Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-06-19
ALEXANDRIA.
h .FRID4A:Y'Is EVENING, JUNE 10.

- , q
tsssaas Bniyersal Suffrage. ,Ts
fso!Mfss Daniel w Voorhess recently delivered
: speech at New Albany, Ind, in which he
expressed his viewaon the suffrage question, as
follows - sl3 s9 800 So &c. 2s
% 81 am one Of those persons that hold, first,
upon the question of suffrage, that it is not
question Of Federal politics at ALL take it
that no man of honesty, no man of common
intelligence, believes that Congress has the
right to force code of suffrage on the State
of Indiana. Has Congress the right to enforce
negro suffrage everywhere? l will read the
Ghicago platform that :. transparent fraud up
ON the question directly. They say they have
not power to enforce it over the~rest. 1t is
question for the States and the States alone.
IF the people Of any State desire to incorporate
the negro race into their voting population,
that is their business not mine But | should
never do it and / will give you my reasons
why. IF the people Of a State desire to do it,
they have the power to do it, however unwise
that act may be; but the power of Congress
edoes not extend to that. No question is plain
err; and the Democratic party stands upon
that doctrine. But We 60 further. We hold
that the attempt to lningle and commingle two
separate and distinct races In the control of
one government has, according to history, re-
suited fatally to the government that attemp.
ted it., have no prejudices against the black
men. II have no prejudices against anything
qhumbIest and lowest thing Of animated crea-
ton has my sympathy and my respect, because
God made it. e@4 Z5a2%sit5 Sc
IT: IS not because would trample upon the
black man that I would deprive him Of the
right of suffrage in this country but because
the right of suffrage 10 his hand is an element
Of his own destruction as Wellas yours. / would
give the black man every civil right known to
the faw. Suffrage is not right it is a social
arrangement I would give the negro the right
to hold property, the right to make contracts
and enforce them, collect his wages. sue and
be sued, testify In courts-for | would illus
trate truth from any source. and weigh the
character oil the witnesses, and let their evil
dence 60 for what it is worth-but when you
ask me to take that race into political partner
ship with the great white, conqueriDg race, to
whose hands, and to whose hands alone, your
fathers gave the government of this nation,
then, say a sacrilege is attempted, and re-
coil from it. Applause
~ But if it is the right of the negro to
vote, it is inalienable; and why hasn't he the
right to vote in Indiana and Ohio as well as in
Georgia? Yet, last fall the question of negro
suffrage was submitted to the people Of Ohio,
and they voted it down by nearly fifty thou
sand majority. 1t was submitted to the peo-
piei;ot Michigan, and it was voted down by
forty thousand majority. But they dare not
submit the question to the people of Indiana,
and they dare not do it at the South, but they
enforce it South by legislative proceedings in
Congress, supported by the bayonet, for which
youlpay out of your hard learned taxes. Negro
suffrage there is good thing What IS this
and piebald platform? IF it is right for a ne
gro to vote there, it is right for him to vote
here Why do this party not stand up like
men and advocate the doctrine logically? No
meaner, no more cowardly, no more pitiful, no
more evasiVe dodge, was ever placed before the
American people In political platform than
that, second pitiful blank, white North and
black South. [Cheers. II