The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1869-04-02
VOL. 64.--WH0LE No. 5,4S5.

people reside within our limits, yet
$4,000 men control the State, and less
than 800, 600 of those spoke the voice
of our population in October last. T.
Universal suffrage is myth, and the
slckly can't upon that subject, SO COM
mon Ia these days, is arrant humbug.
1t never has existed and never can ex-
ist in practice, and this in itself dc
monstrates that suffrage is not natu-
raj right. The rule of exclusion must
be fixed some where and every State
must draw that line for itself. The
| people OF this State have said that this
isapolitjca{ community Of sglstte men ouer
the age Of q gears, and have vested
them with the power of the State
! Universal suffrage cannot exist for in
/ practice it is invariable to exclude
those not naturalized, those under a
certain age and females. We have a
million and half of females, as deep
| Iy interested in the success of our in
/ stitutions as you or /, vested by nature
| with all those qualities which would
make them fitted for all the duties of
the State, and infinitely superior to the
| negro. Yet they are excluded. There
are more citizens under the age of q
years than there are over that age
| They have more interest in this govern
ment, Senators, then we have, for they
are to survive US and those who cleo
| ted US; they are to defend the Com
monwealth in the near future; they
are to pay its taxes and administer its
government. Yet all these are exclu-
ded and deprived of the right. But you
affirm that the negro defended the re-
| public in war, and therefore he should
| be given the right of suffrage. If this
be sound, why will you not give it to
the half million of men between the
ages of 10 and 81, from whose ranks
| you filed the gaps in your regiments
during all of the war. Were they not
all as gallant, are they not as intelli-
gent, have they not as much interest
in our institutions as the negro? Yet
| depriving all Of these classes of this
right, you are about to throw open the
polls to the negro. 1t is privilege,
nay duty, and all cannot be vested
with it. Why shall we admit the in
ferior and exclude the superior? Why
| include the few and exclude the many?
! Why enfranchiSe the less deserving and
exclude the more meritorious?
Suffrage is political power vested
! by the sovereignty Of the community
! in chosen body of electors" 1t in
wolves duties and responsibilities, and
/ it is our duty as members ofthe state to
! place those responsibilities and devolye
/ those duties upon those best fitted to
perform them. 1t is the right of the
mass of the people to be properly rep
resented at the polls, and tits the right
! of the Commonwealth to be we'll SER
we'd by the electors. Can these duties
! and responsibilities be best fitted by
/ every member of the community, or
! shall ii be by a selected body? Expe-
| rience in every age has determined the
! laUIer. Whilst recognizing the beauty
| of the ideal right we must not iali 10
remember the practical. The right as
| it can be obtained by human agencies
| is only that which is practically within
| the reach of man, having regard TO his
| surroundings and circumstances under
| which he exists, and no statesman can
| surrender the attdi12d6ie gOodoft the great
| est number for the visionary and unGt
! tQind6te eStalddrdofp ofperfectrigh bit. Hence,
those who framed our governments
wisely excluded the idea of unlimited
suffrage and confined it to a chosen
body of the white people. In this we
see and recognize their wisdom and
! forethought, and from it we may fifty
| . hot in hn n
/ sixths of their own race they did noe
| dream that those should be made sub
ordinate to the control of an inferior
race, then and for years previous SER
| vile people.
The whole question for consideration
| is, who can best perform the duties re-
quired by the Commonwealth at the
hands OF her electors, land there are no
interests of morality, no interests of
religion, no interests of society that
demand that we should mould the in
| ferior with the mass of the superior,
and thus debase the whole.
The interests of vast political COM
munity are at stake, and it is wrong to
incur any risk, remote though it may
be, in giving them the controlling pow
er of the government.
The influence of race upon the ma
tional destiny can scarcely be doubted.
| The inherent nature, the intellectual,
moral and animal qualities of families
of men, largely aid in shaping the
course and position OF the nation they
| eontrol or OF which they from part, al d
''all history in its ultimate analysis Is
| history not of kings and laws but OF
races. y This is one of natures hidden
forces silently working out its own
great problem. 1t is as true that man
makes the institution of which he
forms a part, and impresses with all of
his mental and animal propensities,
as it is that governments are made fer
men, not men for governments. Our
PROGRESS is one of the best evidences of
the truth of this proposition. Contrast
the career of the Saxon for six hundred
wears with that of the African for four
fhousand wears, and see in this the
mower of race. Compare the results of
the energy of the Caucasian admixture
as found within this Republic, with
the evidences Of the energy of the mix
ture of that race with the Indian and
negro as found in the Republic of Mex
leo, and discover here, too, the lnfiu-
ence of race upon national destiny.
We have proved our capacity;
they have demonstrated their weak
ness. We have impressed upon every
portion of the Republic the evidences
of our intellect and energy. The busy
marts of commerce, the thriving, rest
less and indomitable millions of our
people, the schoolhouse upon every
hin, the church spire wherever man Is
found, the shrieking engine tracking
hin and dale and valley, and dragging
riches from the earth, the college, the
telegraph and the factory, the advan-
cod acuIlirements in every Dranch OF