Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-10-05
Senator Sherman on the Suffrage
Question.
Why the Colored Man Should Have the Ballot.

Why the Colored Man Should Have the Ballot.
Senator Sherman, in a recent speech in
Canton, thus discusses the suffrage ques-
ton:
In addition to the usual election of
State officers in Ohio, we are required to
vote for or against an amendment to our
State Constitution. 1t is submitted to
us by the Legislature, and if, in voting,
we do not vote for it, our vote is count
ed against it.
But the material question is, whether
it is Just for us to exclude persons from
the elective franchisei merely because
they are wholly or in part of African
descent Is sach an exclusion founded
upon reason or justice? Should they,
without any other reason, be excluded
from all political rights, the most sacred
of which is to vote? They have prop
erty to be taxed, and are subjected to
our laws. Every burden imposed by the
State upon other men they must bear.
They are subject to military duty, are
punished for crimes and offenses, and are
amedable to all your State, county and
municipal corporations.
They have families to support, and are
governed by the same affections, passions
and necessities to which you are subject.
They were born on our soil, and have no
other allegiance or country than our
own. They are educated at our schools,
and can testify in our courts. They are
few in number, and could not, if they
would, combine to jeopardize our institu-
tions. They were allowed to vote i'll all
the original States, except South Carroll
ma, and no evil ever resulted from it. 1t
is a well known historical fact that some
of the most eminent statesmen of the
South owed their election to free negro
votes.
In Ohio, all nearer white than black
have always been allowed to vote. Un-
der this unjust discrimination, trustees
not specially skilled in color have been
bothered to decide whether a voter was
nearer white or black, and generally de-
cided it according to the complexion OF
the vote and not the voter. They are
not excluded by any Christian nation in
the world but ours. In Great Britain,
France, Prussia and Italy, elections occur
more or less general in character, and in
none of them are men excluded merely
for the color of their skin.
Our American system of election is
slowly revolutionizing the world, and yet
no nation has adopted our exclusion Of
persons of African descent. The truth
is, it is based npon narrow prejudice OF
caste, not founded upon reason or natur-
al laws, but the offspring of the same
intolerance and bigotry that excluded
the Israelite from all participation in the
government Of the Egyptians. They are
not willing to exclude either ignorant or
intelligent rebels. They welcome to
their embrace men whose hands are yet
red with the blood of our kindred.
tits only ''nigger'' they would ex-
clude. 1t is nothing to them that the
negro has fought for our country, has
been wounded in our service, is intelli-
gent, sober and industrious he is a mig
ger, and therefore must have no voice In
public affairs.
am far from admitting that there is
such marked inferiority among the colored
people of Ohio as our Democratic friends
assert. There are worthless characters
among them, but through what terrible
process have they passed for forty years.
Rejected, depressed, excluded from most
enioyments of life, excluded from school,
and even from churches devoted to the
worship of Almighty God without po-
iitical rights, at all times without protec-
tion, either by law or public opinion ;
the same prejudice that divides the Chi
nese and Hindoos into casts; the same
that makes an Asiatic regard all Euro
peans as barbarians the same feeling OF
pride and intolerance which enables an
aristocracy in Great Britain to exclude
the laboring classes from all voice IN the
government.