The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-10-02
SUFFRAGE.


vocated negro suffrage" The ARGUS nerer |
advocated negro sufrage"-it advocated
Impartial suffrage j. e. rule which shall |
apply to all men alike; not universal, Tor |
that admits the ignorant the criminal, the
debased, and the panper- Migrants to an |
equal voice with good and intelligent citi-
zens and those who have an interest in the
preservation of our institutions. The Mas
sachusetts system is a very good one, and it
is Impartial" We thinks it admits to the
right of suffrage all male citizens over Fl
years of age, who can read and write and
who have paid a tax the year they offer to
vote, That is Impartial" Amy system
which restricts suffrage to such persons as
are capable of properly exercising it, and
which applies to all, alike, regardless of color
or nationality, is Impartial" The ARGUS
does not pretend to say definitely what that
system should sbe-but whatever it is it
should be impartial"
The ARGUS does not feel under the slight
est Obligations to furnish brains for Jaeobin
editors who cannot understand what it advo-
Gates, but it cannot permit them to continu-
ally misrepresent it without exposing the ig-
norance or dishonesty of those who do so.
We appreciate the anxious desire of the
Jacobin Rock Island & Moline Union to
'fhold up the ARGus as model of copper
head consistency" and will aid the very able
editors of that sheet in their efforts. The
editor of the ARGUS has taken no step back
wards upon the question which troubles the
Jacobin editors over the way, and we refer
them to our files for our views moro in ex-
tense. If they have not file of our paper,
they can come to our sanctum and use ours.
We really think the Jacobin editors of the
Union are candid when they say they need
light ON this subject of suffrage. Amy news
paper which claims that the question of
suffrage is both national and Estate
question is sadly in want of information.
We say the question is purely, only and sole
ly state question, for each state to regulate
as 1t pleases, and that the United States gov
ernment has nothing more to do with it than
it has with laying out road In Canoe Greek.
ais it not matter of profound qualification
that we belong to political party that never
gave traitor TO the ranks of the country's enc
mics, never fred upon the dear old flag, never
sent one shot into the bosoms ofits defenders,
shed one drop of loyal blood ?'-Seaator Wilson,
at the radical state coarention, at Worcester.
The senator would take to the credit of
his party what belongs to the credit of the
people as body, above and beyond all par
ty lines. tits not an easy thing to choose
language fit to characterize the spirit of such
an imputation. 1t certainly comes with an
~ ill-grace from the man who put himself at
the head of two regiments, and threw up his
command the moment they were ordered
away to perilous service in the field. IT was
not essential in the least that he should be
a civil war the population is divided, one
part against the other, and that there must OF
necessity be men in rebellion who once be-
longed to a party that in the final crisis OPP
posed them. 1t is no discredit to the dem
ocratic party of the Union that it had large
share of it's adherents, and many of its
ablest men in the southern states. On the
contrary, it is convincing proof that the
radical party never was and never can be a
true union party, that it never controlled a
vote in the whole south. That is all Mr..
Wilson can make out of that.
As for ''fring on the dear old flag he
taught the south contempt for it himself at
that abolition picnic at birmingham, on the
natal day oc American freedom, when he
heard Mr.. Garrison congratulate the Assem-
bly, that no stars and stripes foated above
their heads, yet opened not his lips in pro
test. Southern senators brought this treas
enable fact home to him on his return to
Washington, on the floor of the senate
That is all he will make out of the"dear old
flag" he once trampled on in scorn.
As for never Shedding one drop of loyal
blood" why were not tens of thousands Of
precious lives saved by closing the war al
least two years earlier, as might have beer
done? What cared he and his party leaders
for loyal blood in comparison with bull
ding up party power? Why were more thar
eleven thousand Union prisoners suffered tt
languish and die at Andersonville and else
where, when Secretary Stanton had it in hi
power at any time to exchange them2 Fo
what reason did the New York Times cal
for some one to usurp the office of Presiden
Lincoln, except because the war was waget
SO sluggishly,-that is, for political rathe
than patriotic purposes? If it was Mr.. vii
sons party that carried on the war, how di
it happen that the democrats and union mel
of New Yark carried the state in the secont
year of its progress, on the distinct issue o
its early and decisive conclusion? In fine
on Mr.. Wilson's theory, what sent Creole,
to the frontier to treat with rebel agents
What inpelled him topropose that we should
give it up if victory was not secure at the enc
of three. months? And, in the name O
srf"loyalty,' =, what led him to enroll his nam.
81 at the top Of the bail bond of the man VIII.
s. represented and personifed the rebellion I
/. How does Mr.. Wilson explain the fact tina
q leading man in his own party offered bal
for the individual whom it held publicly re
sponsible for every "shot fred into the bos
SONS" of the old flags defenders, and to-
every "drop Of loyal blood ,that was shec
during the war; These radical, assump
q tions challeaee exalniAasion, and they Nare
to receive Tin the future ,until theyand those