New-York tribune., 1867-04-12
POLITICAL CONSTRUCTION.

nations or for personal preferences, but organ
izatiOn should be made now. The problem Is
to reconstruct the South so that Its electoral
votes shall be cast for progress. While the
South il being reconstructed into States, we
should reconstruct the politics of the States.
To do this, two lines of policy should DO
adopted What we impose on the South by
virtue of success in war. we should accept
ourselves. We are not prepared to discuss
questions of interference with the suffrage
for such questions are not practical. Congress,
we think, has too much confidence in the loyal
people of the Northern States to suppose they
will hesitate to remove every law that makes
distinctions in suffrage. We believe the Re
publican Party is warm for this work. Poll
ticians in Pennsylvania, the large minority ID
Connecticut-a few facing -both-ways indlyid-
uals in NewY York, under the uneasy leadership
of The 7Ymcs-may have retarded the cnthu-
sasm of the mass of the party; but we feel
that their influence is dead, and that, III view
of Connecticut, and of the great work now
rpening in the South, there is not sincere
Republican who is not willing to remove every
restriction of caste, color, OF race, and pro
claim, in its most absolute sense, Impartial
Suffrage and Universal Liberty.
Where is our work to he dOnc' In Con
necticut we must have the law of disirun-
chisement repealed. Upon that subject. our
friends must continue to agitate until they are
successful. In New Ork, if it il well that the
negro should he worth $3.50 before he can vote,
then it is well that the white man should he
worth the same amount of money. We do not
discuss suffrage-test of education, property, and
naturalization but we insist that every test shall
alike apply to Black and White. We trust to
have this made right in the new Constitution.
But whether now, or twenty years from now,
the party must labor without ccaSing. and
again and again advance to the contest, until it
is successful. In Maryland, Universal Liberty
does not exist Ii required the authority OF
the National Government TO prevent men from
being sold into perpetual slavery for petty
crimes So long as village Justices of the
Peace can put up human beings Oh the auction
block and reduce them TO slavery, there Is no
liberty. lin the Carolinas, Gen. Sickles was
compelled To suppress the lash and whipping
most with his sword, notwithstanding the
Constitutional Amendment. While that amend
ment abolished the legal fact of Slavery, 1t did
not abolish the consequences OF causes OF that
fact. The men who prospercd by Slavery; the
reverend gentlemen who preached about Onesl-
mus; the dcmag0glles who traflicked i'll preju-
dice the Simon Legrees who reveled in atrOclty
and crime were not abolished. They had
votes, and constituencies, and strength and 40
long as their votes had power TO reestablish
the piory and the slave shamblcs, there was
no liberty in the South. In the Southern States,
these wrongs were permitted only because dis
,,.nl ~ SeH he In
laws, and a loyal majority was disfranchsed be-
cause of difference in color.
Our immediate work is with the South. There,
by the law of Congress, the negro is permitted to
vote This negro vote is fact. Under proper
influences, it may be induced to act with tho
Union party. There is a large White element,
especially in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
and Louisiana, which was consistently Union,
even in the presence of successful Rebellion
This vote is III full sympathy with the Union
party. There is healthy German element in
Texas, which is as Radical rs in Wisconsin.
We have no doubt the Union party in the
South, not counting the negro vote Is as strong
as the Free Soil party i'll the North before the
Kansas Nebraska excitement IL needs en-
couragement and that must come from MS. IL
needs organization. 1t must see that we i'll the
North are fighting the same battle. Ii should
feel that an election in Connecticut and New
York represents the same issues as an election
in Alabama. The negro should be encouraged
and enlightened. ilc should be made to
feel that the ballot means liberty, and
home, and education for his children, the
possession of his farm, absolute equality before
the law BY that talisman, he becomes an
American citzen-pOlitically, our fellow lie
will soon find prejudces disappear. The negro
without the ballot was chattel with it he is
man, with Offices TO give, and as much power for
good or evil in lawmaking as Gen Lee or Mr..
Davis. 1t is feared that the old masters may coax
the negroes to the balot-bOx, as in other days
they drove them to their quarters. We take that
risk The mere fact that he is in position to
be cOaxed-that he is an object of interest and
power and not of tyranny-shows that Emanci-
patton has, even now, given him blessings of ines
ing with his masters, just as we take the chance
of the Irishman voting with his Saxon Op-
pressOrs.
Far be it from us to advise a campaign OF
bitterness. We do not propose to influence the
negro by exciting in his mind a hatred of his
former masters. Nor should we advise any organ
izatiOn antagonistic to those masters. AgitatOrs
like Mr.. Hunnicutt in Virginia may mean we'll
but their zeal is bitter and offensive. To organ
ize a campaign on the Hunpicutt plan is to aban-
don any hope OF a permanent Union party in
the South. We cannot afford to array the
White against the Black, or the Black against