New-York tribune., 1868-09-23
IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE rs RIGHT

The World alarms its readers with the as
suranCe that
even in The Times and THE TRIBUNE cautious as they
are from cNgences Of the canvass there peeps OUT
this purpose to enfranchse the AFRICAN lh aI .ne
tended Legislature OF Georgia, they hint that the NNth
hen as that Amendment so far az " - an , Nv
Is equally applicable to all the States II follows tna y
il the negro has good right to Office In New YORK as
be denied"
-"No. Sir never!r We did our very best
| for Equal Suffrage irrespective of Color in
these columns and at the polls in 1915 We did
the same again in 1859. In 1866, we exhausted
cntrcaty on the Republicans of Connecticut, to
bring them all to the polls in favor of that
| Impartial Suffrage, the failure of which has
since put them under the heel of their adver-
saries We have lived and hope TO die faith
| full to the principle which would secure the
rights of our children by conceding Equal
| Rights with them to All other childron- And
we hold that 1.-THE negron has nOto "a right to
Office in New York." provided he can get
votes enough. So don't rciterate the untruth
that there is anything secret or occult in our
purpose. We demand equal rights for all clti-
zens, and hope TO see them secured by consti-
| tutional safeguards in eUery State.
Now turn to the other organ of Sham De-
mocracy:
The Democrat Pomeroys) quotes these lines
as ours
a republic in which large proportion or the voters
ignorant. ensayed 10 appetite. aud In desperate want
of the neccssares Of c Is very insecure guardian OF
Liberty Property. aud Property
and proceeds to assert that the Blacks are
ignorant, vicious, and destitute therefore
ought not To vote and we ought TO oppose
their voting (We do not quote the paragraph
because of its unprovokcd incivilty; but the
above is it's substance) To which responds
THE TRIBUNE:
We are and ever have been, willing to unite
with tho Democrats in establishing and en-
forcing a rule which should exclude all the
depraved and wilfully ignorant from power
Establish Free Schools, open TO ail and we will
gladly agree, if the Sham Democracy propose
it, that no one shall vote who cannot intelli-
gently read. Let them propose and we will
gladly agree that no man shall vote who,
being able TO work, does not earn an honest
livelihood. But we should still protest against
denying the ballot, because of its ignorance, to
race which it had, till very lately, been felony
to teach. Such prescription would disgrace
the worst of tyrannies.
What The Democrat upholds is the right to
vote of those blacklegs, pugilists, dog fighters,
rat-crunchers, and other ruflans, who will
vote the Democratic ticket, while it would ex-
clude from any voice in the Government in
dustIious, exemplary poor men because of
their color This ia unjust and inhuman.
Make just impartial rule. and if two-thirds
of the Blacks, with but one third of the Whites,
shall be disfIanchised by 1t, we shall not COM
plain.
A rule which allows the vicious who incline
to one party to vote, but not those who grav-
tate toward the other, is the Iankest injustice.
We heartily wish that no single illegal vote
could ever be polled in this country but,
when illegal votes are polled, we wish they
were equally divided between the rival par
ties, so that neither should gain or lose by
them. The Democrat, manifestly, would pre-
fer that they should all count for its own
party. Has it any reason to feign astonish-
ment that we are not of it's mind 7