The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-19

We have thus demonstrated that the Con-
gressional plan of reoonstruOtion is not moon
sistent with allowing each State to regulate
the elective franchise for itself and we now
proceed briefly TO show that negro suffrage in
the Rebel communities, and in the loyal States
of the Union, stands upon essentially different
grounds. In the North, it is mere question
Of justice to few oolored citizens who are de-
prived ola right; in the South, it is not only a
question Of justice to millions of citizens, but
it is question of national safety and Of the
perpetuity of the Union.- There must be
loyal element at the South to balance the dis
loyal element, or there is no sufficient guar.
antee Of the future safety and peace of the
country. To reorganize the Rebel communi-
ties upon an exclusively white basis is to re-
organize them upon an exclusively Rebel
basis. To confer the vast powers of States in
the Union upon Rebels, intensely hostile as
the mass Of them are, and ever will be- to the
Union, is deliberately to invoke another war
and to pave the way for national disaster and
possible overthrow. Such step involves the
giving to the 291, 300 Rebels of South Carolina
an equal power in the Senate of the United
States with the three and half millions of
loyal citizens of Pennsylvania 1t puts the
$4,000 Rebels Of Florida on par with the four
and half millions Of loyal citizens of New
York 1t gives the 357, 456 Rebels of Louis
lana as much power as the two and half mil
lions of loyal citizens of Ohio Now, there is
no escaping this result except in balancing the
disloyal element at the South by the loyal
element, and that element is the colored citi-
zens. The blacks are attached to the Union
by the strongest of all possible ties. 1t is to
them the synonym of freedom, of education, of
moral and physical elevation, of enfranchised
and ennobled manhood. They are loyal by
an instructive necessity, as strong as life
itself. They are the only loyal element at the
South upon which the nation can rely. Hence,
we say that negro suffrage in the South stands
upon an altogether different footing from
negro suffrage in the North. The exclusion Of
the negro from the balot-box in Ohio may be
unjust, but it involves no national peril,
except in that wide sense in which all injus-
tice is perilous. But the exclusion of the
negro from the ballot-box in South Carolina
involves a national danger of the gravest
character. 1t means the creation of a disloyal
State, to cast an equal vote in the Senate with
any other State, and to WELD the vast and
uncomfortable powers of State in opposition
to the peace and life of the nation. Negro
suffrage in Minnesota, which has just adopted
that measure, means justice to perhaps FIVE
hundred citizens, but it docs not change the
essential character of the State. Negro suf-
frage in Louisiana means justice to fifty
thousand citizens, and a loyal State true to
the Union. Negro suffrage at the North is
justice; at the South it is justice plus national
safety.
Hence, we maintain that it would require
vastly more than the result of the recent cleo
tions to justify Congress in abandoning the
present plan of reconstruction. We refuse to
recognize the vote of Ohio or of Kansas against
negro suffrage in those States as a vote in
favor of Rebel supremacy in South Carolina and
Mississippi. We have not the slightest doubt
that upon the naked question of the Congress
sional plan of reconstruction, as opposed to
the Johnsonian or Democratic plan, every
Northern State would 60 for the Congressional
plan by overwhelming majoriIes. The true
question is not negro suffrage at the North,
or negro exclusion at the South, but negro
suffrage or Rebel supremacy in the South; and
upon that question a vast majority of the loyal
people of the North are in favor of negro suf-
frage at the South.