Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-09-16
PAPERS ON THE MAN.
HOOD SUFFRAGE ISSUE.

We subjoin extracts from the Daily
Trtspa,, of Saturday, and the Enterprise
Of yesterday morning. Both agree in
stating that manhood" or Impartial
Suffrage" was not a real issue in Cali:
fornia at the late election; though a ma
jority Of the people Of that State were
made to believe it was, or politically can
vass upon thatissue. 1t was certainly not
a platformed issue, IF the law holds good
that it takes two to make an issue 10.
politics as well as in public and private
courts; but the S. F. Flag, ULTRA Radi-
CAL claimed that it had been impru-
IDENTIFY made a point in the campaign.
The Ttespass of Saturday evening says:
1t is now apparent to some Of the
more ultra radicals of this State that
the universal manhood joke has been
carried a trife too far, Since the
ground sluiciug that the Union party
got in California the other day, you a
hear the men who have talked man
hood suffrage pressing the proposition,
as an entirely new one, that the Union
party in Nevada must not 60 into the
light, next year, on that footing. 1t is
true the Union men Of California as a
party repudiated the issue, but still the
odium Of a gradual drifting toward the
doctrine of manhood or universal suf-
frage attached to the party. y
In Nevada, we have nothing to 60 back
Of. The party stands committed to no
ultra radical measure, and will not be.
A few of the more rabid have urged and
crowded manhood suffrage at the PEG
Pile, but the pill has been rejected and
the doctors rebuked. Nevada can stand
where she has stood. Let those take to
universal equality who like it, but the
reasonable people of the Pacific Coast
will not have any Of it. Congress al
lows the loyal States 90 regulate the
question Of suffrage for themselves re-
s~pectively. The. National Union party
must, in justice and necessity, leave the
loyalists of the several States equally
free, without any disparagemeut Of
Unionism because of any form of action
on the case. 1t is a question for States
and the parties by States to deal with.
The Enterprise of yesterday morning
says:
"If the Southern States can, be kept
out Of the Union until next July, the
Democratic platform will speak emphat-
ically against impartial suffrage and in
favor of the ~re-admission Of the rebel
States into the Union with just such
Constitutions as they may choose to
adopt. These planks, with two or three
others in relation to taxation and re-
trenchment, will constitute the leading
lines on the Democratic banner. On
| the other hand-and here we al speak
with more confdence-the Union plat
form will demand the restoration OF the
Southern States, should re~construction
be delayed until that time, on q safe and
loyal basis, and take ground squarely in
favor ofimpsrtial suffrage. 1t may even
favor the regulation of suffrage by Con-
gress ; but impartial citizen suffrage will
certainly be the key note of the procla-
nation, and Union men must prepare
IucuisciNCs iOE TUG ISSUE. ~ Souuos w
evaded-should not be evaded if it
could. 1t is just, and the Union party,
if true to itself, cannot fail to accept it.
Had impartial citizen suf-
frage been made the issue in California,
we believe the entire Union ticket, OBJ
jectionable as some portions Of it UNI
q~uestionably were, would have been
elected. Il would have been a battle OF
principle, which would have completely
overshadowed the miserable local issues
upon which the Union party was defeat
ed, and brought to the polls the fifteen
or twenty thousand Republican electors
who were Disguised with the manage
ment Of the canvass aud did not vote az
ALL"
Whether the Enserprise has the card
for debating what shall or shall not be
the Stste::and..National platforms, it is
not now material to consider, in earnest
or for fun ; it is clear that as the organ
Of VIM. n. Stewart, candidate for re-
election to the q. s, Senate, it fulmiu-
atss for Manhood Suffrage" and that
upon that issue he proposes to "run"
at the primaries and before>the Legisla-
ture.
There is unquestionably to be a strug-
gle upon the issue Of "manhood suf-
frage," in the Union party of Nevada.
How much the members Of the party
will feel bound, on the n hard or the
other, to yield when the decision shall
be rendered within the organization,
cannot be foretold. 0nthese pointswe
cannot "speak with condolences" for
while we are confident that the majority
Of the party is to-day utterly opposed to
the Equality dogma, it is very likely
that those who favor It will receive from
the party from which they lately came
out, such assistance as will enable them
to foist their plank into the "Union"
platform-the Democrats thinking thus
to render their opposing party too OBJ
~noIious to have thenceforth any reason
able prospect of victory. Or, if the
conservatives obtain a triumph at the
primaries, will the ultras acquiescs ?
We think not; but unless they greatly
increase in numbers their detection will
not affect the result one way or the
other. 1t is true, as a contemporary has
said, that the conservatives are more
apt, much more apt to stick, in a party,
in spite Of Objectionable articles in the
creed, than the Radicals. This is so in
the Eastern States, where the Radicals
are true men, sincere men, men of con-
sistency; why moi so-much more 10
in the Pacific States where the majority
of the ultras are old Breckenridge Dem
ocrats, who came tumbling into the
Union party in the days Of its estab-
lished, Overwhelming msjorities?
If the Democracy" adhere to this
old name, and put forth a chivalry plat
form, there are many Union men, who
while they entirely ~repudiate the man
Il -- III $500 q.