The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-18
FOR THE N. Y. CONVENTION TO CONSIDER.

The clear purpose of the omnibus bill is to
secure for the Grant radical ticket the electo-
raj votes Of the States which it proposes to adj
NIT. Can the Democratic party afford to let
these votes 60 by default? Is it assured of
sufficient strength in the North to elect its
presidential ticket by its majorities in that
section alone, though all the Southern States
participating in the election should be carried
by the opposite ticket? If not, then it plainly
devolves ON its representatives in the New
York convention to consider the most proper
and effective means of disputing the States re-
ferred to with the radical faction. And in the
outset Of the inquiry, they are met by the fact
that the radical hope of carrying those States
Is based on the expectation of obtaining the
solid negro vote. And what is the ground of
this expectation? The answer is important,
covering sit does the only method of meeting
the radicals in the Southern field of the presi-
Dental canvass. The ground on which the
radicals expect the solid negro vote is the firm
persuasion on the part of the negroes that
their possession of suffrage is inseparable from
continued radical ascendency, and that de-
prived of suffrage, they would be Invested of
adequate security for their civil rights and
would be in peril of renewed slavery. 1t
will not meet the case to talk about the unreal
sonableness of such persuasion. 1t is too
late to argue the matter with reference to the
antecedents and the present aspects of the
opposing parties. The persuasion exists, and
If tie Democrats hope to make it give way in
~
moIe than the former acts and declarations of
their party. The result, in short, will de-
pend upon what that party may say and
do hereafter with regard to the status of the
Southern negroes. During the brief period
of their freedom, these negroes have been
educated in the belief that the Democratic
party is inimical, not only to their exercise
on any terms OF the elective franchise, but to
their enjoyment of civil liberty and equality.
There is but one way to disabuse them of this
belief so tar as to prevent them from voting
sohdiy for the Grant radical ticket and that
way is plain. Whether its adoption is de-
handed by the exigencies of the presidential
campaign depends, as already remarked, upon
whether the Democratic party can afford to
resign the South to the radicals, and to look
exclusively TO the North for the maiorities
requisite to its success. If it cannot afford to
do this, then it must contend for share of
the negro vote by taking some position which
Will satisfy negro voters that it is not uucom-
promisingly opposed to their voting on any
conditions or for any party. 1t would be scag..
dalous, Of course, for the Democratic conven-
ton to initiate the fragrant, INSCRIPTIONS aud
leartless contradiction of the Grant radical
platform, by declaring for exclusive white
suffrage at the North, and approving what is
equivalent to exclusive black suffrage at the
South. The party would richly deserve de-
feat II Its representatives should fail to pro-
test against policy which, if successful, will
be fatal to the Caucasian American in the
South, and will convert the fairest portion of
the country into a land Of doom, surrendered
to the common dominion of negro barbarism,
the jungle and the swamp, the viper and the
alhgator, the wolf and the panther.
There is only one consistent and admissible |
mode by which the convention, while putting |
iortL this protest, could assent, under pressure
OF paramount expediency, to any form of |
negro suffrage at the South That mode |
would be to recognize the fact of negro suf- |
image as among the accomplished facts of the |
situation, which, aside from all question as to |
the justice of the acts which brought them l
about, 1t would now be impolitic or imprac-
heeble to try TO reverse. Thenext step would
properly be to insist upon leaving the general