Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-24
What the Republican Convention
Will Have 10 HDO.

I 1t was a bad piece of work the Republi-
can members of the Legislatured did in botch-
ing the Amendment proposing the African
ization of the Constitution of the State, by
patching on to it the disfranchisenent o.
from t,oenty to t,oenty-four thousand White
soldiers. All botch work is bad; but the
worst sort is Legislative botch work.
Left to itself, and running purely on its own
merits, the proposition to Negroize the
Constitution of the State, would have en-.
countered an opposition that would have
consigned 1t to defeat. 1t may seem smart
to Republican politicians to say that moth
ing can bring the Negroes down to theleve
of Democrats, and that the opposition tt
Negro Suffrage has its handspring in
prejudice on account of the color of the
skin and the crispness of the hair
This, however, does not dispose o.
the fact, that as race, in
their native land, the Negroes have made nc
advancement whatever in civilization, and
in the arts and sciences. AS illiterate and
as barbarous to-day is Africa as it was GEN.
l'turies ago.s Did there exist no other differ
ence between the White and the Black man
lexcepting that of color and in the formation
/ of the hair, Africa could not now be point
ed to as country wherein civilization has
not been able to gain and hold a footing
nor could it be said to the prejudice of that
people that Missionary labors are thrown
away upon them, because as soon as the
Missionaries are withdrawn, a relapse into
barbarism on the part of those who had
BEEN under Missionary influence, ensues
1t will nightly help the advocates of the
Negroizing of the State Constitution to give
a reason that shall be perfectly and salts.
| factorily explanatory of all this.
All that we know of the White race, il
to the effect that it has always been an ag-
gressive race-never satisfied with its ex-
isting condition; but always working anG
| fighting to better that condition, physical.
ly and intellectually. With a view to add
| to her store of information, EVE pluckeC
the forbidden. fruit. A Negress would
have contented herself with things as they
existed in the Garden of Eden. just as the
Negroes in Africa are perfectly satisfied
with things there as they have existed from
the beginning, manifesting no desire of i'm
provement in anything. What, then, are
we to gain by associating the members o.
this race with US in the administration O
the State and Federal Governments? viii
we, through such association, secure better
officers, and, consequently, better govern
ment? Will profligacy and wastefulness
be brought to an end? Some mighty GOOD
should certainly be brought in exchange
for. the Acknowledgement of the twenty OF
twenty -four thousand Whites.
So far as Ohio is concerned, no wrong ]!
being done the Negroes that can be RENE
died by making them voters. They art
secured protection in life, liberty and prop.
erty, and their voting will not add to thai
protection. The White race is adequate tt
the task of governing this country in the
way it should be governed. This being
true-and undeniably true at that-tht
proposition to disfranchise twenty to twen-
ty-four thousand Whites is piece of leg.
islative laundering that is perfectly unac.
coun table. 1t is folly inconceivable. As
it stands, it will assure the defeat of the
Republican Party overwhelmingly, as ii
should any party that would attempt it.
The blunder can be partially retrieved
by =. the Republican State Conven-
tion pronouncing against the Amendment
as it stands. To pronounce against it will
be rendering an apology to that twenty OF
twenty -four thousand soldiers who did
faithful duty while the War actually
lasted; but who are technically deserters
because they took French leave for home
when the e-business of War was finished up
Never was there more outrageous insult
offered to a brave and gallant body of men
than is offered these men by the Republi-
can members of the Legislature, through
the Constitutional Amendment, whereby
they are to be disfranchised, and afew Ne
groes in the State made voters and it is
as little as the Republican State Convention
can do, by, way OF. atonement, to repudiate
and condemn the whole thing as utterly
indefensible.