The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-05-29
two COUNTRIES AND TWO FLAGS.

The Crosby Opera House Chicago
Radical Platform, upon which Useless
Slaughter Grant has been placed as a
candidate for President, contains the
following plank:
"The guarantee of Congress Of equdl
suffrage 10 al loyal men at tie South,
was demanded by every consideration
ofpublic safety, Of gratitude, and of
justice, and must be maintained, iC}tHe
the question Of suffrage IN all the iOydl
states properly belongs to the people of
those states"
Thus ''eqnal suffrage to all loyalmen
at the South" is made one of the car
dinal principles Of the so-called Re-
publican party, whilst the question
whether "equal suffrage" should be
granted to "all loyal men" at the
North, IS left undetermined. "AH
loyal men" including 600, 900 Negroes,
are made voters at the South, whilst
at the North, "the people" are to de-
eide whether "dH loyal men,, Negroes
included, shall, or shall not become
voters. This is equality with ven
geance! Here is drawn a line between
the North and the South, as broad as
that which divided the two sections
in the days OF slavery. Here are made
two countries, with different rule of
suffrage for each. Here are two flags
set up, the one with equal suffrage to
all loyal men at the South" inscribed
upon it, the other bearing the motto,
equal suffrage to all loyal men at the
North, prorided they can get H"' OF
course we protest against Negro Stuff
rage, in all its phases but we ask in
telligent "Republicans" to note this
glaring Inconsistency in the platform
which theya are asked to endorse. If
Equal Suffrage is to be the rule in the
United States, why give the benefit
thereof to the ignorant and degraded
ex-slaves of the South, whilst you deny
it to the more intelligent and enligh-
tened blacks of the North? 1t is
answered, in the language of the
Chicago Platform, that ''gratitude and
Justice" demand that the Negroes of
the South should be given the right of
suffrage. All! but many of those
Negroes were "rebels" and even now
svmpathize with the disfranchised
whites, as was proved by the recent
elections in Georgia and Louisiana
Besides, do not ''gratitude and justice"
equally demand that the blacks of the
North, who went into the army and
"proved their loyalty" should be
granted the same privileges that are
conferred upon those of the South?
Most assuredly. How c0wardIy and
then, is the distinction
which this sham "Republican" party
makes between the blacks Of the South
and those of the North! How strong
the contrast between this and the doe
trine of the Democratic party, which
advocates one rule Of Suffrage for all
the States, for the whole country
That rule is, The people Of each md
ereyy state, North and South, East and
WeSt, shall settle for themselves, the
question Of Suffrage. Under the Demo
cratic theory there is but one country
and but one .Fdg. Under Democratic
rule, no black line shall divide the
Union into two countries, with one
rule of suffrage on the one side and
another on the other, no two flags
shall symbolic different political in
stitutions for different sections, but the
people of each and every State shall
determine for themselves what shall
be the character of their institutions,
subject only to the Constitution of the
United States. Away, then, with
Grant who stands upon this platform
which divides, instead of uniting, our
country ;away with the political or
ganization which rallies under two
flags, one for the North and the other
for the South let every true patriot,
every man who hopes and prays that
the Republic may yet live, march un-
der the banner Of Democracy, whose
motto is, zone Country, One flag and
One Destinyw