The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-03-23
CHI AZ L ES TON. f..
MONDAY MORNING, MARCH %, 1868.
Universal Suffrage.

What sort of suffrage is the country des'
tined to accept as fnality? 1t is evident
that we have not yet reached the aim to
which the most active and progressive mem
bers of the Republican party are tending.
Mr.. STEVENS demands universal suffrage.
Mr.. WADE, Mr. CHASE, Mr.. BEEcHER, and
others, insist upon female suffrage. The
Radical Convention of South Carolina ex-
cludes paupers from the bsllot-bo1. The
Radical Convention of Virginia accords to
them the right of suffrage. But if the prin-
ciple that suffrage is an inalienable right
prevails-an opinion avowed by many OF
the Republican leaders-there must be a
further extension of the privilege.
If suffrage is an opinion expressed at the
ballot-to1, what right has Mr.. SUMNER to
restrict liberty of opinion to men, or Mr..
CHASE to men and women. Our boys and
girls have opinions upon political subjects,
which s.re likely to be quite as good as those
of any imported citizen or any emancipated
field hand. Certainly young man or wo-
man of twenty can vote as intelligently as
person Of twenty-one. Let the inaliena-
BILE rights of young America be respected,
soy we. Let suffrage be universal. Inau-
gurate the political millennium at once. Let
US 90 to the polls in pretty family groups,
az the Patriarohs used to travel in the days
of ABRAHAM. Or let the young people vote
by schools, in fanciful French way, the
boys with tri-color rosettes at the button
hole, tAe girls in white dresses and rain
bow ribbons. Upon every church spire
nail the flag to show that religion is free;
spread the red stripes to show that the
wounds of the nation are healed, and the
thick stars to show that the night Of despair
is ended
The worthy enthusiastic GUDIN, in his
Supplement to the Social Contract, has
shown how the assembly Of the people for
voting and the taking of the votes can be
picturesquely arranged. GuDIN had thought
of the churches as suitable voting places,
but concluded upon reflection that there
would be too much sadness and isolation in
these resorts. He preferred that there
should be an amphitheatre in each city,
enclosing the field Of federation. Here
the citizens should assemble, each under
the standard of his section, under the eyes
of their wives and children, while the
young people who had not yet attained their
majority should be under arms for the
maintenance of order. The ballots should
be received by the officers under the flag,
who should deposit them in Golfer upon
an altar; they should then be counted anew
by the City Council, after which the Mayor
should proclaim the result to the multitude.
The remainder of the auspicious day should
be given up to banquets, dances and joy.
GuDIN did not 60 quite as far as the Radi-
Gals are going; but he was an advocate of
suffrage well nigh universal, and he has
given some pretty suggestions which per-
haps may be acceptable to our Radical di-
rectors and managers of suffrage. Perhaps
it may be profitable to add that the fanciful
arrangement of GUDIN was devised in 1791-
just two years before the outbreak of the
Reign of Terror.
Trick it out with the ornaments of rhet-
oric and the pomp of scenic representation
as we will, this assertion of universal suf-
frage simply implies the overthrow of all
government. In France it prepared the
way for RoBEspIERRE; in England, where it
was in like manner proclaimed by the Re-
| publican party, it necessitated the despo-
tism of CROMWELL. There is close cor
respondence between the condition of our
country now and that of England in the
AGE to which we refer. "The Republican
party" says GuIzor, "paid no respect to
the pa. life of England; it renounced her
institutions; it swept away all national re-
membranes; it threw down the whole
fabric of English Government, that 1t might
build up another founded OF pure theory