The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-05-05
I ! !. The Fifteenth Amendment.

The Fifteenth Amendment.
Our good friend HoDGsoN, Of the Montgom-
ery (Ala.) Maj, who is himself Virginian,
takes DIS to task for advocating the rasifca-
t;on Of the fifteenth amendment as condi-
ton precedent to the admission Of Virginia
to representation in Congress. We are not
anxious 10 discuss this question. It is not
a pleasant one. We are Of course not par
ticularly jealous in urging our people to
rasify this amendment. We take 1t as Q
choSsof evils. We are weary Of waiting
and watching sor deliverance. Therefore,
when the Masrs long article upon the sub
iect attracted our attention, we were not
indisposed to read 1t carefully, to learn, II
learn ve could, how our friend, whose State
Is already reconstructed, proposed to re-
lieve us from our troubles. Here Is his
first argument:
"Neyro suffrage has not been fred upon the
South. It has been enacted into existence ille,
Ra,ly by Congress. and must fali TO the ground
20 soon MS the character Of Congress changes.
1t has been temporarily forced upon us,
against the protests Of the Democrats OF the
North--a vast party which at any moment
may,trip its opponent In the almost eqnahy
contested wrestle for power"
Now, here are questions Of fact about
which there ought to be no dispute. Yet
dispute is necessary for zoe have for some
time been under the impression that negro
suffrage has been fixed upon the South. We
are ready to admit that sit was enacted
into existence illegally by Congress-"
I" Illegally" meaning, as We suppose 1t
was intended to mean, unconstitutionally j
but we cannot admit that it must fall TO the
ground as soon as the character Of Congress
changes, seeing that more than twenty
States. have already ratified the fifteenth
amendment, and that the probability is
great that it will be part Of the Constitu-
ton in less than twelve months from this
time. And SO for from negro suffrage
having been temporarily forced upon us
against the protests Of the Democrats of the
North, it was forced upon US by combina-
ton Of the Democrats in Congress with the
THAp. STEVENS Radicals, and over the votes
of the moderate Republicans. 1t is true
these Democrats voted with STEVENS for the
purpose of making the bill odious to the
northern people; yet the fact is that if
they had voted the other way we should
possibly not have had negro suffrage
forced upon US at all. at best,
they are but sorry allies who would infict
such an evil upon us for the purpose Of
making political capital OF home. We de-
cidedly object to any longer reliance upon
them. The southern people must take care
of their own interests. They must act as
if there were no northern Democrats. No
one thinks more highly Of many of them
than we do; yet we cannot shut our eyes
to the fact that practically there is no diff
ference between the two parties in that Sec
ton. The Democrats, it is true, declare
ferociously that the Radicals have no right
to force negro suffrage upon us; but, un-
fortunately, if We take them at their word,
and endeavor to resist by force tho uncon-
stitutional acts Of the dominant party,
these Same Democrats join the army Of CO.
'ercion and become our bitterest enemies.
BUTLER was in 1860 one of the most loud
mouthed of our northern Democratic friends,
as were General JOHN A. DIX, General Lo-
GAN, General SIcKLEs, JOHN CoCKRANE,
and thousands of others, who aided the
Radicals to do what they had no right to
do. 1t will surely never do to rely upon
such friends. The best We can do is to ac-
cept the fifteenth amendment, as We have
already accepted that negro suffrage which
it is intended to render permanent.
The fourteenth amendment, which is al
ready part of the constitution, provides
that if we deprive the negroes Of the right
of suffrage We shall lose large part Of our
representation in Congress. We have no
strength to waste in this way. We shall
have but few votes ct most in Congress-
certainly none to spare. But here in Vir-
ginis the negroes arc 80 located that they
CON exercise twice as much power as they
ought to exercise in choosing the members
Of the Legislature. 1t is, therefore, not the
part Of wisdom in us to estrange them ali
from US by setting out on Quixotic cru
SADIE against negro suffrage. We must ac-
commodate ourselves to the facts of the
case. The early reconstruction Of Vir-
ginia will cause such an influx Of immi
grants that but few years will elapse before
the whites will have the numerical pre-
ponderance in every county in Eastern
Virginia. West of the Blue Ridge, they
already have it in every county. Then
negro suffrage, even if it should in the
mean time prove to be an unmi1ed evil,
will be shorn of its strength, and we shall
at the same time retain our full represen-
tation in Congress.
: Nevertheless, we do not propose to make
this an issue in the campaign. We are
willing, as we have more than once hereto
fore said, to remit this question to an un-
trammelled Legislature. Congress has the
power certainly to admit Virginia to repre-
sentation, whether her Legislature ratifes
or rejects the fifteenth amendment.