The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-05-19
COLUMBIA.
Sunday Morning, May 10, 1857
Tho Suffrage Question.

The dominant party in Congress,
in intermeddlipg with q subject with
which they hnve nothing to do in
the States of the Union, have brought
themselves into various troubles,
from which they will find it difficult
to extricate themselves without trou-
BILE, if, indeed, without fatal
blow to their party organization.
We refer to the suffrage question.
For instance, the radical Senator
from Connecticut. in explaining the
defeat of his party in that State, says:
"The vote of tho Republicans was
larger than that of last year. The
Democratic vote WINS increased by
the naturalized voto. Owing to this
cause, the Republicans always had
hard battle to fight. They must win
acoessions of Americans reared in
their schools and churches, while the
ignorance and superstition of the Old
World are poured into the ranks of
the party with which his colleague
was proud to affiliate"
"The ignorance and superstition of
the Old World" appear to be q terri
ble bugbear in the eyos of that party
which had no. hesitation in forcing
the ignorance and superstition of
the New World, through tho right
and privilege Of suffrage, upon ten
States. of the Union, and this, too,
without that training which should
have stood equivalent to the probat-
ing term of the foreign article. But
in the former case, they find that the
"naturalized vote' goes against their
policy, while in the latter, they felt
certain that the newly created voters
here, in m excess Of gratitude, would
rush to their support. This is the
difference, and fully accounts for the
obliquity Of vision which would de-
nounce foreign ignorance and super
stition, aftor five years probationary
purgation, while it cxalts Immediate
ly an untaught and unenligutened
far worse article ut home into the
high places of manhood suffrage.
Should it suit their party purposes,
or if they find that the naturalized
vote stands in the way of their sue
cess, they will even dare to disfran-
chise the foreign whites. At tho same
time, should they find that the newly
made American voters will not sustain
them, and that they cannot win these
"accessions of Americans reared in
their schools and colleges, they will
not hesitate to strike down that bar
rier to..success, just as promptly as
they unwittingly reared it for an
opposite purpose. If they find they
cannot band the vote of the freedmen
to their own party purposes, they
would, if they had the power, take
away from them the elective fran
chise
This is the predicament in which
the leaders of the party have placed
themselves first, by their interfer-
ence with the question at all; and
noXt, by their inconsistency since
they did interfere with it. Neither
class Of voters at The South can place
reliance on such a party, or any other
party which has only its own success
in view i'll every movement it makes.
By extra constitutional legislation,
they enfranchisc and disfranchisc
whom they please; and what they do
to-day, they will as recklcssly undo
Tomorrow. The only true and wise
policy for all the people of the South
is to keep aloof from such organiza-
tions, and clinging to the Constitu-
tlon, or so much as is left of it, give
their votes and support to honest and
consistent men, who have no party
ends to subscrve, and whose highest
object will be that which is most
needed by all in every section-thc
promotion of peace and harmony
and the rc-establishment of the Union
rs it was.
Farm Labor system.