New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-12-07
tOommunicated.l
THE END or THE SUFFRAGE
QUESTION.

in the reorganization of the States lately in
rebellion, is that of suffrage and upon
whom it should be conferred and by whom
exercised. The white males Of those States
who have but lately been in armed rebel
lion against the Federal Government claim
that the colored males of the South ought
not to have any part, as sufragans, in the
reconstruction and maintenance of those
State Governments of which they are mem
bers. These people say it is hard and infa-
nous that their late slaves should be placed
on an equality with them and permitted to
enjoy the rights of citizenship and take part
in securing to those States a republican
form of government which is guaranteed to
each State Of this Union by the Constitution
of the United States. Let these people re-
member that before the acts of reconstruc-
ton were passed the inhabitants of those
States had been in rebellion against the
General Government, and by it their
States, or the States to which they claimed
allegiance, were without form or
organization, with no State governments,
but reduced to condition which made it
necessary to begin at the foundation and
build up such governments. Under these
circumstances and this condition of affairs,
in whom was vested the power to re-estab-
lish the rights of all the States in the rebel
States which treason had overthrown? And
whose duty was it to execute the guarantee
of republican form OF government, when
no such form existed?
The Constitution of the United States
gives Congress the power to make all laws
necessary or proper to carry out this pro-
vision of the guarantee of a republican
form of government to each of the several
States
When Congress assumed the prerogative
and power imposed upon it by the Consti-
ton, it found those rebel States inhabited
by two classes of persons, divided by the
war into traitors and loyalists. The exist
Jog law leveled upon the, heads of the
former class the consequences of treason,
arrest, trial, conviction and punishment.
And the laws Of war with a mightier
sweep, might have doomed them to
switter justice.
The executive, through amnesty procla-
nations and special pardons, with certain
special exceptions, exempted the mass of
the rebels from the consequences of their
crime, and they thus became reiavested
with those rights of citizenship of which
they had voluntarily Invested themselves.
All the Inhabitants of those rebel States
were freemen, and Congress, regarding the
issues and consequences of the late war in
their wisdom, saw fit, by the laws which |
they enacted, to give to those inhabitants
the right of participation in the act of reor-
ganization thereof.
At the time Of the passage of those laws, |
Congress found among those inhabitants a |
class four millions strong, who, by the |
Proclamation OF our mar
tyred President, and by constitutional en-
had become free and elevated to
citizenship with all the rights of equality
before God and the law which citizenship
10 this country confers upon man.
This class thus elevated to those rights |
represented the labor of the country, and |
his labor had once been enslaved to the |
capital in those about to be reconstructed |
States. Capital then had become treason,
md labor was loyalty. Capital was strong,
wealthy and remorseless. Labor
vas weak, Ignorant, poor and humble. But |
abor was TO be governed and taxed; it
vas to he elevated and have representation
n its taxation and a voice in the selection
If its governors; it was not to be depress-
ID, silent and subdued under the perpetual |
lictation of rebellious race. And what |
vas the people as to whom Congress de-
reed the power of self-protection? 1T |
vas population nearly as large as that of |
Ireland, over whose wrongs so many hearts
ire bleeding all over the world; four times
IS large as that of Greece when the elo.
luence of Webster and Clay shook this
continent in their behalf; twenty times as
arge as that OF Gambia, where the Cretans
re struggling to shake off the |
roke OF Turkey; far larger than
hat of America when Washington |
ed the colonies up to Independence and |
feedom. 1t was race who had made the |
wealth of the South, had created its capital, |
md given to its lordly rebels, by unre-
Quilted toll, everything on which their aris-
iocraey rested. TWAS the representative Of |
the labor of ten States, of the mechanics, |
he farmers, the tillers Of the sell, of labor |
n all its classifcations and it had been, in |
Ill the dark and bloody years, true to the |
lag and loyal to the nation.
In acting upon disorganized populations, |
{ was Just and polite to give to labor a |
voice In institUting governments. There is |
10 way in which labor can have the GER
isinty Of justice and protection, except |
i have the right of suffrage. 1t is that |
which dignifes and enables labor at the |
North TO take care of its own interests. |
Why should not the labor at the South |
have an equal chance in the race of life |
That was all 1t asked, chance for itself /;
and that was all that Congress gave or
sought to give it,"
This class, thus representing labor, which
was its capital, no longer enslaved, did
cause itself 10 be represented In the reor-
ganization of those Governments which
were to be reformed and reconstructed.
and in the organic laws or constitutions of
those States il secured to itself the right of
suffrage, representation and protection to
which it was SO justly entitled. This peo-
pie, as part of the population of these
States. can not honestly be disfranchised
and deprived Of the power which they have
now exercised, or, IL DISTINGUISHED, the
State which does such an act shall not count
them in its representation in Congress. aud
thus lessen its influence 10 the legislation
Of the nation. The Constitution of the
United States no longer permits fractional
but 1t must be q whole, or
a unit as to each member or citizen com
posing the population Of the several States.
IN this enumeration there is no longer to