Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-05-07
SENATOR DRAKE TO THE RADICAL
MEN Of MISSOUrI.

coming events. 1t is one of the most stir
ring and forcible appeals we have ever
read. The following powerful argument
taken from it in favor of impartial suffrage
is especially interesting and acceptable at
the present time:
You will probably have perceived that
these remarks refer not only to the coming
election of officers in our State, but to that
great question upon which, in November
next; you are to vote-Impartial Suffrage.
The pcndency of this great question there is
the principal occasion of this address. /
wish to commune with you, my political as
sociates, on that important subject, and, if
can TO bring all your minds to the conclu-
sion of my own upon it. With the utmost
sincerity say to you, that l believe the
honor of the loyal men of Missouri involved
| in this great matter two ways involved; /;
| first, in meeting the issue fairly and square
ly; and secondly, in sustaining impartial
suffrage.
On the first point, do earnestly protest
against any attempt, come whence it may,to
avoid the issue, or to put it out of sight, or
to ignore it. 1t was put before the people
by Legislature, in both branches of which
the Radicals had an overwhelming majority,
and we cannot with honor do otherwise than
meet it, am prepared to meet it. am
ready to go before the people upon it. / am
so because / believe it RIGHT to give the
ballot to the negro, and wrong TO deny it to
| him. am so because, freed from the boil
cage of slavery, he should be freed from the
| bondage of CASTE l am so because as a
freeman he ought TO have,as you and l have,
| the means, though tine ballot, of protecting
aud defending his personal, legal, and polif-
ical rights and privileges. | am so because
he, as much as |, is citizen of the United
State, and should, MS much as /, have all
| the franchises OF a citizen. But, especially,
| am so because he has every way proved
himself loyal and true to his country, though
it had ever heen to him country of slavery.
If ever patriotism marked race, it marks
the negro race in this land. If ever race
displayed patience, forbearance, fortitude,
courage, fidelity, and truth, that race has.
If ever race showed itself worthy of full
citizenship, that race has. Can these things
be truthfully denied? If not, why should
you not see the truth, and seeing, act it
out? Why persesere in injustice? Why in
one clause OF your Constitution disfranchise
rebels for their unequalled crime against
your country, and in another clause disiran-
chise the defenders of your country. not for
crime, but because God made them black
| If you say that | helped to frame that Con-
/ stibutWi III uuShCi tIub ulu,
but answer further, that | was then, as
much as now, for Impartial Suffrage; but
| the Convention believed that If it had been
| embodied in the Constitution; in the then
state of public sentiment, our whole work
would have been lost, and our State lost,
| too, to loyal control. The imminent de-
mand of the hour was to bar rebels out from
the control of, Missouri, and it was deemed
most important to secure that great point,
and leave the rest to follow in due time.
That due time has come. A Radical Legis-
lature has put the question before you,
whether you will persist in excluding the
loyal negro, along with the white rebel, from
the ballot-box? When that negro asks you
to permit him 10 vote, and points to his
honorable discharge as n soldier of the Union
against the rebellion as his claim, and you
reject his request, you say to him, in effect,
if not in words, sStand out there with trail
tors, for you are black When another, half
white, stone blind from rebel bullet. pre-
fers the same petition, your reply is, 'Stand
cut there with rebels, for you are mulatto!"
When Still another, three-quarteis white,
comes with scared visage to make the same
appeal, and tell you that in this battle, under
Grant, he fought side by side with your
brother, or in that, under Sherman,he saved
the life OF your son, you answer, ''Stand out
there with that gang Of graybacks, for you
are a quidroon!' When still another, sew
en-eights white, limps along on his crutcfies
| to make the same request, and reminds you
tnat he was manned for life in defending
your home, your wife, and your little ones
from the blood-thirsty bushwhacker, your
response is, "Stand out there with those
bushwhackcrs, for there is a visible admix-
ture' of negro blood in your veins !"
Men of Missouri a! is not this so ? Is there
q
those brave men but that blood !? You know
there is not. Had they been aOhite slaves
would you, in giving them their freedom,
have denied them the ballot You know
you would not. Do you now believe them
morally or mentally unfit for it? You know
you do not. Why then, prescribe them as
voters? You know that there is no other
ground for it than prejudice-a mere un-
reasoning, senseless prejudice You have
been accustomed to regard them as inferior
so inferior that, though citizens, they
ought not to have the common rights of
other citizens | have in years past known
somewhat of other feeling; but, thank God
| have outlived it, as / trust you have.
cannot face my conscience and longer
cherish / permit such feeling Upon the
commonest and plainest grounds of humani-
ty, generosity, Christian magnanimity, and
simple right, lappeal to you to Danish that
hateful prejudice, and do Justice to your col
ored fellow man for all his truth and courage
and fidelity to you and your country.
History presents no such spectacle of a
race long held in bondage and suddenly
emancipated making such earnest and
steady efforts to prove themselves worthy of
their freedom as the negroes, old and young,
of the former stave States are now making
In the face of every olstce which cruelty
| tyr nd II IN, I'M ar tI,ry
are pressing ON in the pursuit of knowledge !;
and the day is not dstant-if, indeed, it is
not already herc--when larger proportion
of them will read and write, than Of the
white. people around them. In every other
way they are laboring for their own ceva-
tion in respectfully. Look about you and
see if it is not so. Don't take single cases
of the opposite character, but the mass, and
you will say, as do, that they are honestly
and faithfully trying to make themselves
good and useful citizens, and are doing it..
They thus reiute every argument based on
the assumption of their inherent worthless
ness when free. They would convince you
that they are worthy of your confidence and
friendship. They claim the right of all men
in this land to rise, ii they can, into a better
condition. Why smite them down? Why
keep them from making themselves as val
liable citizens as they are capable of being
Why deny them vote in the Government
they fought to preserve, and now help, just
as white men do, to maintain? What did
you free them for, if you will not let them
be all that freemen ought to be, and have all
the rights of others no freer than they
Why frown down whole race that has
C ommitted no crime, done no wrong, and
against whom nothing can be alleged but
the color of their skin? Did their color pre-
vent your asking them to fight for youl
country in the hour of its dcadliest peril
Were they anywhere less brave than thcil
white fellow soldiers? Was there any diff
ference in endurance and power between
black muscles and white in the marches and
battles of that war? Was not the blood
poured out to save your country, just as
, much life blood when it streamed from the
heart of neg as from that of white
man? You know it was; and yet, while
you honor and cherish the white soldier, al
every patriot should, you repulse. keer
down, and degrade the black soldier, if yol
deny him the full rights of citizenship; ant
this for no other reason on earth than tn,
| color of hic oh IL,