The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-23
TWO SAUCES.

ne Chicago platform declares it to be the
Luty of the government, meaning thereby the
Republican party, to regulate the right of
suffrage in the South, whilst that question,
as to the North, belongs to the people of the
States. This is lame and impotent attempt
to reconcile the difficulties growing out ofthe
doctrines on which the reconstruction policy
is founded. The assumption Of the right and
the exercise Of the power to control the ques-
ton of suffrage in the South involve the as
sumption of the right to exercise the same
control in the North The apprehension that
this doctrine might be applied to the so-called
loyal States by q congressional majority in
clined to be more logical than discreet, and
more consistent than polite, has been one of
the many causes that have so violently as
sailed the integrity of the Republican party.
People Of ordinary common sense cannot
help seeing that the reconstruction measures
involve an assumption of the right on
the part Of Congress to dictate the form of all
State Constitutions, and the consequent right
to thrust any rule of suffrage upon the States
that the majority may consider expedient or
desirable. Indeed the argument by which the
fourteenth amendment is supported-that d
uniform rule of suffrage should prevail
throughout the country, has, for its logical Sc
quence, denial to the States of the power to
regulate and control this question, because
there can be no uniform rule of suffrage
throughout the country as long as each State
may act on the question for itself The impliea-
ton is unavoidable that, under the radical the
DRY all the States may be subjected to congress
sional scrutiny and control, precisely as in
the case Of the Southern States. But the
radicals of the so-called loyal States do not
mean any such application of the doc
tTine. They want to govern, but they are
not willing to be governed. They have
great use for the negro votes of the South,
but they have very little use for the negro
votes Of the North. A large majority of them
would admit the negroes to the right of suf-
frage but even this willingness, when it has
assumed the practical shape of an effort to
accomplish the object, has contributed to de-
feat them in the elections If they should
appeal to Congress to do for them what they
have urged Congress to do for the South, they
would lose even the small hope which they
retain of carrying the presidential election.
The difficulty was serious, but not, it appears,
insupeTable. 1t is settled by the continuance
of two separate and distinct expedients-one
of them to constitute sauce for the Northern
goose, and the other sauce for the Southern
0ander. The question is judiciously removed
from the domain of doctrine and principle,
and judiciously located in the sacred area of
"loilty." To Congress belongs the right of
regulating suffrage in the South, because the
"trooly loil" population deserve congress
sional gratitude, and require congress
sional Intervention. To the people of
the so-called loyal States be-
longs the question of suffrage in the North,
because-the Chicago convention so DEGREES.
1t is true that this settlement is simply ridicu-
lous and absurd; but it must be remembered
that the ridiculous and the absurd are the
necessary climax of radical doctrines and
practices. A party which proclaims universal
suffrage to be its fundamental principle, and
makes a ruthless and proscriptive disfran-
chisement the cornerstone of its policy;
which parades the Declaration of indie
pendence as its creed, and makes war on
people who attempted to enforce the princi-
pies of the declaration; which tries the Presi-
dent on one set of charges, and wants to con-
Wet him of Ofenses for which he never was
tTied-such party acts congruously and con-
sistently with its own character and history
when it asserts that the people of the North
ern States should control the suffrage ques-
ton for themselves, and that the people of the
South have nothing to do with the matter,
except SO far as the Republican party may
cCndescend to consult with them.