The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-25

action OF Ohio may be lOglcaliy lncOnslsteh1i
but works little practical injustice. The same
action in Mississippi or South Carolina in
wolves the most enormous practical in
Justice. To illustrate the point in an
other form, let us suppose that Maine
should exclude from the polls every man
who was the twentieth child of his parents.
The rule would be absurd and unjust in the
highest degree, viewed in the abstract. But
in its practical working who would imagine
that it led to a single case Of injustice being
done to the persons thus excluded, otherwise
than in the mere fact Of such exclusion
What judge would refuse to issue a warrant
in favor of a twentieth son? What man
would think himself any more free to defraud
such an one than he would to defraud any
other manf But suppose Vermont should
disfranchise all sons except the first born
what oppression, iealousies, and heartburn
ings would arise out of a rule so severe and
burdensome Its government would cease to
be republican in any just sense, and would be
an insupportable oligarchy. We say, there
FORE that it is not so absolutely inexcusable as
many of our friends think for Ohio to act as
she has done. Yet we not only favor equal
suffrage in every State as measure of alb
stract justice, but, as we have said, deem its
establishment indispensable. The logical in
consistency of the North is intolerable. The
practical question is how to escape from it.
A simple and straightforward path was open
1t could easily have passed Constitutional
amendment establishing equal suffrage which
would have been ratified last winter by nearly
or quite every Northern Legislature, and
before long by the requisite number of States
North and South This is the only way in
which the question can be finally settled aud
the opportunity for such a settlement was uu-
usually favorable. 1t has already passed
away. California and Ohio have elected Demo
cratic Legislatures; New Jersey will doubtless
do so; and the Northern States will not now
give that undivided support to the amendment
which they would have given last February.
1t was thought better to try more direct
appeal to the people in the several States. The
question has been submitted to a direct vote
in Ohio, with deplorable result. 1t is to be
so submitted to the people of New York and
Michigan. The result in the latter State is
doubtful, in the former State not at all so.
The cause will be set back at least four years
by these disasters.
We are surprised that politicians should
not have seen that which has all along been
plain to us-that the greater work was for
once easier than the smaller one, and that the
passage of an amendment to the COnstitu-
ton of the United States was tenfold easier
than the passage of similar amendments in
the States separately. Experience has re-
peatedly shown that there are almost twice as
many men who will vote for a legislature that
they know will enact equal suffrage as there
are that will vote for the proposition directly.
In 1860, the question was submitted to the
people of New York, and throughout the
State there was not a Republican candidate
for State Office or for the Legislature who
was not openly in favor of equal suffrage.
For these candidates 1862, 900 votes were cast,
yet only $1,000 could be induced to
vote for the proposition itself. The same
| thing has occurred in this aud other
| States again and again. We marvel that
when such an opportunity was given to
| the Republican leaders to adopt a course
! which none could call evasive or unfair and
yet which avoided the almost insuperable diff
culties of direct popular vote, they should
have thrown it away, and with it have risked
and substantially lost great State like Ohio.
We have lost no faith in the wisdom, neces-
sity and final triumph of the cause of equal
suffrage. We shall labor for its success in
whatever form the issue may be presented,
and shall never consent to its abandonment
But we are anxious that so good a cause may
be managed with wisdom sufficient to avoid
lnveterate prejudices, and to insure success
by the use of all fair means. And we hope
therefore, that Congress will even now submit
the question to the Legislatures of the States
and that the friends of the cause will concen
trate their efforts in the single labor of carry
ing the measure through in that form, without
attempting to raise local issues upon it in tht
border States.