Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-06
CURIOsITIES OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE
IN THE SOUTH.
From the New York Herald

From the New 4 OK herald
The workings of negro suffrage in the
Southern States are exceedingly curious,
and If the parties who have made the right
of the negro 10 vote a part of the law Of
the land had not self-interest at the bottom
of it. they would be heartily ashamed of
the ridiculous results which have accrued,
The latest opportunity which the negroes
had to cast a vote was on the convention
in Louisiana, where they exercised the
franchise for the first time during the past
two days. Their Radical masters are put
TO their wits end to get it into the woolly
heads of their colored allies that the fran
chise is a right TO be exercised, and not a
material thing TO be sold. Many of the
negroes in some of the late Southern cleo
tions brought baskets TO the polls TO carry
home the elective franchise" which their
instructors told them they we're entitled to-
Some of .hem brought bags which they
thought were capacious enough 10 hold the
precious franchise. Hundreds Of them,
who found that the inestimable elective
franchise had no substantial or marketable
form, absolutely refused either 10 register
OF to vote without being paid for it. They
were cunning enough to know that they were
entitled 10 claim pay for the labor which
massa asked them to perform, and they
were not going TO register or to cast vote
without an equivalent in cash. The registry
process was a stumbling block in the Radi-
cal path. A man must have a name to
register, and few of these poor fellows had
a patronymic. Jim, and Tom, and Sambo,
and Cufiee, and Pompey, and Cesar, were
there by the thousand-entirely too numer-
our TO mention but distinctive name not
one in a thousand could boast of; SO
Smiths, Browns Joneses, and Robinsons,
we're supplied dd htifum to get over the
difficulty. This was an easy matter; but
when a rollicking niger came along to the
polls with his basket slung on his arm to
take home his elective franchise" TO
Dinah, here was a fix And Just this fix
occurred in Louisiana. "No money, no
vote" said Sambo. "Where is the elective
franchise you promised MS ?" said Pompey,
iourishing his basket. "Me no vote till |
get that"
Not less ridiculous is the condition of
things all over the South. The negroes in
the mass have no more idea of the pri vi
leges bestowed upon them than so many
cattle; yet Radical madness has made
them masters in the South. A few intelli-
gent colored men in the principal cities of
the South are paraded by Radical poll
ticians az examples of negro intelligence |
but we see by present as by past experince
that they are not types of the race to whom
the government of ten States of the Union |
has been handed over.
At an election in Charleston not long since |
the postofhce boxes were found to be filled |
with ballots deposited by the negroes, who |
had been supplied with them by Radical |
agents, but knew not how to dispose Of |
them better than by dropping into the |
postoffice. To such measure Of intelli- |
gence il is that the afiairs of the South are |
and this the people are asked to
endorse as one Of the most efficient modes /
Of reconstruction, according to the Radical
plan. We are disposed to think that the
American people do not see it
in that light