New-York tribune., 1869-02-25
EoEITIBLE SUFFRAGE.


In his excellent paper, read before tae
American Social Science Association, Mr.. Charles
Francis Adams, jr., spoke of the sudden en-
franchisement Of the negro rs "a poftentous
experiment." The adjective used by Mr..
Adams does not necessarily imply alarm,
since there are both good and evil portents,
but apprehension of harm was undoubtedly
uppermost in the mind of the accomplished es-
sayist We have good reason, as we are in
formed, to anticipate deterioration of the
purity of the ballot"
1t may do no HARM it may do possibly some
good, TO have q probable political evil pre-
dicted hut when 4" an experiment" porten-
tousn ~ or otherwise, in public affairs, has been
definitely resolved upon by the country, we
think that it should be tried resolutely and
manfully, and that prophesies OF Its failure
are, according to ordinary standards OF morality
and common sense, entirely out OF order. Negro
suffrage may be dangerous, but 1T is the bad
passions and the INSCRIPTIONS ambition OF
whites which make it so The light-colored
voters of the South need educating and re-
forming quite as much rs their dnskler com
patriots yet nobody reads papers before Social
Science Associations 10 prove that the continu-
ance of these whites in citizenship will be fatal
TO the purity of the ballot. We have great
many voters who are such because the Amer
lean people, being true to the Democratic idea,
will not submit to any inequality of qualifica-
ton If one dangerous class at the South
proved, be it remembered to be dangerous
was to be permitted to vote, it was then inevi-
table that the same Immunity must be ex-
tended to another class which some held to be
presumptivey dangerous, but which had not
been prored to be so.
IL would be highly instructive and useful,
perhaps, TO crOak here in NewYork about
suffrage But suppose that, in preference, we
take the case of Pennsylvania There, elec-
toral frauds and corruptions have been ex-
hibited upon great scale; yet the actors
in these scenes of fraud and falsohOOd, from
the Chairman of the Democratic State Com
mittee down to the meanest tool employed by
him, have been not Black, but White Men.
To investigate double and treble voting, mis-
persOnation, perjury, and all manner of iniquity
which can possibly tend to make suffrage a
shameful farce, seems to be the regular busi-
ness of a regular committee of the Legisla-
ture. The man who, in the past, has most
Immediately suggested and stimulated these
crimes against government still holds his head
as hgh and his face, unlimited by the moral
brass of his nature is as white as ever. To
allow such man, whatever his social position
and his requirements, the beauty of his gar.
ments, and the suavity of his manners, a lead
ing position in powerful party, and then to
turn round and doom to civil death inoflensive
creatures, because they may, perchance, vote
coruptly or unwisey is to make this democ-
racy of ours mockery, and to establish vir-
tually an aristOcracy, reserving the ballot for
those who will be the ready followers of some
demagogue OF q patIician, and denying 1t to
those who need it for their own protection,
and who will if let alone, use it instinctively
in self-defense. t.... .-.t
Take again a New-York voter of certain
class To say that he is iliterate, is made
quately to express the density of his ignorance;
to say that he is unscrupulous, is to do injus-
tice to his audacity; to say that he is for sale
at every recurring election, is to state fact
as notorious rs SUNRISE to say that he is ready
to commit any crime which may be pleasing to
his leaders, is simply to acknowledge his bad
loyalty to say that he is dirty and brutal,
drunken and degraded, bully, sluggard, and
q sneak, is merely to record his natural history.
There Is not good citizen who would not pre-
vent this creature from voting, If it were pos
sible to do so but it is impossible, and we
submit thankful, alas if we can keep the in
iquity from being multiplied, and the excel
lent citizen from voting the Democratic ticket
twenty times upon the same day. Yet the cit
hens of New York, honest, intelligent, wealthy
and refined, go on, year after year, permitting
voters of this kidney to rule them, and above