New-York tribune., 1867-04-08
THE DJrISIOy or THE NEGRo TOTE.


THE DITISION or THE NEGRO TOTE.
To divide the negro vote is already the one
great object of ex-Rebel politicians and unless
they succeed, the Republican party will prob
ably carry every Southern State. As nearly
every Rebel officer or journal advising submls-
sion 10 the law does so upon these grounds
first, that resistance would be useless second,
that il gives the South the chance Of regaining
the control of the Government-they are not
likely TO accept what they consider its evils,
without trying to make che most OF It's Oppor-
tunities.
The experiment will be first made III Iennes-
see, which holds an election for Governor ana
Congressman August /. The Franchise law
uassed Mt the late session of the Republican
Legislature gave the right OF voting to
thr colored men, and deprived Of It those per
3ons who had fought in the Rebel armies. In
1855 the total vote in the State for members oil
! Congress was 6l,is3, OF which 39,JO9 illegal
votes were threwn out. The rigid exclusion OF
Rebels bv the present electoral laws should Sc
! cure Republican majority o. white voters, Snd
the only hope Of the Democratic party l. IN
the $4,000 colored voters the State is supposed
TO contain. The hope is poor one, but 1he
most is made of it, The Democrats dlus estI-
m9te its division: Radical negro vote, $4,000;
| Conservative negro vote $4,000; and, claiming
a Conservative white majority of 10000, an
nounce that they can carry the State 10y oDOO
majority. On the other hand, the Radl-
cals affirm trat all the efforts OF the
Democrats will not obtain more than one-thlrd
of the colored vote As no general election
| has been held in Tennessee since 1860, and
new issues have since arisen, there Is no basis
for more exact calculation. The Democrats eX-
pcet to get tl.eir negro woes from the country
where the farm hands are employed by dis
! franchised pihaters, and are removed irom
the influence of itinerans Yankees They are
already begging votes of the men whom not
three months ago they declared unht TO be
| citizens. "rhere is really no difference in IN
"tcrest between the blacks and whites re-
"specting good goCenment,' says me
Nashville Dispatch of the 3D. adding
with astonishing GOODNESS, that " those
"who opposed negro suffrage did not do so 10
opprcss him. bHt t0 secure 10 hem, rs well as so
themselves, Il government fairly and honestly
administered" They have found Il dozen
coored men stupid enough TO forgive such an
insult. and colored meeting was called at
| Nashville on Saturday to elect delegates 10 the
Conservative Convention of April IL. Al
Chattanooga 500 blacks and whites, 1t Is SAID,
held Conservative meeting and denounced
| Brownlow. Itmay he so. but colored Democrats
are still the rarest of all political cmioStics. Ar
the same time that some OF the Democrats ale
busy in the gigantic work of convincing the
negroes that their best friends are the men
who fought to the last against the Franchise
law, other Democrats are prOclaiming that
Slavery still exists. Mr.. Peden of Giles
County has returned to the Assessor, in the
list of his property, two negro men, claim
inc that he owns them, and that all laws TO
the contrary are unconstitutional and void.
Bnt the party leaders are shrewder, and though
we don't believe the story that they intend TO
nominate a colored man for Governor, against
MIR. BrownlOw, they have already sought TO
undermine his popularity with the negroes, 10y
dragging up his pro-Slavery speeches before
the war.
In South Carolina, Gov. Or declares that
Congress made mistake when it gave the bal
lot to the colored man, yet wants the colofed
man to vote against Congress and with Gov.
Orr He bids them remember that New-Jersey,
Ohio, and Michigan have recently resolved that
colored men in those States shall not vote.
But what of that? The party who believe
with Gov. Orr that impartial suffrage is mis-
take defeated it, and we hope that in his next
speech he will honestly tell the colored
men that the Republicans of OHIO have
at last tliumphed, and that their Leg
islature has passed bill for manhood
suffrage in the State. The Inconsistencies of
the North are not the fault of our party but OF
his. Col. Fitch, who addressed the great meet
ing held in Savannah last week, patronized the
negroes, and told them "to suspect those
whites who tell you that You are their equals"
This kind of electioneering begins with bully
ing and contempt; It will end IN ab-
ject sycOphancy. James Simms, who spoke
for the colored men, politely informed
the whites represented by Col. Fitch
that they knew nothing Of his race. The
colored men would vote only fox uied aud tge