The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-02-26

Itself, the existence of which at an
time under our system of civilization
Is fast Becoming a source of astouish
ment, was secured only after forty year
of agitation. No present failure viii
deter or permanently postpone this grea
reform III Kansas or elsewhere; and lie
me say to the people of all the States
as ] have said to those in my own, tina
there can be but one issue to this con
troyersy, and that will be, as is Away
the case where the contest is between
right and wrong-the triumph of tn
party OF progress !; for until we extenC
the right of suffrage to the colored mel
OF our own States we shall be justly OBJ
noxious to the charge of insincerity
and of enforcing it upon others fo
merely partisan purposes, a criticism
which no party, however strong, can AT
ford to provoke. Until we prove ou
sincerity in the advocacy of impartia
suffrage by accepting it for ourselves
we stand convicted of most gIarins
Inconsistency.
Not only that, but its tenure in the re
constructed States is greatly weakened
and its maintenance hazarded so long al
there is any considerable number Of
States in the North who refuse to ac
cept it for themselves as political prin.
ciple, while they enforce it upon others
By the enforcement of negro suffrage
in the South we have barely established
the principle. 1t stands upon no prac.
teal and enduring basis until il shall pre-.
vail to such an extent throughout the
Cuion as to characterize our system Of
suffrage. The ballot is as much the bull.
wark of liberty to the black man as il
is to the white.
To continue his exclusion from the
ballot box in any considerable portion
of the Union. is to encourage future eff
forts for the deprivation of that right
in the States where it now exists. That
gone, it would be but single step to
the reduction of the negro again to
slavery. Already we have seen one OF
the reconstructed States taking the in
itiatory steps which, if not checked
would inevitably lead to this result.
Black men are denied the right to hold
Office now the next step will be to take
from him the ballot, and the next his
freedom.
The history of the last presidential
canvass ought to be a warning to
prompt and decisive action, that this
question may be definitely and perma-
nentIy settled before the country be-
comes again convulsed by another quad
REM ial contest for mastery between its
two great political parties. Certainly
no one here ca desire to see repeated
the issue then pres of tie naked
sword. or a reputation of the act o.
emancipation, and of all the guarantees
of protection which the Government
had vouchsafed to its friends in the late
rebellious States.
The only sure protection of this ma
ton against the ultimate re-establish-
ant of hof I'm g l. Ha Cd
ton and rigid maintenance in all the
States of the doctrine of impartial suf-
frage. l might say further, and all the
logic of history would bear me out in
the assertion, that in no way can nation
al and individual liberty be SO fully Sc
cured, aud the harmonious working OF
all the elements of our politics and So
ciety so effectually sustained, as by the
establishment of universal suffrage in
its broadest and cOmpletest sense. AS
no human being of mature age and
mental development was ever designed
by nature to be beneath another in pO-
litical right, so no one has the right to
assume to himself political guardian.
ship over another.
The rebellion demonstrated the fact
that the surest guarantee of peace and
permanence in our political fabric is
equality of political right, regardless Of
all fictitious and arbitrary distinctions
1t demonstrated that so long as suffrage
is withheld, even from a class number.
ing but an eighth of our population, as
was the case before the war, we stand
upon a volcano, liable at any moment
to be engulfed in its fires; that there is
no surety of permanence in govern
ment which denies that right to single
human being under the shadow of its
banner. The highest type of human
government is that in which all the
rights of all its people are recognized
and protected by its laws, and without
that, perfect republican government
cannot exist.
The first great and sufficient reason
why the negro should be admitted to
the right of suffrage in all the States, is
that it is right. From this standpoint
the subject should be mainly viewed
freed from all considerations of mere
expediepcy or partisan necessity, al
though these should be allowed theiI
proper weight. One of our creates
statesmen has laid it down as a politica
axiom-and it is a good and safe one
that we should ''render equal and exac
justice to all" In excluding from tn,
polls even a single person who has inter
ests and responsibilities in common will
ourselves, do we not falsify this axiom
For it will not be denied that the ne
gro has the same interests at stake; tina
he is under the same obligations and re
spoDsibilities for the preservation 9th
public peace, for the conservation of tn
public good and the advancement of tn
public veal in all respects as ourselves
! He is endowed with the same aspiration
| for improvement. for higher and bet
ter life. and with the same instinct
which are common to as all. He is sus
ceptible to the same motives whic
move us all, capable of the same degre
of cultivation and the same degree c
ambition to achieve it. Why, then, doe
the distinction exist? Simply becaus
he has been a slave. So, also, were whit
men enslaved at a not very remote per
cd of the worlds history. In ever
nation of Europe white men were one
held in the most abiect and degradin
servitude for many centuries. In Eng
land, for hundreds of years, perio
quite as long as negroes have been Ell
shaved in this country, white men woI
| metallic collars on their necks as mark
of their bondage; yet no one pretend
that any portion of the white rae
should now be DISTINGUISHED becaus
they had at some former period bee
enslaved.
The fact that the late enslavement {
the black man gives rise to the prelude
against his Acknowledgement now, is
most potent argument in favor of ths
enfranchisement by the Republican pa
Tty. In the early DAYS of the Republi,
when slavery had assumed such an al
tendency in the minds of men as to OF
tain tacit recognition in the constitl
ton, many of the states conceded ii
right of suffrage in some form or Otht
to the free negroes, but perceiving I'll
/ absurdity and inconsistency of enfraI
chising one part and enslaving anotht
part of the same race, the spirit of sli
very propagandism set to work to n
duce all TO the same level, SO far as Pr