Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-06-02
THE PRESS AND TIMES ON NEGRO

THE PRESS AND TIMES ON NEGRO
SUFFRAGE.
The Press and Times has less regard
for consistency than any paper we ever
knew. For instance, it says:
'The Democrats hoped to make capital
out Of an effort at Chicago TO force coloFed
suffrage on New York, Pennsylvania and
ether Northern States; and they are
grevously provoked because the convention
prudently abstained from doing thing so
glaringly fraughf with disaster to the
party"
In one breath the Press and Times as
serts that every "loyal man, white or
black, is entitled to the right Of suffrage,
and in the next it declares that to insist
on enfranchising the negroes in the
Northern States, would be "fraught with
disaster to the party" That is to say,
principle, right and justice, must yield to
party expediency. But the Inconsistency
Of the Press and Times is still more glar'
iDgly set forth That paper puts the fol-
lowing question in the mouth Of Demo
crat and addressed to a Radical "Why
don't you enfranchise the negroes in the
North p and then answers the inquiry
as follows:
'First, the Democrats won't let rs. If the
| Democrats of Ohio would only poll one
fourth az many votes for eolored suffrage
as the Republicans have done, il would soon
be established in that State.
Second, the colored population in the
| North is SO small that it is scarcely prac'
teal question whether they shall vote there
or NOT! There are, doubtless, three times as
many white men DISTINGUISHED every year
in the North by change of residence,
absence from the polls, sickness, and other
causes, as there are DISTINGUISHED colOred
men," as
Now this is all bssh. The Radicals
elected their candidate for Governor in
Ohio by nearly three thousand majority,
yet the majority against negro suffrage
was over fifty thousand The Radicals
carried Iowa by about twenty-seyen
thousand majority on the Governor S
election, yet negro suffrage was defeated
| by about twelve thousand. Are the De-
mocrats to be held responsible for de-
feating negro suffrage in these States,
where the Radicals have majOrities re-
spectively of three and twelve thousand
The truth is-and the result Of the
elections clearly establishes this truth
the Radicals in the Northern States do
not want even the small number of me-
groes among them constituted voters and
competent to hold Office, and hence it
would have been "fraught with disaster
to the party" for Congress to have passed
law enfranchising the negro there as at
the South. We give the Press and Times
credit for candOr in owning up to that
much 1t is all right and proper, in the
estimation of the Press and Times, how
ever, for Congress to enfrahchise the
negroes in the Southern States, where
the white people are almost unanimously
opposed to the Radical party, but as no
such state of affairs exists in the North,
that paper thinks it altogether proper
that the negroes there should be de-
prived of the right to vote. Nothing is
clearer than that the negro would never
have been enfranchised In the South if
his vote had not been absolutely neces-
saTy to the existence Of the Radical party
in these States. The extracts we have
made from the Press and Times
fully demonstrate this fact If fur
ther proof were necessary, we need
only point to the messages of Governor
Brownlow, to show that he-and his
party were with him-was violently OPP
posed TO negro suffrage, until it became
> fixed fact that it was an Imperative me-
cessity to the continuance of his lease
on Office that the negroes should be en-
franchised. If the white Radicals had
been relatively as strong in this State as
in Ohio or Iowa, not negro would be
allowed to vote in Tennessee to-day. The
enfranchising of the negroes in this State
was simply the prelude to using them to
perpetuate Radical rule. This question
of negro suffrage has been managed Sim
ply in the interest of the Radical party.
Here in the South, where white Radicals
are in hopeless minority, it was ane-
cessity that the negroes should be en-
franchised and used, as they have been
by their Radical masters, but in the North,
where their number is 80 small as to be
of 40 practical Importance in any cleo
ton, they have been denied the right of
sufrageby the Radicals in the States, too,
where they have the majority, And the
Press and Times says this is right