The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-04
Impartial Suffrage at the North.

New Jersey, is one WIFI "hlOh "' -
sympathize. The exclusion of any man from
the balIot-box on account of his complexion
is so manifestly unjust, so ineXcusaoly IN
ouitous, that we have never heard any
attempt to defend it by argument. 1t is one
of those fragrant assaults upon popular rights
which flourish only in the soil of ignorance
and preiudice There is not reason why the
exclusion Of white citizens from the ballot-box
would be unjust, which is not equally as good
a reason against the exclusion OF black citi-
zens. There is not an argument in favor OF
the exercise of the right of suffrage by the
whites which does not equally apply to the
blacks. If the ballot is necessary to the
white citizen to enable him to protect
his rights, and to have his just voice
in the affairs of Government, so is it for the
black citizen. If the doctrine that taxation
and representation ought to go together rem
ders it proper that the white taxpayer should
have a vote, so does it render il proper that
the black taxpayer should also have vote
If an intelligent white citizen ought to be
allowed to exercise the elective franchise, so
ought an intelligent black citizen. If virtue
and moral worth ought to guarantee to
white citizen his equal voice in the Govern
ment, they ought to guarantee the same equal
voice to the black citizen. And all this rests
upon the simple and obvious truth, that
voting is an act of the WILL an intelec-
tual choice, and that the color of
mans skin stands in no appreciable relation
to his mental or moral endowments. A mans
color has no more right to be taken into ac-
count in determining the qualifications of an
elector, than his height or his weight or his
temperament, or any other physical distino-
tion. 1t would be thought very unjust if all
electors were required to be able bodied men,
capable of bearing arms; yet an argument
might be framed in support of such qualif-
cation, on the ground that they who control a
nations Government and direct its policy
should be able to sustain it on the field Of
battle. But how utterly absurd would be the
requirement of a certain color of the eyes or
hair as a qualification for voting Yet not
more so than that Of certain hue of the COM
pleXion. The thing is utterly indefensible.
There is not scintilla of argument in its
favor.
In advocating the obliteration of this most
unjust feature from the laws of their State
our New Jersey friends are not proposing any
thing novel or strange. They are simply
going back to the purer practice of the State
in earlier days. before the dark ages of pro-
slavery Generalization. The original Consti-
tuition of New Jersey, adopted in 1776, under
fba inc ro4i of 41,a
ration of Independence, contained none of
these unjust distinctions. Black men voted
on the same terms as white men. And this
continued to be the Constitution down to 1874.
Now that slavery has been abolished, it is
high time that those monstrous perversions of
law and justice which grew up with it should
also be swept away. They are perpetuation
of the worst spirit of slavery. Those who
continue to support them lay themselves
liable to the charge that they would, if posi-
bic, reintroduce slavery itself.
The doctrine of impartial suffrage is becom-
ing one of importance with reference to
National politics. Throughout the South, or,
more properly speaking, throughout the States
lately in rebellion, the colored citizens have
been invested with the elective franchise by
act of Congress. No matter what men may
think of the constitutionality of the proceed
ing 1--WE believe it to have been entirely CON
stitutionaD, the thing has been done, and it
cannot now be undone. We suppose there
are few so infatuated as to suppose that the
black citizens of the South can ever again be
disfranchised except through bloody civil
war. No the deed is done, and will stand.
Of course this black element, which is
in a majority in some of the States,
is too important an element to be
overlooked in our political calculations.
How will it vote Already this has become a
very interesting question to both political
parties. The Democrats are claiming in all
the late Rebel States to be the black man s
best friends. They are working to secure his
vote. But how can the Democratic party
expect to control the colored vote in any of
the late Rebel States, so long as it opposes the
enfranohisement of the blacks at the North ?
When Democratic Constitutional Conven.
ton in Maryland disfranchises the loyal black
citizen and enfranchises the disloyal white
one, how can the Democratic party hope
to carry the black vote in South Caro-.
lima 7 In short, if the Dapoooro+ic
party persists in its warfare upon the
rights of colored citizens at the North
it must give up all hope Of con-
trolling the votes of colored oitizars =.
tha South 1t cannot play a sucoassG1