The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-17

Suffrage for the Blacks.
From the N. y Times; A., o,,,n,on bo
wade Hampton adheres TO the oPin'oH nc
-oa come time since, that negroes in the
eoItbern States should be recognized as oiti-
- admitted to the suffrage. He be-
., .to+ suob a course would contribute
,oI,, 40 the peace and prosperity of the
-~hoIe -'to community. He thinks, however, that
Ibis should be done by the State and not by
Congress, and that suffrage for both whites
and blacks should be made to depend upon
character and intelligence.
We do not doubt that the thinking man of
the South generally concur in this opinion.
There is much less of mere prejudice against
Ibe negro in the South than among certain
classes in the North. Even before the aboli-
tion of slavery, negroes were sure of better
personal treatment from Southern people than
from Northern. The South very naturally
objects to universal negro suffrage, because
they know very we'll that the great body of
the negroes are utterly unqualified for it;
that they know nothing whatever of the ques-
tions which their votes may determine; and that
they will inevitably become tools in the hands
of demagOgues. But there can be very little
doubt that if Mr.. Lincoln had lived, or if the
policy of reconstruction which he devised and
favored had been carried out, negroes would
have been allowed to vote in nearly, if not
quite all the Southern States, just as fast as
they might have become qualified so to do.
He himself recommended it, as did also Mr..
johnson when he succeeded to the Office; and
the general sentiment of the intelligent poll
tical leaders of the South was decidedly in
favor of it. The shallow pretense that this is
the "White mans government, - and that none
but white men should ever have any share in
making the laws and choosing the rulers
which all are required to obey, died with
slavery among all sensible and rejecting men,
South as well as North; and it has been re-
served for the Democratic Bourbons of the
present day to revive it and make it the basis
of their political creed.
II ought to be remembered moreover that
the adoption of universal negro suffrage, both
in the District of Columbia and throughout
the South, is due directly to the Democratic
representatives in the last Congress. A large
majority of the Republican party decided in
caucus against it; and when it was proposed in
Congress to establish intelligence as a qualif-
cation for negro suffrage in the District Of
Columbia, the Democrats voted with the
extreme radicals against it, and thus secured
its defeat.
Universal negro suffrage, with a disfran-
chisement of the great body of the whites,
forced upon the Southern States by military
power and leading in nearly all those States
to the absolute supremacy OF the negroes in
the Government, must of necessity be odiOus
and intolerable to the white inhabitants. Even
If forced to consent to it, such step must
implant in their minds the most bitter resent
ment towards those by whom the blow has
been inflicted. Its direct tendency, moreover
is to array the blacks and whites against eaci
Other-to make each feel that the other is hi
enemy, and thus to SOW the seeds of future
collisions and hatreds between the two races
If the work had been done by the people o
those States themselves, the result would havt
been very different. That it must have beer
done sooner or later is certain. The negroes
in all the Southern States are so numerous
the capital and industry of the South are 81
dependent upon them, that their admission tC
the suffrage would very soon become absO
lutely indispensable to the safety of Southern
society; and the Southern whites would hav
consulted their own interests quite as much al
those of the blacks, by bringing them in a
rapidly as possible to the exercise of politica
power.
The violent and arbitrary manner in whic
Congress has seen fit to settle this question,
unquestionably one very powerful element il
the recent reverses which the Republica
party has sustained in the Northern States
But we are glad to see that Wade Hampton
and other Southern men of position and influ
ence have not changed their views on thi
subject. If the Southern States can be led t.
take wise and generous action on this matter
they will contribute very largely to the har
lnony of sentiment between the two sections
which is so important to the welfare of both.