Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-04-02
The Suffrage Amendment.

A correspondent of the New York Times,
man of great ability and experience, writing
under the sobriguet of ga Veteran Obser-
YER" of the proposed Fifteenth Amend
ment, says :
"My opinion has always been that what's called
the Fifteenth Amendrn mt to the Constitution.
cannot be adopted in either Ohio or Indiana or
probably Illinois If understand that amend
ment, it forces the States to admit Chinese as we'll
as groes to vote, and Hindoos if they shall come
Now want to ask you in the Times: fTSt, II 1t
ia right to admit pagan Chinese and Hlndoos 70
vote If YOU could Second, II on have right
| to force upon any Stale, even by an amendment
| to the Constitution, change in it's fundamental
structure viz : the members Of The civil comm1-
nifty? And third, How You propose to ehforce
| that amendment Oh the States that reject the
amendment 1.-THE State of Ohio should reject
| that amendment, what can you do to enforce 1t !?
These are very serious questions, and II that
amendment is to be carried into party issnes, |
think the Republican party has more to dread
than at any time since its formation"
It has been our opinion that this amend
ment would become stumbling block in
the onward path of the Radical party. The
result of the election in Indiana has proved
the correctness of the correspondent
of The Times, in regard to that State,
and we have no doubt Ohio will be as en-
| phatic in its rejection in October next.
To show how completely States have
been suyugated by Congress. We have only
to publish the answer of the Times to the
questions proposed. States which were
Jealous of their own rights have had their
powers taken from them by endorsing the
action of Congress in destroying State
governments in the South. The chalice
prepared for others, they themselves have
been made to drink.
The Times says
"As to the right to force anything we
choose upon State, by an amendment of
the Federal Constitution, We supposed that
had been settled affirmatively during the
last three years, and that it had now be-
come little less than treason, to the party
at oil events, to doubt it. The States have
practically been reduced to very insignif-
cant positions in our political system and
we have no doubt a very strong portion of
the dominant political sentiment of the
country looks upon them as much more
like counties, or wholly subordinate frac,
tons of the nation, than as essential ele-
ments of its sovereign authority.
| How the amendment is to be enforced
upon States that reject it, we do not know
but we presume in the same way as any
other obligation of the national Constitu.
ton is enforced upon any State. We should
like to answer this question by asking oul
correspondent another how is the au
thority of the amendment, if it becomes
part of the Constitution, to be resisted by
any State ? Experiments made hitherto
by States in that direction have not had
prosperous or encouraging issues.
"One thing seems to us clear-it is an
infamous mockery Of justice and equal
rights, to talk of making laws or passing
constitutional amendments, securing politi
cal Or civil rights to all men, without dis
tinction of race or color, so long as Chimes.
or Hindoos are treated as they now are il
California-without hindrance or protes
on the part of the General Government"