Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-02-09
FORCING THE NEGRO ON THE
NORTH.

mon the urooosition adopted by the House, to
force negro suffrage on the Northern ota'es
by constitutional amendment, this proposition
simply shows the purpose of Radlcasem TO Dc
to break down utterly the constitutional safe
,us,ds of State power. Mr.. Boutwell,, the
s,onso-, off the. amendment, says the Metre
politan Record, declared in his speech support
ing it, that 1t is the duty of the Republican
marty to carry this thing through now, while
tie party controls a sufficient number of State
Legislatures to guarantee its ratification. A
more atrocious declaration than this has not
been made by the widest fanaA in the party.
Mr. Boutwell, knows that the Radical Legis>
latures in the North do not represent the
sentiment Of the people on the question of
negro suffrage in their own section. He
knows, and every intelligent man in the coun-
Try knows, that if the men composing these
tion an intention to support measures making
away with the rights of the States and forcing
negro suffrage upon the North, their constitus
ents would have chosen other mon ia.'their
places. He knows that the question of negro
suffrage in the North did not enter into the
canvass, was not even limited at, when these
men were before the people as candidates;
that they were not elected to act on this ques
ton in any manner whatever, and that it is
wholly foreign to the issues upon which the
present Legislatures were chosen.
"But," says Mr.. Boutwell, and his fellow
constitution. smashers, eff we do not make this
thing sure now, we may not have chance
again. Never mind whether we have the
right to do it in this way or not; we have the
power and we should use it. If we do not,
the power may slip from US and once gone,
we may never recover it." This is precisely
how Mr.. Boutwell, argued in support of his
amendment, and the same argument was taken
up by.othev Radicals in the House, and even
by some in the Senate, and urged as sufficient
to justify Congress in demolishing at one blow
the only really valuable State right remaining
unYiolated.
The question of suffrage in the States is
one with which Congress has no right to
NEEDLE in any way, either by enactment or by
proposing an amendment of the Constitution.
All Congressional action on this subject has
been sheer usurpation, for which not shadow
OF legal justification can be found. Every
negro vote polled in the South, under Con-
gressional authorization, was an illegal vote,
and would be so declared by any honest court
in the land. Every negro vote polled in the
North. under the amendment now proposed,
eupposing a sufficient number of Legislatures
should be found base enough to ratify it, would
also be Illegal, simply because it would be
polled under usurped authority. The right
to regulate suffrage within their respective
limits is one of the rights reserved by the
States when they delegated certain powers to
Congress, and any attempt on the part of Con-
gress to, take this right from the States,
whether the attempt be made by enacting
that OILY such and such persons shall vote, or
by proposing to the States an amendment of
the Constitution establishing regular system
o: suffrage, is unauthorized, unjustifable, and
al outrage upon the people.
Six months ago, Congress would not have
dared to make such a proposition as the one
now pending. The Radical leaders knew last
fall that they could not carry single large
State if they Incorporated this idea in their
platform. Had the Convention that met in
Chicago declared that negro suffrage must be
forced upon the North by Congress, Horatio
Seymour would have been elected President
by an overwhelming majority. But the Rad
ical leaders think they have nothing to fear
now, because all the important elections are
past, and therefore they come forward boldly
and unblushingly with proposition to compel
the Northern States to accept negro suffrage.
They do not even offer to give the people an
opportunity to say whether they are willing
to have negro suarage or not, but they propose
that the question shall be decided for them by
politicians, whose interest it is to make the
negro a voter, but who have no authority from
ths>psOple 70 act upon the matter ono way or
af9..ser.
Fofsthe sanie reasons which led US to OPP
posesthe forcing of negro suffrage upon the
South, We are dcterminedly and unalterably
oI,5osed fsE the sane thing in the north. First
az ,,eoro nsSer was intended to be the po-
1iticalledsual of the white man in this govern
ment: Second. the States are the only par
ties competent to deal with the question of
outrage within their respective limits. Third,
tHe sole object of the Radical party in giving
sutfrage to the negro is to increase their own
mower. For these reasons we resisted oil
schemes to make the negro voter in the
South, and for these reasons we are opposed
to the present scheme to make him a voter
in the North. We admit the right of any