New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-06-14

IL is a dangerous weapon IN the nanus Va
colored men. OF even Germans who happen
to have brains enough to vote the Repuh-
lican ticket. This is the sum total Of the
Irish argument against negro suffrage"
or rather the argument advanced for them
by their Copperhead leaders.
Now it strikes us very forclbly that if
liberty is good for Woodworking, we'll
disposed Irishman it is equally as good for
bard-working, well-dispOsed cOlored man
If the ballot is necessary to protect the
rights and liberties of enc man, be he white
or black, American or European born, it is
equally coed for another. If, as our friends
the Fenians sOlemnly declare, freedom, the
ballot, and republic are necessary to the
oppressed Of ireland, we claim that they
are equally as good for the colored people
Of the South.
The English aristocracy possessing free
dom for themselves, once proclaimed
loudly that the suffrage would be ruinous
in the hands of the people of Ireland. Dor
rowing this argument Of their oppressors,
many of the American Irish apply it to the
colored people with an arrogance fully as
despicable as that Of an English aristocrat,
and then sing The Wearing of the Green
hold fairs, get up professions, and make
any amount of noise to procure an Amer
lean sympathy for Ireland. 1t is very nat
ural for people who take the pains to think
twice to say that so long as the Fenians are
disposed to choke six millions of Southern
American citizens, because their skins are
of q darker hue than theirs, there
should be no particular objection made to
John Bulls choking them because they
happen to be Irish. One argument is fully
as good as the other, and both aremonstros-
tiles. The question of right in this matter
is not so obscure that it needs very learned
minds to arrive at the justice of it. The
assumption that il is right and expedient to
withhold the ballot from the colored people
of the South, as set forth by the Irish De-
mocracy of America, is but one of the
strongest proofs that the ballot is danger
GUS weapon in their hands. So said the
Tory party of England, and so say
no small number of Americans. When
the Irish learn the sum total Of
their own necessities, and comprehend
the fact that every ballot they cast in favor
ofrobbing the colored people of the United
States of their rights and liberties is an in
direct blow that falls not only upon the
colored people Of the South but upon
Ireland and its oppressed people, they may
wake up to the necessity Of consolidating
the working mems vote Of the United
States, and coming into ranks with every
man, white or black, who has not by crimes
or misdemeanors forfeited his right to the
privileges of pure democratic association
of men.
The Irish ask sympathy for their idea Of
selfgovernment in Ireland They can
have it by standing shoulder to shoulder
in defense of selfgovernmenr in America.
They ask the moral and political influence
OF the United States. They can have it by
stepping out bravely upon the platform of
political equality for all men. They can
not have it so long as they persist in using
the ballot to enslave Americans on Ameri-
can soil because they are colored.