ''the dan
ger to the public peace from the ignOr-
1nco of the blacks'-then the taunt
that if we did "enfranchise the black
man the Copperhead would soon buy
his vote, and so on for quantity; but
these arc annihilated, and they have
nothing left to fight on but the putrid
old cry Of 'nigger equality" and
To these vaporings
we cannot call them arguments-we
cannot do better than quote Greeley's
reply to a man who accosted him at
Wizards thus: "Give the niggcrs
votes, would YOU? Make them your
equals, would you? Let niger
marry your daughter, would youT /
70 which Greeley replied: "My |
friend. if the right Of suffrage be re-
stricted to those to whom 1 would
give my daughter, there would be
very few voters, and you would not
be one Of them"
The enactment Of impartial suffrage
is but one of a series Of measures
necessary to secure the
fruits of our victory over the rebel
lion. When this shall become fixed
beyond recall, and the freedmen edu-
Gated up to a full appreciation Of their
privileges and protected in their en-
ioymcnt; when the last fang Of the
traitors shall be extracted, and the
late rebel States become as devoted to
equal rights as they formerly were to
tyranny; when free labor shall be
honored and protected, and we learn
to value man, not by his color, but by
his behavior, then history may put up
her spy-gIass, saying, ike the Iron
Duke at Waterloo, "the field is won,
let the whole line advance