Weekly Trinity journal., 1868-02-22

il obeyed it with equal reluctance Necessity
again married Expectancy to Justice. 10 carry
out the parallel, the elections OF 1867 are 10 De
construed as were those which in 1862 followed
the emancipation proclamation. Inc ia''ei, no
we have said were the last kick OF slavery ana
in the former the sympathy with class-domlna-
lion is going through precisely similar ante
uortem convul:ons.
Rnt YOU will perhaps say, Mr.. President, that
we are assuming too much in declaring that the
tendencies of the age are as plainly toward I'M
martial suffrage as they have been toward uni
yersal freedom You are ready to admit the me-
cessi,y of the military bill, and that when the
formerly dominant class of the South refused to
sit down Mt the feast to which they were invited
we were obliged TO 20 into the +" highways and
hedges" to beat up guests OF different color !;
but YOU will not, perhaps so readily perceive the
application of this necessity beyond the preim-
mary stages Of restoration. We are obliged to
ask the negroes TO help us in this inceptive act
of reconstruction but must we not stop there,
and let the power IN the States once restored re-
vert back to the whites If we do this on the
other hand, is il not clear that we go back to the
point from which we started If we refuse to
accept constitutions because they give political
power to those whom we have allowed voice in
their formation, not only recoil from the re-
suit of our action but must go back again
to the very beginning and there the old alter
der to Mr.. Johnson policy, or of resort to the
extension of the suffrage in the South.
so far AS to the necessities of the case. But
" hat is the popular tendency? You say the peo-
pie are opposed to such extension of the snf-
irage. Well, even admitting this to be the case
have they not emphaticaly declared against
the opposite alternative? One swallow does not
make a summer ard single election is not
perfect indication of popular purpose. We think,
have al firt1af cd hat n LAT
tons represent IL rehucnt wave, which in its next
movement viii overlap thc bar. Besides, the
population Of negro suffrage IN Northern
st te is not quite pertinent as as argument APP
Tcable to Southern Affairs. When the people
at Ohio voted upon this question, 1t was simply
a conflict between prejudice of race on the one
side and abstract principle on the other. or
course the prejudice triumphed. If, however,
one-Ealf Of the population Of Ohio had been col
ored, the conditions Of the conflict would have
been altered and there would have been opposed
to prejudice something more than abstrac-
ton the question would then have been vital
one for the State, involving considerations OF eX-
pediency as we'll OF justice. We will not in
suit the intelligent white people of Ohio by the
supposition that, in that case, they would have
determined upon the exclusion of the entire
black population account of color. But to
make our hypothesis applicable 10 the present
situation in the South, must suppose that
Ohio extends over an entire section of the coun-
try that one third of its population is colored,
and has been emaacipated during a war in which
the whites OF that section threatened to destroy
the national government: that after complete
national victory, the whites, encouraged by
recreant President have refused TO assent to a
constitutional amendment, the principal purpose
Of which was to prevent whites who had been
rebels from having nearly twice the power which
would belong to those who had remained loyal
and that, upon this, the nation, compelled to
choose between a surrender of this amendment
or resort to the negro vote, has chosen the lat
Ger. This is exactly the Southern situation.
The question Of negro suffrage is then not sim
J iy vital one to each Of the Southern States
Tor its own sake, bat TO the entire nation in the
interests of peace. In New York or Connecticut,
where no such important issues depending, /
il is OF comparatively little consequence.
But even if you admit that both tie neccssi-
ties of the moment and the popular tendency
decide in favor Of an extension of suffrage to ne
groes in the South, you may, perhaps, have your ,
doubt as TO the results of immelia and univer-
sal suffrage. The risk is undoubtedly great
bur, after all is it great was to be antici- /
rated from sudden and universal emancipation ?
President Lincoln had many fears as to the re-
suits in the latter case, and even after his pro-
clamaion, he declared to Congress his prefer
ence for system Of gradual ancipaton. But
Congress, wisely, as the event proved, took the
risk. And here also, in this other matter, the
risk must be taken. We are confident that the
dangers feared are ina ginary. Some sagacous
politicians predicted, and many feared, that the
proclamation of emancipation would be followed
by negro Instruction; bat not n single in
stance occurred to justify this fear. The appre-
tensions which exists in the minds of some
that negro Suffrage will bring . war of
races" will prove in like manner to have been
pnlv nolitipol hurhaar Tho n,n.ivo 20 rb
war is far stronger if the blacks excluded
from political rights but give them these rights,
break down the barrier of caste in the South, /
and the very occasion for such violent antagon-
ism disappears. We shall fad that the very
means by which alone we are able to obtain a /
just basis Of restoration, are those which will
also secure internal harmony in those States
which have the largest proportion of the colored
population.
There is another consideration from which we
may gather hope. SO soon as the nation is re-
stored upon the large basis of equal rights for
Nil men, the negro will cease to be an element of
political agitation. Not only so, bat the very
questions which are prominent, and
which divide between the two races at the South,
will be forever set at rest. As new problems
arise, pertaining to finance, commerce, labor,
md education, this inveterate prejudice Of race
never so strong at the South it has been at
the North-wil be ignored as political ee-
ment. What opportunity for division can occur
between whites and blacks (as such), upon the
questions of free trade. Of taxation, of currency,
of common schools, of foreign policy? 1t will !
not be matter of surprise to us, if this measure
of negro suffrage should become popular among
the Southern whites, when the latter come to see
that thereby their States secure larger influ-
ence in our national councils than they could
otherwise expect, and that, in all their local in
teres;s, they can depend upon the support of
race, the interests of which, by its admission TO
the body polite, have become Identical with
their own.
The idea that the numerical superiority of the
negro population in few Of the Southern States
will lead to agrarianisn, or to the success OF
other wild schemes which haunt our too active
ina ginations, is simply absurd. Intelligence
and the advantages of wealth are always more
than counterbalance against an ignorant ma
joritv, except in those cases where they are ar
raved against the interests of that majority, and
then they ought to be defeated. The numerical
majority of the blacks can effect nothing against
the whites, except in SO far as an attempt Is
made by the latter to Cypress the former Mea'
sures directed against the blacks will unite them
in a solid phlanx of resistance That is fortun-
ate We must III such a case pay our reverence