The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1867-10-04
IFrom the New York Evening Post.l
The Fairness Of UnIversnI SuE-
fringe.

frnge.
Various side issues have been 30 persist
entity pressed upon the public attention,
that the main question involved in the Con.
gressional plan Of reconstruction has al.
most entirely escaped discussion. That
main question is the question of general
suffrage.
The Epenino Post. as its readers know,
has always urged and demanded that all
citizens of proper age should vote. thas
always held that thus only can the will OF
the people, the sense OF tho country, be as
certained; thus ouly can we maintain peace;
for il is only when met have no hope of
bringing their grievances. real Or iancied,
before the community, at the polls. and by
their representatives in the legislative
body, that they resort to violence, Ere.
quent elections are the safety valves Of the
republican system; but they cease to act il
only part Of the people is allowed to
elect, and a part excluded from the polls.
There has been scme talk of a war Of
races in the Southern States; but the only
way to bring on q war Ot races Is to per
manently exclude the blacks from the polls.
Ii such a measure were announced and car
RED into operation, we should certainly
expect to see il result in a war of races -
uhlesS pedCSdUlo oSiNatOu ShONh@ iSNV'SN
the policy. .r
We have often enough discussed the
principle which makes general suffrage
Just and expedient safe and necessary, in
free country We mean to-day tn call at
tention to another side of the questionable
pur, " political aspect. 1t is generally said
that the blacks in the Southern States will
vote the Republican ticket Thereupon,
the Dcmoc; attic leaders those States, and
| elsewhere, oppose what they call negro
suifrar e-that is to say, they demand the
excl sion from the polls of the great mass
of tue Republican voters in ten S at 9.
Is there not such manifest mfairness
| n this as should make the Democrats
ashamed2 Ii may eeem to them short
and easy road to political success, to drive
| from the polls those who would vote
against them but how would it look to
them if the Repul ca g should attempt to
exclude from the polls all the Democrats ?
How does it look to them in Tennessee
| In Tenne ssee persons who engaged in the
rebellion have been DISTINGUISHED. They
make up a considerable part of the popula-
| tion though by no means majority. To
deprive of political privileges those who
have been actively engaged III attempts to
destroy the government cannot be SAID to
he unjust though we have repeatedly de-
clared our belief that exclusion, to the ex.
tent practioed in Tennessee lis inexpedle mt,
aud many of the ablest Tennessee Repuhi'
cans believe with us on this point. But
the Democratic journals and speakers in
cessautly and bitterly complain OF this ex-
| tlusion, denouuce it as unfair, and even
COUNSEL violent resistance,
| But surely the tl1ims of the colored Re,
al,
stronger than those ot the white Democrats
in Tennessee. The blacks beiriended our
s i licrs wherever they could they served
drcds of ways, actively; zealously, at great
personal risk; thousands of them fought in
the Union armies and the Nhols colored
population, with insignificant exceptions, is
friendly to the Union. The persons ex'
cluded in Tennessee on the contrary were
enemies of the Union duriug the late war;
aud by their acts as public enemies may
be held TO have justly forfeited their po-
liIical privileges. ....., .I..
lts odd to find the Democratic journals
protesting against the exclusion OF their
i partizlns in TeHnessee, in the face OF the
no ,rious act that these We're during the
war public enemies; and yet demanding
the exclusion, III all the States, of q very
much more numerous class to whom nc
such fault attaches. n ban
Whatever the prejudices or motives
which induce the opposition to the Con-
gresslonal plan, of reconstruction, the, prac
tical question at issue in the Southern
States s., whether the great mass of Re
puplicans shall be excluded from the polls
Now, the Democi as ought to consider tina
a party which has actual possession OF thu
country, which has SO great a majority il
Congress thatits opnonents there are quite
at its mercy, which has all the yigor OF {
yourg and successful party, aud all the
i popl lar sympathy sure to accrue to a party
which has carried OH great aud success
full war-such party isnot likely to suffer
its adhee lis in ten great States 10 he un
Justly driven from the polls. 1t is no
likely to submit to so great loss and in
dignity. And it is strengthened by tht
fact that in demanding justice for itself !
asserts a sound principle, and seeks JUS
tice and security for several millions oil re-
Gently enslayed people. "a ~
Mr.. johnson who is as tenacious in lii
opposition to general suffrage as though
he dil not belong to Class OF whites ii
the South which woHlbhave been promptly
excluded from the polls had Davis and hil
fellows succeeded in, ,estAblishing their con
federacy- Mr.. Johnson is fond of saying
that if the people Of the Southern States
were not excluded, he,woud. have major
ity of the people on his9 side.y But, wher
ne SAYS people, he means only tlTe Dem
ucratic party IN, ths Southern statess But
if excluded votes are to be couuted, we
must count all-n0l part only; and il
that case he would tind, we suspeet, thai
the majority would yet remain very large
agair st him srua a,
Those eminent publicists. Vallandgham
and his own " peculiar trepd," Pendleton
are instruoting the public, in Ohio, and all
over the coutry. in what they call Demo
cratic doctrine" which is, as one OF their
western opponents remarked, "about as
much like real democratic doctrine as forty
rod whisky, made up OF equal parts OF
strychnne and tobacco juice is like genu'
inc Bourbon" If these persons speak by
authOrity-and we hear no disclaimers
! II is democratio doctrine in these days
to oppose negro suffrage and advocate re-
pudiation of the national debt. 1t is hardly
worth while 10 waste breath on such g doc
trine as this; those who utter il show that
they have learned nothing since they re
solved at Chicago that the war was fail
ure, and that the Union ought to beg for
mercy from the rebels. Ph
Not Competent.
Judge Thurman, Democratic candidate
for Governor OF Ohio, in speech recently
| in Portsmouth took occasion to cast slnT