The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1867-06-21
- :; n. ~ p = : - :
For tie Pilot.
Protection.


shows that every extensionof it has beer
downward that is, that il has been con.
ferred upon men Of less Intelligence.
| In England the struggle is now going on,
with every prospect that The excluded
classes will sooner or later realize their de-
mands.
| In our own country, from the restrictions
regarding property and mental qualifca-
tons imposed upon the right by the fran
ers of the early State governments, it has
gradually cast off one safeguard after
another until, BY recent enactment of Con-
gress, it has reached its greatest possible
extent, excepting, perhaps, recognition
of possible future Indian claims to that
! privilege.
Under the influence of this policy the
statutes Of naturalization have become,
! practically, dead letters.
| It was under the existence of those re-
strictions that the foundations of all the
greatness which has come to our country
we're laid; then were all prominent national
policies adopted then there was the purest
legislation
1t is one of those fundamental principles,
recognized and declared by the Fathers, and
now undeniable, that the success, and con-
sequen,ly safety, of Republic lies in the
virtue and intelligence of its people. Vir-
tue. prompting men to honesty and charity,
! to prefer the ultimate general good rather
than present personal qualification. Intel
ligence, enabling its possessors to generally
understand the bearings of the various
questions of National or State polity. OF
course such intelligence implies an intelli-
gence of other subjects.
From this doctrine sprang our Common
Schools, our press and its freedom, the free
dom Ct speech and discussion-in short, it
means Liberty %.
As it is essential that the Government
shall be pure that its laws may be just, its
revenues honestly managed, the highest,
broadcast, most liberal course of policy adopt
ed and pursued, whether the government
be that Of one man, of a few men, or of all,
then, with US, where each voter is con-
stituent part of the government, it is neces
sary, ty as much as the governing power is
extended, that each one exercising that
power shall possess that Virtue and intel.
Iigence' which will sesure those ends.
By the Reconstruction Act the Radical
faction conferred the elective franchise
upon about 700, COO men. This vast and
sudden increase is not of itself alarming
1t becomes so when we take into considcra.
ton the alleged and actual motives of the
party comforting it, and the character of the
recipients Of the power
"When ambition, says Hume, can be
SO happy as to cover its enterprises, even to
the person himself, under the appearance of
principle, it is the most incurablc and in,
flexible Of all human passions"
Nominally under cover Of the principle OF
universal manhood suffrage, the Radical
party has effected, or sought to effect, a
party end-that is, the Establishment of its
power in the Southern States. That this
was its motive is ingenuously admitted by the
Radical press in oisetting recent Demo
cratic gains in some States, with the gain to
that partyofthe votes of enfranchised negroes
in the Southern States Also by the tone oil
the remarks Of the various prominent Rad
icals who have recently gone South to
examine the elephant and give theil
protege precise political instructions their
modesty, by the way, not preventing them
from plainly reminding him of his immense
obligation to his benefactor, the Radical
party! Thot the motive was to enable the
negro to protect himself, is too absurd and
puerilc. That was the original idea. We
hear little of it now. But that it was once
4made prominent plea for bestowing that
right demands attention. If the plea was
an earnest one, it betrayed vast over
estimate of the virtue of vote As if they
considered it a magical cathartic pill fol
mental ailments; possessing as ingredients
virtue and intelligence, and which, when
taken, transmitted its properties to the
patient. What is vote? What but the
simplest possible expression of an opinion
The existence of the opinion implies o.
necessity that of an intelligence which
formed it.
The negro with this new wonderful power
possesses the means only of expressing hi.
opinion. To form the opinion there must
be intelligence. If he neeps one, he vastly
more requires the other. Intelligence i.
the leader not the follower of suffrage
Given, an educated people, and the suffrag.
must come. There is not power enough ii
the United States to keep from the negroes
when educated, the right to vote, and thel
is not power enough in the Congress of the
United States to Immediately complete theil
gift and make it servicable- that is intel
ligence.
Massed opinions are powerful, capable o.
protecting their interests. Ignorance, in
diyidual or en- ,nasse. forms no opinions. car