The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-17

mentAl l8W4HulCu St0svo Tt...l
Rights and privileges on The one nana'
and duties and obligations on Inc os sle,,,
derive their origin aud sanotlon n Toe
the source above. II the spirits OF Jel,
ferson. Madison, and Henry, reh aolilta.e .,
in the flesh. could enter TINS hali'
thew would CRY " avaunt" to the misera,
bIe and wicked follies uttered here. Dld
Il not occur to the member to examine
what were the acts of these illustrlous
men on this uery subject when they came
n frame the first Constitution for V1r-
oiniap The very Bill of Rights which
thew prefxed as the magma charta OF hu-
man liberty to that instrument does not
affirm, but emphatically denies that sui;
frage belongs to every man as natural
right. It's language is that those citizens
alone ought to exercise it who gave
sufficient evidences of permanent common
interest in and attachment to the commu-
nity, The white people of Virginia resist
negro suffrage simply because the blacks
do not exhibit or possess these lndlspensa,,
bile requisites. There are few colored
men who showed adequate intelligence, but
as a race they do not possess the requisite !;
norI have they such stake in the commu.
nity as to invest them with ga permanent
common interest "int the community. Yet the
Radical policy is to empower this incompe-
tent multitude to control the State and 10
make laws for the burdening of the pro-
perty which they don't own To subordl-
nate the intelligence, the skill, and the
public virtue of the community to the DO.
mination of the ignorant, uncultured, ana
incompetent To put the pyramid on
it's apex, and call this the true and just
and decent mode of considering social
rights?
A plea is put in that it is necessary to
confer suffrage on the negro for the pro-
lection of his rights Of person and property.
This is equally fallacious. The women
and the men under twenty-one do not vote
in any State of the Republic, while the
property of the one is taxed, and the very
lives of the other are imperilled when the
public needs require it But who atflrms
that protection to these classes is not Sc
cured to them by the terms OF the organic
law.
The silly pretext is sometimes ventured
by Radical spouters, when they are pressed
with the patent fact of the ignorance of the
negroes, that they evinced the consummate
wisdom of following the flag" and rally
ing to the defence of the Union. Such stuff
deceives nobody. The "loyalty " of the
blacks was to the bayonets which promised
them emancipation and every candid
man, black or white, must concede that if
the Federal Power had declared the pur-
pose to perpetuate slavery, the "loyalists !"
would have obtained no negro followers.
The member from Richmond, initiating
the example of many northern men who
migrate or missionate here, stigmatlzes the
existence of slavery as foul sin, and
alludes pathetically to the hardships expe-
rienced by the slaves in their servitude.
1t is strange that he should forget that it
was the illustrious men of Virginia who
labored to prohibit the slave traffic, carried
on for greed of gain by New Englanders;
and that it was this pious people who de-
manded to insert in the Constitution an
immunity for the slave trade until 1908
And now the sons of the very sires who
are lolling in the wealth transmitted to
them as the wages for fastening slavery on
Virginia are coming here to poison the
negro mind with their hypocritical talk
about the claims of the negro to the pro-
perty of their late masters !-pratipg about
the ill-gotten gains of slavery +! Why do
they not cleanse their own sensitive souls of
the stain wrought by withholding from the
negro the wages of their forefathers' inhu-
man traffic?
Mr.. MARYE then discussed at some
length the issue as to who are friends of
I, al Hnpcoruotiun ha
Radical party. The latter, in the madness
of their political passion, are making the
poor negro a mere shuttlecock between
the political battledores. So long as it
serves their political ends, they incite this
race to seek mental, social, and political
amelioration by impracticable and danger
Gus expedients. With extreme physical
wants pressing on him, demanding all his
time and energy for their supply, the Radi-
Gals have rendered him idle and thriftless
by holding out vain hopes of some impos-
sible amelioration-some other means of
gaining his living but by the sweat of his
brow" Already the alarming fruits OF
this mischievous teaching are found IN the
wretched impoverishment of the entire
South, Its beauteous and fertile fields are
being left to become wilderness, until
Radical officers and Bureau men are
frightened at the fearful dilemma, and are
enforcing stringent orders to compel the
negroes to work. a..
Now. if the Radical politicians are al
lowed to drive on the disastrous policy,
and the entire South sinks, as it must, into
impoyerishmen and ruin, one result of all
criminal folly is certain-viz., the Ameri-
can mind, which already indicates the
aversion and distrust to negro rule any
where, will come to the rescue, and de-
liver this fair land from its wretched mis-
rule. Radicals in this body and elsewhere
affirm that the redemption of the South
from the dark night Of negro domination
can only be accomplished in blood. The
question remains, Who, then, will be re-
sponsible, in the sight of God and man, for
the dire result2 The Conservatives, who
warn the negroes against the temptations
put in their path, or the Radicals, who are
leading them to such doom ?
Mr.. MARYE concluded by saying that it
was his Individual opinion that the true
solution of the pressing problem of the fu-
ture of the negro would be best attempted
in the interest Of both races by causing the
Federal Government to use the millions of
money now perverted to injure the negro
in aiding those of that race who were ply
sically able to find home in some favor
able part of our vast public domain, and
in extending helping hand to him in his
efforts to found social and political struc-
ture for his race. The negro, thus blessed
above all other infant colonists, who have
ha6 RI huild mn thairs own fortunes would
have free and fair chance to prove whe-
ther he was capable of achieving political
and social amelioration. And whatsoever