The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-02-26
MANHOOD SUFFRAGE.
Speech Of Hon. 3. g. Ross in the United
States Senate, February Sth, 1869.

Mr.. President, conscious of m,
inability to handle instruetiveIl
subject of such magnitude as the on
under consideration, 1 had determined
to remain listener, and TO cast siIen
vote for the proposed amendment. Blu
feeling that no one can be excused from
the exercise of what influence he ma,
possess, though it be never so small. fol
the correct decision of a measure fraugh
with such great results, am constrained
to add the little that may to swell the
volume of the wave of that political re-
form which deem so essential to ouI
strength and perpetuity as a nation.
approach the subject with hesitancy
due to measure involving such grave
consequences to the future of our coun.
| try.
Mr.. President, believing, as do, that
Congress has already entire control
| over the question of suffrage in the
States, had hoped to have an oppor-
j tunity of voting for the passage of a
should declare that power and establish
equality of Suffrage in all the States.
/ hold that Suffrage is one of those
natural rights, which, like the right to
traffic, to emigrate, to possess and own
property, the right to the fruits of ones
labor, or the thousand other uadisputed
rights which pertain to US as reaoons-
ible persons, are inherent, and guaISn-
tied by the spirit if not by the letter o.
the Constitution. The right to vote is
the most necessary and the most sacred
of all rights, because it underlies all,
and without which we are secure in the
enjoyment of none.
There is no middle ground in this
question. We must cOncedc the right of
suffrage to every one who stands as our
equal in the scale of creation, or we
must deny it to all. 1t is universal suf-
frage or autocracy. If we deny the one
we are of necessity forced back to the
other. To deny it we must cOncede
that some were designed by nature to
be above others in the scale of polite
al right. If any one race has the ex-
elusive right by nature to make the laws
of the country, then we are forced by
the same system of logic to admit that
some one class of that race is specially
endowed with this sacred gift, for if one
race is so endowed the same must be
true of classes families, and individuals,
and so we find ourselves reverting back
to the most absolute forms of monarchy.
From this there is no escape, exceptup-
on the broad ground that the right of
suffrage is one of natures ordination,
and therefore universal, not to be re-
stricted except for incOmpetency or the
commission of crime-circumstance
which render that restriction imper-
alive for the preservation and we'll
being of society and of government.
1t is upon this principle that all forms
of republican government and law are
based, and without which those forms
would be tyranny and oppression, in
that they would deny the right of the
individual to participation in the form
alton of laws for his protection and for
his government.
Being a natural right, it is not legit-
imately within the power of the Gov
eminent, State or national, to withhold
or restrict it, while the national Gov
eminent especially, as the sovereign
head, has or ought to have the power,
as it is its duty. TO see that every per-
son, who cOnfesses to it allegiance, is
protected in the exercise of that right.
Suffrage is the basis of republicanism
underlying our entire political struc-
ture and to deny that the General Gov
eminent has entire jurisdiction of the
subject is to deny that it has the power to
protect the citizen in one of his most sa-
cred and most solemnly guaranteed
rights.
To admit that the individual State
may of its own vOlitiOn deny or abridge
right so essential to the preservation
of personal and political liberty in de-
fiance of the General Government,
would be to concede the doctrine OF
State rights in its most odious form
that the lesser has power over the great
er-that the subordinate parts of the
Government may usurp the powers OF
that Government, and diminish its force
by circumscribing and eventually de-
stroying its base, which is the right OF
suffrage. ~
No process of reasoning can convince
me that there is any power in the State
| to thus diminish and take away the pop
ular foundation OF a Government made
by the people, upon the people, and fol
the people.
1t is by this process of reasoning, and
| to me it appears conclusive, that 1 am
convinced that no form of Government
accOmplishes fully the purpose of its
institution until il is sustained by and
administered through the suffrages o,
all its people; that the duty of pr'tec
ton ia all natural rights on the part o
| the Government is co-eXtensive will
the duty of allegiance on the part of thu
| citizen, no matter of what race, color
| or sex.
So long as the States are permitted Il
establish and maintain these distinc
tiOns in respect to suffrage, there can b.
no uniformity of political right Tha
clause of the Constitution is PRACTICAL,
nullified which declares this
The citizens of each State shall be entitled
all privileges and immunities Of citizens in tn
several States.
The first section of the fourteent
amendment declares that
All persons born or naturalized in the Uni
ed States, subject TO the jurisdiction thereo
are citizens Of the United States and Of the Stat
wherein they reside.
Again, that
No State ahall make or enforce any law whic
shall abridge any privileges or immunities
citizens Of the United States.
Now, q black man in Alabama, TWEEN
ty-one years of age, is citizen of til
United States and of the State in whic
he resides, and is invested with th
right of suffrage by the laws of til
United States If New York, or Ohio
or Kansas, denies that man in thei
/. States the same right do they not abridg
most important privileged For til
correction of this abridgement of priv
! lege 1 would interpOse the speeches
means within reach-a eongressions
tenactment, clearly authorized, it seem
to me, by the fourth section of the sam
article. But if gentlemen prefer tn
other and perhaps more effective thong
less speedy remedy-an amendment {
the Constituencies us have that. BU
if that is to be done let as make it CON
lplete; give Congress the power to col
E rect all inequalities by empowering
!. to compel the most tardy to keep paS
: with the most advanced on this impoT
. ant question. The immediate purpos
of the proposed amendment is of cours
to enffanchise the negroes in all the aC
herring States, as has already been don
in all the seeding States.
1 had hoped that the State which