The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-02-28

!. He shall have served as a soldier in the
Federal Army for one year or more.
= he shall have sufficient education TO read
the Constitution of the United States and TO
: subscribe his name to an oath to support the
3. he shall be seized in his own right, or in
the right OF his wife, of freehold Of the value
of $3.50
Mr.. DOOLITTLE. Mr.. President, the
question presented in the instructions
proposed by me is whether Congress is
still resolved to subject the white peo-
pie of the southern States to the domin-
alton of the negro race at the point OF
the bayonet, or whether Congress, in def
ercnce to the recently expressed will OF
the American people, will now so far
modify their policy as to leave the gov
ernments in those States in the hands of
the white race and of the more civilized
portion of the blacksl That is the
naked question. Strip it of all useless
verbiage and specious arguments about
sustaining loyal men and Furnishing
rebels, it is nothing. more or less than
this: shall the General of the Army put
the negro in power over the white race
in all the States of the South aud keep
him there That purpose is boldly
avowed by some, and that will be the
effect of this RadiSal reconstruction as
it now stands, or as it will stand, if this
4 bill shall become u law. On the other
hand, the amendment which | offer, if
adopted. would leave the governments
in those States where they belong and
where they ought always TO remain
in the hands of our own race-while, at
the same time, it would allow the
right of suffrage to all those negroes
who have any claim to it by reason of
intelligence or patriotic services or Ps-
tate subject TO taxation, namely;
|. To those who have served in the
Federal Army;
.. To those who have sufficient edn-
cation to read the Constitution of the
United States and to Subscribe their
names to an oath To support the same,
and
To those who have acquired and
hold real property to the value of $3.50.
But the question may be asked, why
not apply the same test oaths TO the
white men of tie South : The answer
is plain and twofold. First, by the con-
stitutiOns and laws Of those States the
right of suffrage is already secured to
them, and we have no rightful power to
take il away. Ts do so would tram
pie under our feet one of the most sa
cred rights reserved t. the States. 1t is
| by extending suffrage to the negroes
that Congress is overturning the con-
stitutions of those States. lu my 0pln-
! ion, this usurpatiOn, which its advo-
Gates justify upon the ground of neces-
sity alone. | neither admit the power
nor the necessity; but, granting both,
no reason can he given, and no necessi-
ty but that of party ascendancy can be
urged, for going any further i'll this rev.
olutionary work than to admit to suf-
frage the classes of negroes named in
this amendment.
The second answer is, that white men
have for centuries been accustomed TO
vote. They have borne all the respon-
sibilities aud discharged all the duties
of freemen among freemen; and it is
very. different thing to take away from
freeman privilege long exercised by
him and by his ancestors, from what 1T is
to confer one never before enjoyed upon
ignorant, half-civilized Africans just re-
leased from slavery. Three generations
back many of them were canuiGais aud
savages, of the lowest type of human
kind. The only civilization they have
is that which they have received during
| ,Loi. oissesyia -aa.ssio".
To confer this great privilege upon
the more enlightened negroes might
tend to elevate tie mass in the end.
But to confer it now upon their ~
norant hordcs can only degrade the ba,-
lot and the republican institutions
which rest upon il.
No answer to this view has ever been
given, no answer can be given, by the
friends of universal negro suffrage, en-
cept this: "The ignorant foreigner Is
allowed to vote, why not LEI the igno-
rant negro vote 7" Thus to compare
the civilized European, accustomed to
free labor, to self.support and self-gov-
ernment, to all the duties and responsl-
bilities of a freeman, and who wlthal,
b fore he is allowed to vote i'll most OF
the States, must appear Ill open court,
and. after five years residence, prove
bv the testimony of two citizens q
GOOD moral character, and that he Is
well disposed toward the Government
and institutions of the United States
to compare him with the poor degraded
mass OF Africans, plantation slaves just
set free, is an atrocious libel upon our
selves. upon our ancestors, upon tie re-
sn,ts of Christian civilization, and upon
that Caucasian race which for thou
sands of years has ruled the world
But suppose 1t to be true that too
many ignorant foreigners ofour own race
axe admitted TO suffrage already, Is tnat
any reason or apology even for admit
ting six hundred thousand halt-ciyIi-
lied men of another race-meH
whose natural home is in the tropics.
who are eXotics here, tranSplanted, not
by the natural laws of emigratioa, not
hv their own free will, but by the GU
pidity of Old and New England, as
slaves, and whose whole education and
|, civilization, so far as they have any,
have been derived from slavery to the
white mani do not say there are not
some Ignorant white men, foreign and
native born, who are not qualified to
vote; but they are exceptions to the
general rule. | do not say there are
not some persons of Indian, OF Chi
nese, or Of African descent who
are qualified; but they are excep-
tions to the general rule also. So
ciety must, in the main, be
governed by general laws. While the
general rule is that white men are capa'
+ Bile, and therefore suffrage may be made
universal among them, on the other
hand the general rule is that Indians
f Chinese, coolies and negroes are incom.
petent; and especially is this true OF
the ne sroes in the plantation States
Therefore the general rule should ex-
clude them from suffrage. AT all events
it should be no further relaxed than to
, admit the excepted classes mentioned IN
| this amendment.
[ The effect of the adoption of this
amendment would be to allow all who
) have the qualifications required by thF
! constitutions of those States before the
= rebellion, not specially disfranchised, tc
vote: that is to say, the mass of white
men, and at the same time it would al
, low the most liberal negro suffrage al
all compatible with the maintenance OF
, civilized governments in those States.
, Let Congress now pause, and modify
r its course in accordance with the pro-
visions of this amendment, and l have