Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-09-11
Know-Nothinri.m Radivivu,.

from the speeches of various leaders we
find in the Cleveland Plaindealer. We
republish them for information and refer
ence. The Piaindedler says:
General Lee, the radical candidate for
Lieutenant Governor, in his speech at
Columbus, Ohio held the following Ian
guage;
But ! will reply 10 the allegation that
the negro is unfit for the ballot on ac-
count of his ignorance | submit, fell
low.citizens, whether the black man is
not better fitted for the ballot than the
same number of white men who could
be found in Ohio"
-Again, more recently, in Mansfield,
at Miller's Hall, this same General Lee
said
Are there not men who cast their
votes in Richmond county less compe-
tent by want of intelligence than some of
your black men in tho county2 1t is so
all over the State | here make the
assertion that the 1900 men of twenty
one years of age in Ohio, with black
blood, are better qualified by reason of
intelligence to vote than there are 1900
white men in different parts of the State
many times told. So that plea will not
answer"
Benjamin T. Wade, at present Senator
from Ohio, and a candidate for re.elec-
ton, said, in his recent speech at
Marietta, Ohio, contrasting foreigners
with negroes:
As a mass, in my judgment, they
(the negroes) are better qualified to dis
charge their duties than the great mass,
equal to them in numbers, that we have
always permitted to vote ~
One W. G. Mcfarland, lawyer of
Cleveland in recent speech at Akron,
Ohio, is reported to have said:
1t is especially necessary to have the
get into power, and as all the Pennsyl.
vania Dutch were Democrats, he wanted
the negro to put them down. He also
said that he could not see why the negro,
who was born in this country, could not
have vote as well as the Germans and
Irish, whow were foreigners
John Sherman followed Mcfarland at
the same place, and declared, in sub
stance, that the negro was as good as
the foreigner who was entitled to vote"
Judge Spalding said at the same place
and time that he would not 90 in for the
social equality Of the negro that he
would not permit a negro to come into
his bed room, neither would he permit an
Irishman or Dutchman to come in. "
The Newark (0.) american, two
months ago, in advocating negro suf-
frsge, said
"As a class, we believe that the me-
groes Of Ohio have more intelligence,
and are better qualified to exercise the
functions of electors, than the great
mass of voting cattle attached to the
Democratic party" i"
The Cleveland Herald, according to
the Statesman, has held the following
language:
1--WE unhesitatingly aver that seven
tenths of the foreigners in our land, who
bow in obedience to the Pope of Rome,
are not as intelligent as the full -blooded
Africans of our States-we will not in.
clude the part bloods. Yet, should
move be made to eurtail the naturaliza-
ton laws, even to extending residence
of the most illiterate, ignorant foreigner
that lands on our shores, such a din
would be raised by the Democrats as
would deafen the State.
The New York Tribune, in comment
ing upon certain localities in Ohio,
where negro suffrage is unpopular, de-
clares that counties, such as Richland,
Holmes, Seneca, Crawford, Wayne, Stark,
Ashland, etc, are settled by "a school
hating, rum-loving breed of Pennsylva-
MIA Dutch.
James NJ. Ashley, Radical member
Of Congress, at its recent session, sub
mitted an amendment to the Constitu-
ton Of the United States, containing a
provision that all who shall be natural
lied, after certain period, shall be re.
quired to read and write the English
language as a qualification to vote.
Such Radicals as Ashley are willing to
receive the ballot of the most ignorant,
besotted and degraded negro feld-hand
of the South who has no idea of written
law or Constitution, bat the Frenchman,
Welchman, German, Poander, aud i0hitS
foreigner is to be prohibited from eXsr-
cising the elective franchise unless he
can read and write our language. The
negro, in the eyes of the Radical leaders,
is superior to the Germans and Irish be-
cause they vote with them.
The Coshocton Age, the organ of the
Radical party Of Coshocton county,
speaking of the Constitutional Amend
ment, says:
"The most strenuous opposition pro-
ceeds from that illiterate gang of Demo
cratic cattle whose ideas of civilization
are as vague and uncertain as Morgan's
loyalty These things in the form of
men, cry out against negro equality, well
knowing that with little encouragement
the colored man would excel, in morals
and virtue, nine-tenths of the disloyal
Dutch and Irish composing the copper
head disloyal party.
0ne'6 our Pennsylvania exchanges,
the Erie O6serUer, asserts and dares a
denial of its allegation, that but a short
time since, an eminent Pennsylvania
Radical, no less a person than exGov
Curtin, made use of the following Ian
guage:
"a Dutchman is not like another per
son; he has two skulls, and in order to
get an idea into his head, you must break
one of his skulls"
Last spring when the Radical Ger
mans voted for Stephen Buhrer, the
Democratic candidate for Mayor, the
most bitter attacks we're made upon the |
Dutch because Of their social customs"
The Cleveland Leader, about the last Of |
September, 1865, speaking Of the Fenian
stigmatized the Irish people |
as Ignorant, besotted, poverty stricken, |
bigoted, without the necessary intelli-
gence or experience for organizing a
DHAEn"