Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-01-30
Doolittle's Proviso-rhe Reconstruction
ists Impaled,


ate, OF which we published full report
yesterday, was one Of his best efforts. II
was well-planted blow at the Republi-
cans who have all been twisted into a
shameful inconsistency by few bad,
bold, reckless Radicals. Italso impaled
the reconstruction scheme upon three
very sharp prougs. Naturally the fathers
Of the thing squirmed
Can reply be made 20 the argument
contained in Senator Doolittle's proposed
proviso TO the Reconstruction bill2
Provided, nevertheless, That upon
an election for the ratification OF any
constitution, or OF officers under the
same, previous to its adoption in any
State, no person not having the qualif'
cations of an elector under the constitu-
ton and laws of such State previous to
the late rebellion shall be allowed to vote
unless he shall possess one OF the follow
ing qualifications, namely:
"l. He shall have served as soldier
in the Federal army for one year or
more;
-. He shall have sufficient education
TO read the Constitution Of the United
States and to subscribe his name to an
oath to support the same; or,
"3. He shall be seized in his own right,
or in the right OF his wife, Of freehold
OF the value Of $3.50"
OF course, like every other man who
respects the Constitution, the Wisconsin
Senator stands opposed in toto to any
and every measure of Congress usurping
~s,kt ena Al md tQfr N A
suffrage to its citizens; but to the usurp-
ers who would prostitute as well as usurp
this right, who would for the sake of po'
litical power disfranchise half the whites
and confer the ballot by wholesale upon
ignorant blacks, he says:
Do not usurp, but if you will usurp, at
least do not prostitute and debase the
suffrage Granted Then give the bal
lot to every black who served in the
Federal army a year or more. But be-
cause some few blacks fought do not be-
stow the ballot by wholesale upon all the
numberless blacks who staid at home and
whose labor sustained the rebel armies.
Do not usurp but if you will usurp, at
least do not prostitute and debase the
suffrage. You tell me there are negroes
who can read and write. Granted. Then
give the ballot to every black man who
can read the Constitution of the United
States and sign his name to an oath to
support the same. But because some
few blacks can read, do not bestow the
ballot by wholesale upon all the hun-
dreds of thousands who cannot read nor
write, the ignorant, the degraded, the
illiterate, the feld-hands, the fetish wor-
shippers.
Do not usurp, but if you will usurp,
at least do not prostitute and debase the
suffrage. You tell me there are negroes
who are thrifty, industrious, and who
have acquired property. Granted. Give
the ballot, then, to every black who is
seized in his own right, or in the right of
his wife, of freehold of the value OF
$3.50. But because some blacks are
thrifty and saving do not bestow the suf-
frage by wholesale upon all the thousands
who are neither, and who will rather
steal than work.
Is there any possible answer to be
made to this except the answer which
General Pope and Thad. Stevens have
published, and the Tribune and Times
confessed-the determination of the
Revolutionists of the Rump to get votes
enough from the Southern blacks to
carry the next Presidential election.
For this they disfranchise; for this they
enfranchse; for this they tie the Presi.
dent hand and foot with their tenure-of-
office bills; for this they foist into his
Cabinet Of confidential Secretaries
treacherous false spy with less honor in
his soul than Arnold or Iscariot;
for this they deprive the President
of his executive power in civil affairs
for this they deprive him of his COM
mandership-in-chief in military affairs;
for this they assault the bar of Justice
itself; for this they rush upon the judges
and gag and bandage them, lest their
voices and authority pronounce the
enormity of their manifold crimes
against the very government their per-
jured lips have sworn to sustain, against
the very civilization which spares their
lives and reserves them to the milder
doom of an infamous obseurity.--Neo
York World.