Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-07-31
loss OF EXPERIMENTATION

AHRNR WI haEdDNN
The New York Post (Republican) calls
attention 10 fact that may interest our
Legislators That paper says
"The second section Of the newly adopted
fourteenth amendment Of the Constitution
will make some changes in the electoral
vote, az soon "a Congress legislates on the
matter. IL declares:
90 When the right TO vote at any election
for the choice Of electors for President and
Vice President Of the United States, Rep
resentaiives in Congress and executive aud
judicial officers of State, OF the members
Of the Legislatures thereof, is denied to any
Of the male inhabitants OF such State, (being
twenty-one years of age and citizens Of the
United Stated, or in any way abridged ex-
cept for participation in the rebellion or
other crime, the basis Of representation
therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which the number Of such male citizens
shall bear 10 the whole number Of male
citizens twenty-one years Of age in said
State
"a correspondent calls our attention 10
the fact that, under this clause, Maryland,
which does not allow her colOred people 10
vote, will lose one member of Congress aud
an eleclor in the Presidential College. But
MARYLAND does not stand alone. Teanes-
see, which has disfranchised a considerable
part Of the white population, must lose one
or more members Of Congress and electors;
and the St. Louis Republican says:
ain Missouri, rating our negro populA-
ton at 100000 TO 125,000, the number Of
male negroes above twenty-one years Of
/ .l1,wgaI 10 mould
very near. under this fourteenth amend
ment, cutting us of from ore RepreIenta-
tive in Congress, reducing our political
power there in that proportion
"Hhe amendment was doubtless intended
| 10 lead TO general or impartial suffrage, by
imposing a penalty, in loss Of representa-
ton, upon States who deny this by their
Legislatures But no isir-minded man can
dispute the Justice of the rule II, in any
State, part Of the people assume the sole
/ right to vote, these cannot, in justice, ask
| that their votes shall count Al much IA the
| whole vote Of the State. IL, for instance,
in Maryland the blacks or in Tennessee
| large proportion Of the whites, are dislran-
| chsed, it would be a wrong to the other
States, in which general suffrage prevails,
10 let the voters Of Maryland and Tennes-
zee have a representation in Congress. and
| in the EleClorcl College, founded upon their
whole population, including the disfran-
chised "a we'll as the voters"
The acknowledgements of white men in
this State was made ostensibly "for
participation in the rebellion, but every
man in Tennessee knows that was
only pretCxt, the real reason being to
secure the control Of the State, county
and municipal Offices to the Radical
party. But admit that they were dis
franchised "for participation in the re-
bellion," and that the fourteenth article
Of the Constitution just ratified is er post
.tact0 in its operation, the President has
| pardOncd all these white men, and what
ever of crime attached to them in the eyes
efthe Federal government has been wiped
out, and they are to>day placed upon,
precisely the same footing they occupied
before the war. II, after this the dis
reimbursement is continued, Tennessee
must lose in her representation in Com
gress We are preparing to hold an cleo,
ton for an additional member of Com
gress from this State at large, when in
reality We are probably not entitled to
more than seven The men who will con-
troll the forty-lirst Congress may be of a
very different stripe from those who con-
troll the present Congress, and they will
most likely enforce the letter of the law
| against Tennessee and other States who
refuse to their citizens the right to vote