Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-11-27
THE NEGRO THE ISSUE IN THE
CANVASS.

Absorbing topic of conversation III 'nis
canvass. he ia the political celebrity o.
the day, and demands our careful consio-
GRAFTON. No citizen of our community
should fail to give the looming man = q
respectful notice at the ballot-box on the
18th of next month. We would ask, Is
there white mon of this community
who is prepared to take the Ethiopian
into his parlor, to meet him IN the par
rooms, in hotels and railroad cars on
terms Of equality?
sueh is the policy of those who adyo-
cate the negro's right to vote ans hold
Office. he has that right already ille-
pally. and in few short years We have
experienced the i'll effects of the doctrine.
To illustrate Take. for instance, our
city street railroad cars, to say nothing
of other public conveyances. A decent
man cannot take his wife, daughter or
fsmale friend into one of them for
short ride of square without being
brouvht in direct contact with stinken
African, and have him thrust into their
laps and under their very noses
And this arises from the progressive
teachings of universal Suffrage. Men
who recognized this right of the
negroes have found it necessary to sit
down with then, ct their tables, and &C.
tually to sleep with them, as Barbour
Lewis has done. The object for doihg
this by class of politicians 10 orr city
has been to control the negro vote,
beiur aware the thing could be done only
in this way. Negro suffrage will DO very
we'll in the North, where few of the
race abound; but in the South, where
there are so many, it should not be
thought of for moment when the ques-
tion is Left to the people to decide.
It's urged upon us as political measure
to enfranchise the negro. ss sfterward we
would have the right to control his vote.
That is glory we don't care to share in.
We have no aspirations to be leader of
Cuifey now or hereafter. He can vote as
be pleases, and it generally pleases him
to vote against decent people. Some
have asserted that our policy would drive
the Northern States into an adoption of
the Fifteenth Amendment. How ridicu.
ious.
To adopt universal suffrage into the
constitution Of our State would be an ar
gument with the Republican party
to adopt it in the Constitution of
the United States, as it would be urged, q
citizen Of one State should be citizen
Of every other State of this Union;
that as few of the States had extended
this RICH, to the negro it should become
uniform throughout the Government, and
that Congress should exercise the right
of making it so. Then the Republican
party of the North would say farther
TO our Democratic friends of that region,
that the Southern Democracy have
adopted universal suffrage, and will be
the greater sufferers by it Why, then,
will you persist in demanding the dis
franchisement Of the negro by rejec-,
ton Of the = fifteenth Amendment Il
would be to furnish the Republican
party battle-ax with which to clesve the
skulls Of our Democratic psrtissus, and
in acting thus would be treating our
friends very badly. We should stand by
our colors, and if we are to go down, let
us 20 down with our banner to the breeze.
There are a few in our community
who processes to be opposed to negro sui-
frage in the abstract, as they term it, but
in favorof letting the question stand as
it now is part of our Constitution.
If the Acknowledgement of this late
freedman be wrong as a separate proposi-
ton, it mus, continue for oil time aud
uHder all circumstances to be so. The
fact of our not having the power to pre-
vent this wrong in the fret place does no,
now make it right And, upon the other
hand, when it is in our power to abolish
the evil, there can be no question sbou;
its being our duty to do so. There is
nothing to be gained by a counivauce
at so great On evil, and everything to be
gained by getting rid otit The time has
now arrived; let it be done.
THE REORGANIZATION OF THE
COUNTS OF SHELBY COUNTY.