The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-01-15
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE
LETTER FROM SENATOR ROSS.
U. S. sENATE CnAMBER,

submitting to the people the proposition
to amend our Constitution, by striking
out the word white" during the COM
ing session of the Legislature, is being
very generally discussed.
1t is needless to say to you that / am
gratified, not only by the persistent
determination of the friends of the
proposition, but also by the very fair
I prospect, this time, of its adoption by
the people. had hoped that Kansas
might be the first of the free States to
extend suffrage to the black man, and
thus to have kept the van, as she had
! heretofore, in the march of political
| progress, but that proud distinction has
gone from us, and we must content
ourselves with a lower place in the
scale. Other States have secured that,
the remembrance of which will in all
coming time be a source of grateful
pride-the credit of having been the
first in the Union to voluntarily
acknowledge the equality of human
right, and to rebuke the caste legis-
lation of the past, by the most practical
of all tests, the enactment of impartial
Manhood Suffrage.
am not at all discouraged by the de-
feat of this proposition in our State at
the election of 1867, and propose, so far
as my influence may contribute to that
end, to.repeat the effort from year to
year, until it shall be successful; for
until we extend the right of suffrage to
the colored men of our own State, we
! shall be justly obnoxious to the charge
/ of insincerity, and of enforcing it upon
others for.merely partiZan purposes-a
criticism which no party, however
/ strong. can afford to provoke. Until
we prove our sincerity in the advocacy
1 of impartial suffrage, by accepting it
/ for ourselves, we stand convicted of a
most glaring Inconsistency.
! Not only. that, but it's tenure in the
/ reconstructed States is greatly weaken
ed and its maintenance hazarded, so
long as there are any considerable num-
Der of States in the North, who refuse
to accept it for themselves, as polite
al principle, while they enforce it upon
others. By the enforcement of Negro
Suffrage in the South, we have barely
established the principle. 1t stands
upon no practical and enduring basis
until it shall prevail to such an extent
; throughout the Union, as TO character
izc our system of Suffrage.
In my opinion, it is not only within
the power, but it is the duty of Con
gress, to declare and establish this righ
in all the States, by CongressiODa
enactment, and hope to have the salts
faction, before the close of the presen
session, of voting for such bill, though
l regret to say that the chances for it
success, at this time, are not the mos
: encouraging. 1t therefore becomes the
duty of the friends of the measure
, everywhere, to spare no effort to secure
its speedy adoption in their respective
; States.
1t is unnecessary to repeat the argu
ment that these people have earned ;
; recognition. of this right by their sigma
service during the war. That is patent
to everybody. A race which has tough
for it's liberty as that has done, cannot
be incapable of an intelligent dischargt
: of its responsibilities. 1t is also appar
!, ent to the least rejecting, that there cal
be no freedom, in its broad and distinct
/ i've. sense, without the right of suffrage
The ballot is as much the bulwark o
liberty to the black man, as it is to TIN
white.
} To continue his exclusion from tn
ballot box i'll any considerable portion
t of the Union, is to encourage futur
5 efforts for the deprivation of that RICH
| in the States where it now exists. Tina
: gone, it would be but single step t,
} the reduction of the negro again t.
= slavery. The only sure protection o
= this Nation against the ultimate re
: establishment of that institution, is b,
: the adoption and rigid maintenance, il
all the States, of the doctrine of Impair
e tial Suffrage. 1 might say further, ant
: all the logic of history would bear IN
I out iii the assertion, that in no way cal
e National and individual liberty be S,
: fully secured, and the harlnoniOu
: working of all the elements of polite
: and society so effeetually sustained, a
by the establishm ent of Universal Stuff
c rage, in its broadest and completes
:: sense. AS no human being, of matur
: age and mental development, was eve
t designed by Nature to he beneath an
h other in political right, so no one ha
e the right to assume to himself politica
1 guardianship over another.
1 A. 4o1 &C.
: that the surest guarantee of peace AM
e permanence III our political fabric,
: equality of political right, regardless o
{ all fictitious and arbitrary distinctions
t 1t demonstrated that so long as suffrag
' is withheld, even from a class number
e ing but an eighth of our population, a
: was the case before the war, we stan,
: upon volcano, liable at any momen
l to be engulfed in its fires-that there
e no surety of permanence in a govern
n ment which denies that right to singl
= human being under the shadow of it
}. banner. The highest. type OF huma
: government is that in which all tn
: rights of all its people are recognize,
t and protected by its laws, and withou
;. tthat, perfect Republican government
: cannot exist.
S That is the issue that is now upon u:
t and L trust that Kansas will make hast
a to place herself where she belongs, il
e the van of the fight, for the controvers
: to which it will give rise will not ceas
a till our laws recognize every right wit
: which the God of Nature has endowe,
o His creatures, and clothes with thei
: protecting panoply the humblest ma