The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1868-05-22
THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION.

The hobby of the opposition at pres
ent is the nigger." and the outcry
against the Republicans that they favor
negro suffrage, negro equality, social
ly and politically" Taking advantage of
the prejudices existing against the ne
gro, they endeavor to make political
capital of the Republican reconstruction
of the Southern States on an impartial
basis as regards color. We took occa-
sion few days ago to show the Deno-
cratic party has been for decades COM
mitted to negro suffrage. The Gazette
could not deny but pleaded exemption
from the committal on the ground that
Andrew jackson and his cOnfreres, dead
and gone, did not, by their beliefs, bind
the Democratic party of to-day to that
issue. We frankly admit that you have
d:sclaimed them and their Democracy by
every act. You say the Democratic
party is now unit opposed to negro
suffrage. You cannot deny that South
Carolina has long been the educator and
leader of Southern Democracy, as Mas
sachusetts is of Northern Radicalism.
In view of the New York Convention,
in which Northern Democrats win sit
side by side with those of South Carolina,
we append for the ediication of the
Gazette a resolution passed few days
since by the Democratic Convention of
that State. Digest it if you can:
Resolved, That under the action OF the
State of South Carolina, heretofore taken, we
recognize the colored population of the State
as an integral element of the body polite;
and as such, In person and property, entitled
to a full and equal protection under the Sate
South Carolina we declare our willingness,
when we have the power, to grant them, un-
der proper qualification rs to property and in
telligence, the right of suffrage.
Had Democrats spark of hope that
the negroes would vote that ticket in
preference to the Republican, there is
not one in ten thousand of them woCld
ask any other qualification than shin
bone and a woody head. To be frank
with the Gazette, our individual view is,
qualified impartial suffrage TO al citizens
Jcith0ut distinction on account Of race or
color. Such it has been for years and
is as firmly now as ever. We truly be-
lieve it will one day become an absolute
necessity for the perpetuity and welfare
of the country, and will be the rallying
cry for party that will wave its ban
ners in triumph over every other. Uni
versal suffrage but hastens tho day.
The latter was a necessity at the time
of it's adoption. 1t is just as right for
the blacks to have unrestricted suffrage
as it is for the whites, and until there is
required equal qualifications from each,
we advocate manhood suffrage on prin-
ciple, as well as in wholly deferring our
individual views on abstract questions
to the aggregated will of that great par
ty most nearly representing what we
consider right, aud by which alone they
can be made triumphant, we do that
which we conceive, during or immedi
ately preceding any great crisis, the
right, privilege and high duty of every
one having interest in the welfare OF the
country. He that does not do thus, lets
his vanity, conceited selhshness, idiotic
obstinacy or ambition, have triumph
over better judgment, and the abeyance
of his individual ideas on subordinate or
secondary questions, that the more Wis
tai and momentous may triumph
through unity of purpose AID action,
This is our opinion of the duty of a cit
/ izen and voter.