Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1868-03-20

The legislature has passed the reso-
luton submitting the question of stri-
king out the word white from the
Constitution of Iowa. This is right
The time has come for the people of
this State to prepare for action on this
subject. We have enfranchised the
colored race%f the Southern States,
and our opponents dare us to do justice
mt home. The legislature has wisely,
we think, discarded the question of
DISTINGUISHING deserters, and to put the
issue upon its naked merits, freed from
the embarrassing circumstances that
those who oppose the amendment would
hope to be dragged along with 1t. It
is disgrace for States protesting to be
governed by principles of justice, to
exclude any man from the exercise of
the elective franchise, and tits noto-.
rious fact that the majority of States
having Republican legislatures, ex.
clude from the people the opportunity
TO test this question. Michigan, New
York and Iowa, will enter the Presi-
DENTAL contest with these additional
issues, and with proper vigor the word
white can be stricken out 10y the peo-
pie. We drive men away from the
polls because they are black, when,
were the same treatment bestowed on
ashamed toFput arms into the hands of
our negroes-we were not afraid to give
the American flag into their keeping
we did not hesitate to- make substitutes
of negro men TO save our white blood,
then why should we be afraid to do JUS
tice to him, by giving him the elective
franchise? Will 1t make the State
more Republican or more Democratic,
when the black voters of black male
population of 250S have votes to cast !?
Not an honest Republican in this state
would endure the policy that keeps ten
millions of Englishmen from deciding
for themselves at the polls, yet there
are men in Iowa-proud, justly proud
of her heroic record-who would for
generations keep the black man from
voting. There is never any danger in
being just. The emancipation of the
slaves of the States in rebellion was an
act of justice that its author feared
would rend the north and distract the
whole country, and perhaps defeat the
and the shackles fell from the bleeding
millions who had groaned in agony
and despair for two centuries, and all
went well. Is there negro in the
State lower in the scale of intelligence
than the meanest white man yet ev-
cry one who can satisfy the officers of
the election that he has no African
blood in him, is entitled to vote, and
the negro who can read his ticket, pays
taxes, bore arms, owns land, reyeres
God and hates tyranny, is turned away
like brute that has no business to be
a man. 1t may be policy. for some men
to be excluded from the polls. 1t would
be policy If the Democratic party could
exclude all the Republicans. and it
is policy for some Republicans to wish
to keep the negro in subsection, and
they be allowed to represent him on
the day of election. There is domin-
eering, tyrannical spirit in the white
race-and it crops out in this Republi-
can government of ours-that would
grind to the dust the refuse of human
ity. And here in Iowa we see it in
forms that should argue,a happier state
of things. The present constitution of
the State as il stands is reflex of the
overbearing spirit. The Legislature
has pledged itself and taken the proper
step to erase those cruel words from
that instrument, and before the fall of
snow next year, Iowa will be free in
deed, if her people are true to their
sense of justice. gEg