The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-12

officially recognized by Chief Justice Chase as
part and parcel of the federal constitution,
provides substantially that each State shall
regulate tho sasfage for ITSELF, subject only to
this condition--shat in proportion to the exclu-
sion OF any race or class OF the people from the
ballot box the cnum sration of such race or
class In counting the people for representation
In Congress shall be omitted For example,
there are seven hundred thousand people in
South Carolina-four hundred thousand blacks
and three hundred thousand whites. On the
basis Of one hundred thousand souls for rep
resentative in the lower house of Congress,
South Carolina, counting whites and blacks,
will be entitled to seven members, and, incud-
ing her two Senators, to nine votes in
the Electoral College for President and
Vice President. Under amendment fourteen,
however, let us suppose that the State has
adopted q new constitution, excluding the
blacks from the polls. What then? She viii
lose four members of Congress and four votes
in the Electoral College, which, in a tight fit,
may elect the President and Vice President of
the United States.
For all practical purposes, therefore, looking
to the protection of the blacks in this matter of
suffrage, one would think the ''constitution as
it is amply sufficient, especially as the power
is expressly given to Congress to enforce this
fourteenth amendment. But the leading rad-
States Of a discretionary power over the sub
ject, and the object of this proposed new
amendment is to get rid of that difficulty
Very well. Assuming that this universal suf-
frage amendment under the authority Of Con-
gress can be put through, and will be- what
will be the consequences? State rights, it
may be said, will go by the board. We hold,
however, that State rights, as understood and
enforced by the old democratic party from the
time of Jefferson to the administration Of Blu
chanan, were blown sky high with the first
bombshell thrown by the Southern confederacy
into Fort Sumter. Moreover, the whole spirit
Of this age Of steam, the telegraph, an indie
pendent press, and general enlightenment, and
the general drift of political ideas and insttu-
tons in both hemispheres, is from the old
rickety system of considerations of incongrl-
GUS State establishments to the system of cen
tralization, or strong central government,
over homogeneous communities, in origin,
language, laws or ideas, no matter how extern
sive the general area they may cover.
But, again, in the late Presidential election
results in the Southern States, under the uni
versal negro suffrage condition of the recon
struction acts, we see that the black vo.e with
very little trouble, can be controlled by
the whites-that the black laborer, in other
words can be readily gained over at the ballot
box by his white employer. 1t is by no means
certain, then, that in fixing their ultmatum Of
universal manhood suffrage, negroes Indians
and all, in the national constitution, the radi-
Gals would secure the Southern balance of
power. We think it would be turned against
them as early as 1872 in every Southern State
from the social necessities which are bringing
landlord and laborer into political accord. On
the other hand, should this proposed amend
ment prove in practice fallacy, productive
only Of Southern confusion and bloodshed,
new political revolution will speedily rectify
the blunder The natural position and the
natural tendencies Of the blacks in the same
community are subordination to the white race
Nor can legislation change these laws of nature.
They are on the side Of the Southern whites,
and, rightly understood, the whites may turn
to their political advantage this thing of univer-
sal negro suffrage, though made for time
part Of the supreme law of the land.