The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-02-26
THE SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.


THE SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.
There seems to be most decided
difference of opinion existing among
our Republican Legislators on the
suffrage question. To one who has
believed the Republican party to be
the party of freedom and progress
and its Representatives in Congress
the foremost reformists of the day,
there is something very humiliating
in the picture now presented by both
Houses in connection with this ques-
tion. In the first place the House
declares, by joint resolution, that no
one shall be disfranchlsed by reason
ofrace, color, or previous condition,
leaving the no less arbitrary and unre
publican tests of education, property
or creed to be set up at viii by any
State or the United States. The Sem
ate amended by substitute covering
all these points. The House refused
to concur, whereupon the Senate re-
ceded from its amendment, and in
lieu adopted the following PROPOSE
ton:
The right of citizens of the United
States to vote and hold Office shall not
be denied or abridged by the United
State, or any State, on account OF
race, color or previous condition OF
slavery.
This was quite a come down FROM
the previous proposition of the SEN
ate, as it did not abridge the power
of States to deny the right of suffrage
to any citizen on account of his creed,
or lack of property or education. On
last Saturday the House amended
this proposition, and adopted it in the
following shape:
The right Of citizens of the United
setes to vote or hold office shall not
Deaenied or abridged by any State,
on Aeount of race, color, nativity,
ToPty, creed or previous condition
OF sersude.
M, by implication, allows States
ADn the right of suffrage by an
e'uca'i0na' Test, or, indeed by any
'es' except tAese enumerated, viz
race, COLOR erees property nativity or
previous condition of seryitude. 1t
comedies to the USsed States the
power to disfranchise as citizens for
any and all of these reasons Wbv
the United States may deay to its
citizens the right of suffrage or tho
right to hold office, while a s,o.o
may not deny these rights for ,bs
same reason, is more than we Can
comprehend. If the object of thi,
amendment be to secure to the blacl
man his right to vote, it will mos
certainly fail of its object, for the
great mass of them can be disfrancbis
ed by an educational test, and, in ad
dition, this new test will also endange
the franchise of the poorer class O
whites The adoprion0r 0rrhfs amenI
ment is a virtual recognition that
cOngssss has isa l2ke-F ,l2ke-Fsdi;y . deny the
franchise to any citizen of the United
States for any reason. We do not
believe that Congress should have the
power to deny the elective franchise
to any citizen. 1t is not republican,
and it can never receive our sanction.
We stand squarely upon the question
of Right and Wrong in this matter.
We do not believe that the United
States or any State should have the
power to disfranchise any citizen
black or white-learned or unlearned,
rich or poor. We are willing to go
before the people on fair and square
issne of this kind, but we are unwil.
ling, even by implication, to recog-
nize the right of the United States to
deny to any citizen voice in the
Government under which he lives.
No possible good can come of the
adoption of the amendment in its
present shape, and on the contrary, it
may be productive of much harm.
Let us have square issue and a fair
field. We have an abiding faith in
the intelligence and fair mindedn-ss
Of the American people.