Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-04-22
MEMPHIS APPEAL

MEMPHIS APPEAL
MICHIGAN AND NEGRO SUFFRAGE.
Michigan has been regarded as one Of
the most Incorporating and reliable Of
the Radical States; and her Senators
and Representatives in Congress have
been among the foremost in imposing
negro suffrage on the Southern Proyin-
ces, and mGkiug-it an Indispensable con-
dftion of reconstruction.
The aggregate vote of the State is un-
der I70. 600. In 1856, the Radical major
fly was q, ,O36: and now Michigan votes
down new Constitution because it en-
bodies the principle Of negro suffrage, by
a msjofity estimated at So, 600. It's well
said that this is nothing less than 3 polit-
ieal revelation, which has surprised the
Conservatives almost as much as it has
overwhelmed the Destructives. 1t gives
the Southern States assurance that when
ever, after their return into the Union,
the white men of the South see fit to re-
claim the right of governing their couR-
try without help from the negroes, Mich
igan viii vindicate their right to do so.
The decision of the people Of that State
is like flash OF lightning in a clear sky,
unexpected, unherslded, and therefore
the more startling. 1t is scintillatiOn
Of the returning reason Of the Republic,
which il not insane, has been on the
ve1y verge Of dementia, has at last, like
an individual, begun with horror to real
ize its condition. How applicable to that
condition the words of MICHELET: 1.-THE
contradictions of the world increased {:
reason, divine and human, seemed to
have abdieated. 'GOD, TO use LU-
THEIRS saying, was weRried Of the
game, and flung the cards under the
table, A tragic moment is that in
which one feels ones senses failing-the
moment in which reason, glimmering
with its last light, gees itself about to be
extinguished.
Exclaims King LEAR
Keep me rom madness; ! would not go mad -
InSouth Carolina, on the 3lst of March,
there were A., III whites and Sc. .379 blacks
registered! What less than sheer inssu-
ity is the attempt to subject these white
men, snd an equal number disfrsnchised
by reconstruction scoundrelism, to the
arbitrary government snd insulting DOM
ination of 50 900 half civilized barbara
ans? Does any sane man imagine that
the inferior race can permanently gov
ern the superior?
1t is the very extreme Of idiotic folly
for people or party to undertake to
defy the laws Of GOD OF set at naught
the instincts Of human nature. Pride Of
race and blood may be a very irrational
prejudice. Not long since, we saw in
Virgins, in one car, half dozen ne
gross whose faces, if accurately photo
graphed, would have been taken for those
of Chimpsnzees and Gorillas. OGe old
woman, in particular, hsd the complete
countenaace in every respect, and par
ticularIy the projecting under-jaw, of the
Gorilla. and " hen she worked her jaws,
the similitude was actually startling and
revolting. Pride of race and blood may
he. we saw, a very irrational prejudice.
It nlay be merely vanity that causes an
Englishman, q Scotchman, an Irishman,
a Frenchman or a German to religiously
believe himself being Of another order
thsn this black race which has the phys
ieaI characteristics Of the Simian tribes,
and is evidently at the very bottom Of
the scale Of humanity: but if it be, the
conviction is one which, thank GOD, Is
inceradicable. The man or the race that
thought itself no better than the negro,
mould be no better. The men who are
willing to have their own judgments and
opinions overruled by the f1llies and
frenzies, the superstitions aOd g.otesque
notions Of a mass Of ignorant negroes, no
matter Of what race they are, are no bet
ter than they, and no higher in the scale
OF creation. However they were born,
they have sunk themselves to their level,
and made them their peers, and ought to
be their fellows, their associates and
bosom friends.
No race has ever become greatly dis
tinguished which has not believed itself
to be the superior of all others. To the
Greek, of the days Of THEMIsTOCLEs and
ALEXANDER, all others we're barbariansi
and as barbarians, contemplate. With
ont that conviction, would Marathon
| and Salamis and Arbgla have been pos
sibleP The Romans, In their turn, be-
lieved themselves the foremost race o.
all the world; and so indeed they We're
aud vindicated their claim by the lcne
roll-call OF their victories and glories
Imagine a Roman Senator, before th'
davs of the later CEsARs, proposing t.
confer on half million negroes the priv
ileges Of Roman citizenship, to selec
from them Quastors and Pietors, Con
suls and Tribunes of the people; and u
seat the AfrtDe oleateDs in the Senate by
the side of SCIPIO, MARCELLUs ant
lCATo! The Frank and Norman despise'
the Byzantine Greeks as their interiors
and the rudest Saxon swine-herd woul'
have stared at the claim Of negro to b
recognized as his equal as a man.
The political miscegenatiOn of black
and whites as voters, is as repUisive t
the instincts Of the white race, as tina
miscegenation of blood which the negr
begins to claim as his right. Alresd
the military power of the United State
interferes to compel the performance {
the marriage ceremony between negr
men and white women.
This instructive repugnanee of the CaU
easian to the political equality of the nC
gro, an aversion as strong as his averslo
to their social equality, flashes out int
flame at last, and viii consume all wh
resist 1t and undertake to eradicate i
That cannot be done. Call 1t prejudict
unreasoning, irrational-whst you viii
, IL is part of the white mans very natur
Characteristics OF race never die out an
the prejudices Of race and color 81