Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-03-19
Kicking ever the Platform.

The Chicago platform, upon which General
Grant was elected declared that - to the loyal
States properly belonged the right of regulating
the suffrage of their citizens" The Fifteenth
Constitutional Amendment enjoins that they shall
not have that right, but that, whether loyal or
not, the negro snail be forced upon them citi-
zen. General Grant, the nominee Of the Chicago
Convention, who accepts its platform, very coolly
kicks the latter and insists that the Fifteenth
Amendment shall be adopted Cincinnati En-
qatTer.
The Enquirer must have an exceedingly
ignorant and stupid class Of readers, or
the editor of that sheet must think so,
else he would never have ventured to pub
lish such statements. The Chicago plat
form is entirely consistent with the FIT
teenth Amendment. 1t has been held by
some Republicans like Sumner and Yates
that Congress had the constitutional power
to confer suffrage in the loyal States upon
the disfranchised class of citizens, and the
Copperheads charged that the Republi-
cans, as q party, held the same doctrine,
and that Congress intended to pass law
enfranchising the blacks in those States
where they were not allowed to vote To
refute this charge and to officially reject
the Sumner Yates assumptions, the plank
in the platform in question was inserted
by the unanimous voice of the National
Convention. But it was nowhere affirmed
in the platform that colored citizens ought
to be disfranchised by State laws 1t was
not alleged by any member of the conven-
ton that it would be improper for Con-
gress to submit an amendment for the
States to ratify comforting suffrage
upon the disfranchised class of
citizens The submission of the
Fifteenth Amendment recognizes and ad-
mits that the right of regulating the suf-
frage belongs to the States. If it did not
belong there Congress would not offer the
amendment to the States for their adop-
ton or rejection. We defy any man to
show wherein the proposed amendment is
wrong. It reads
"ARTIcLE Is. The right of the citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or
abriged by the United States, or by any State,
on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude.''
Why should any State Government
"deny or abridge the right of citizen of
the United States to vote, or account of
race, color or previous condition of servi-
tude?" Does the complexion of citizen
of the United States furnish sufficient
grounds to Justify local government of a
subdivision of the Union called Estate,
to prevent him from voting for President
or Congressman? The State may now
do it by arbitrary power or brute
force, but not on any principle of demo
oracy or equal rights. General Grant is
not the man to uphold so gross wrong.
He therefore earnestly advises the State
Governments to ratify the Fifteenth
Amendment, and thereby secure equal
rights to all citizens of the United States.
And in thus appealing to the States in the
matter he fully recognizes the declaration
in the Republican National Platform that
the matter rests with the States. If they
refuse to adopt the proposed amendment
it is null and void. They alone can give
it vitality and force.-Chic0go Tribune.