Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1869-03-17

dependent have been cared for by her with
O. maternal solicitude. Lookat her com
mon schools, her colleges, her asylums for
the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane !;
| her hospitals for the sick, her houses OF
correction for the erring, her prisons for
the guilty, her laws for the poor, for mar
ried women, her system Of intestacy.-
What cali Christianity or civilization do for
the lowly, the poor and the distressed that
PENNSYLVANIA has not done g? Who dares
to stand mp and accuse her of robbing the
negro of his rights {? Who has the audaci-
| ty to assert that the ballot is essential to
the negro's safety and welfare ? Found
ed by deeds of peace, Pennsylvania has
been Just to all men, whether red or black
or white, and he wrongs her grievously
who would undermine her institutions up
on the poor and false pretense that her
citizens of African descent are oppressed.
1t is not so.
For though this amendment is uncalled
for even by the negroes of Pennsylvania,
and is subversive of our fundamental law,
it is supposed it will be step toward uni
versal suffrage which gentlemen speak Of
as a great and benefcient reform. 1 can
not help thinking, sir, that sHch opinions
are founded in misrepresentation of the
nature of suffrage. Having on the former
occasion stated my views somewhat at
length on this head, will not enter again
into the subject, but will content myself
with saying that suffrage is not natural
right any more than any other municipal
regulation which experience has shown to
be expedient 1t does not belongto man
hood in the sense in which the rights Of
life and liberty do; but it Is n political
trust which the majority may bestow where
it will best subserve the general welfare
1t is n conventional as contradistinguished
from natural right. Its bestowal, hmita-
tions, and exercise are regalatedby the
laws OF convenience or expediency. The
question always ought to be, will propos-
cd extension of suffrage promote the peace
and welfare of the body-pohtic When
Louis Napoleon, in the coup'eta that made
him despot, decreed universally of suf-
frage, he demonstrated how this benet-
cient reform of which we hear so much,
could be made the instrument of an mex
orable tyranny and the same reformer who
, extended the basis of suffrage at Anthems
brought III with it the Odious ostracism by
which the greatest and best fn6n of the
city are banished. These and many otker
examples that might be cited ought to
reach us that when suffrage is hastened or
extended by force or fraud, instead of
growing up out Of the experience Of the
people, it is a curse and not blessingr
Our written constitutions are the out
, cropping of our national life. Until lately
, they were formed not on the wild dreams
of theorists, but to record the conclusions
: of experience What the common masses
have found to be good for themselves. they
have secured i'll their constitutions, State
and Federal Suffrage has been left to
each State to bestow or withhold according
to its discretion Nowhere has it been eX-
tended to women or minors or unnatural
: lied foreigners. Why? If a natural
right, a God given inheritance to manhood
) as it is sometimes called, why should it be
withheld from these classes? 1t is with
held from them on the same reason it Is in
PENNSYLVANIA withheld from negroes-ex-
pediency. Human experience has proved
that the trust could be best executed by ex-
cluding these classes, and, rs in all other
trusts, the selection of trustee on the
ground of expediency is no affront to those
} who are not selected. Everybody except
those strong minded women, Nho, not just
representatives of their sex and ''most ig-
norant of what they are most assured, y
clamor for women s rights, would prob
ably agree that it would be degradation to
the female sex to involve them in the re-
sponsibilities of the ballot Universal ex-
perience sttests that they are not suitable
trustees and, therefore, by an almost uni
versal consent, they are set aside. The
reasons for setting aside the negro are
stronger and better than those which apply
to females. Between him and the white
man there is an ineradicabl distinction that
must forever prevent that free, social inter
cenrse on which alone popular suffrage can
be based.
. This distinction, if it pe not infamed in
to hostility by bad legislation, does not
prevent the two races from dwelling to-
gether harmoniously in the same commu-
nifty, assisting each other in the lsbors and
the charities of life, and contributing TO
their mutual welfare. But when you at
tempt to force then into social and pohti-
cal equality you infame the passions of
both parties and destroy the harmony of
their relations. Out of these conflicts the
weaker must inevitably come most dam
aged 1t is impossible to provoke con-
fict between the African and the. Anglo
Saxon races in which finally the African
Will not be worsted, For while you can
force sort of equality upon him by a
standing army and the Freedmen's Bu-