Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-05-27
NEGRO SUFFRAGE.

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is commonly looked upon as involving
nothing more than the admission of an
additional number of people to share
in the government. 1t is taken to be like
the recent extension of suffrage in Eng
land. Practically it is no such thing.
Negro suffrage 10 the South is not a mere
extension of the governing power to a
large number of the people; 1t is prop.
ositon to give power in our public affairs
to new and strange people. II is not
to bring larger proportion OF the COM
munity to the polls il is to introduce
new community. 1t is like, but worse
than, proposition to admit the Repub-
lie of Hayti into the Union.
Practically, there are two separate
communities in the South-a black COM
munity and a white one. They are sep
arate now and will always remain sepa
rated. No human power can blend them
into one. The white race in this country
will not mix with the black any more
than it will with the native Indian. The
whites and the blacks will not inter-
marry they will not visit each others
houses they will not go to church to-
gether. An effort will be made to force
them together in the public schools; but,
like all laws which seek to twist human
nature violently back from its instincts,
this effort will simply intensity the repug-
nanceit seeks to overcome, and the law
will be violated and evaded so extern
sively that little or no education will be
afforded to any one.
The blacks at the South constitute
black people; the whites, white people.
They cannot be blended into one people;
for whenever the black and white blood
do intermix, the muatto progeny is
rejected from among the white people,
and remains a part of the black com
munity. What is really proposed in
negro suffrage, then, is to constitute one
state of these two repelling elements,
they being in nearly equal proportion;
to blend together these two distinct and
repulsive elements in the work of COM
mon government; to blend together
races which, even when they are mixed
for a moment, start back from each other
instinctively, and remain separate; TO
mix these clements harmoni ously in the
great and difficult work of public govern
ment while in none OF the everyday
duties of life can they be made to mix
If the blacks, instead OF being here, were
in their native Africa or in Hayti, and
had all the intelligence Of our negroes,
and il were proposed to import into any
Northern State as many negroes as were
equal to its white population, with the
condition that the negroes should share,
man for man, in the common govern
ment--such proposition would excite
universal horror 1t weuld be looked
upon as the widest absurdity to attempt
to compose an orderly and harmonious
state out Of two so discordant elements.
No successful, orderly, and prosper
Gus State ever was so made up. Celt
and Saxon, who are very much nearer
in blood relationship than are the white
man and the black, could not, in Eng
land, make up a state, a common gov.
ernment, in which each were to take
part; one race ruled. Norman and
Saxon, who, by going but few years
back, could trace up to common ances-
try, could not make up mixed govern.
ment of the two until intermarriage had
effaced the distinction between them. The
distinction cannot IN this instance be
effaced, even IN time, for the mulatto
continues to be a black. If all the
Southern population became mulattoes,
that would not solve the difficulty; for
the mulatto, as a race, will not live. 1t
is practically not a race, but, as its name
imports, a mule. In the mixed govern
ments now proposed for the South the
effort is 10 be made, in spite Of all the
warnings Of history, 10 blend together
the two races which are the farthest
apart in nature, and the most unlike Of
any two races in the world. The white
man Of this country stands at the head of
civilization; the black almost at the foot
Of the list Of savages.
The present population Of the South is
divided by a Law higher than our laws
into Two classes; distinctly marked
clEsseG This division is sure 10 be PER
manenL IL Is natural instinct IN men
so situated 70 cliag TO their own class. 70
counsel only with 1t, 10 act only with II
There will be, then, no political parties
there bat The white party and the black
party. A fsw rensgAdes from the whites
will, for the sake Of power. ge over 10 Be
leaders Of the blacks but in the main
The division vii alusys be as Nor-
whites on one side, blacks % ihe ether.
Wbichever of these parties may get The
ascen8sncy, in local poliiics. he gov
erument viii Be q Class E0rernmeut;
seeking the Interests not OF q people, bnt
Of the ruling class The blacks have The
ascendency nov not hy their own force,