New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-09-15
THE ISSUES OF 1869.

| ON ;mnlacable faction among them who ignore
| cettvs,,uro and Mission Ridge, Atlanta ana
Annomattox. and persist in midnight outrages
ON harmless negroes and in kindred exhipltionS
of Rebel malignity and senseless hate. lhere
are q few Journals which still keep the Con
federate flag flying; but they have no consie
| cradle following. The Southern People, w hite
and Black, are very generally disposed 10
| work in harmony for the reparatlon OF INC
rayages of War and the restoration
of prosperity and thrift. They are making
| Cotton and Sugar, Corn and Rice. and giving
but subordinate heed to politics or the NOISY
| clamOrs of Office seeking. Iwo-thlrds Oh then
are this hour in substantial accord on the proao,
generous, cOnciliatory platform OF universal
| Amnesty with Impartial Suffrage. If the new
! Legislature of Tennessee shall refuse 10 ratily
| the XVIII Amendment, as well as to perfect
| the Acknowledgement of the late Rebels, that
refusal will be impeled by Northern Sham
| Democracy, seeking its own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
through National discOrd and baleful, untimey
prescription. If that Amendment shall be de-
feated. the North and not the South will justly
bear the blame.
California has just been carried by the
! Shams on the false assumption that the A'th
| Amendment will enable the Chinese to become
voters. II has nothing whatever to do with
the naturalization of immigrant aliens OF what
ever race or color. Here it is rerbdtim:
Art XIV. l. The right of the citizens of the United
States TO vote shall not be denied abridged by me
United States or by any State on account OF race
| color or previous condition OF servltnde. -,
| y The Congress shall have power to enforce this
| Article by appropriate legislation
| That is the XVIII Amendment-every word
of it. Ii nowise affects our Naturalization laws,
nor tie power of Congress to amend, extend
or repeal them. Citizens Of the United States
are not to be denied the Right of Suffrage on
account of race, color, or previous condition OF
servtude; but the right to become citizens
the conditions of Naturalization, are nowlse
affected by this Amendment.
Never was a Constitutional provision more
needed than this. Our conflicting laws which
| it will harmOnize are at war with reason
and common sense. Here is a native citizen
| of the United States. born in Vermont or New
| Hampshirc, living therein till thirty years OF
age, and voting on precisely the same basis
with any other citizen, though his skin is black.
| But he moves into our State; and here he
cannot vote, not because he is Black--hdt OBJ
! lection can be surmounted-but because no
does not own $3.50 worth of real estate free
and clear of all debt or incumbrance. If, dis
| liking this he moves across into New-Jersey
or PENNSYLVANIA he cannot vote there at all,
| though he have the wealth of Aston and the
talent of Webster-he is niger" and
that excludes him and his posterity forever
from any voice in making or amending the
laws which they must nevertheless obey, or IN
directing the Government which they are
taxed to support and drafted to defend
| ~ Of, bio iniustiPn and nbSuTdlly
Slavery; but the root is dead, and still the
tree ia assiduously watered and nourishcd. ald
| mazda In wear the hue of life. Every one who
| knows ANYTHING is aware that 1t must uitl-
mately wither and disappear; but the Sham
wire-workers say, "Our followers do MT per
"ceiye that the root is gone; Niger is the
chest cry we have LETT, and we must make 1t
edo for one or two more elections" 80 they
keen M the cry, and fools are gullcd by it, OF
pretend to be.
II is very fortunate that in our State the
question of eradicating the last stain which
| Slavery has left on our flag comes before the
People this Fall in two distinct shapes-frst.
the validity of the ratification OF the XVIII
Amendment by our last Legislature is disputed,
and an attempt will be made to nulllfy or
reverse it if Democratic Legislature should
this Fall be chosen secondly our New Con-
stitution abolishes the detestable Property
Qualification imposed by that of 1916 on Colored
Men only and establishes Impartial Suffrage.
This change the Democratic politicians propose
to vote down and defeat and thus the question
of Impartial Suffrage is brought prominently
into the canvass. We rejoice in the fact and
exhort every lover of Justice and Liberty to
prepare at once for the conflict.
Our Pendlctons object to the XVIII Amend
ment that it puts constrant on the States.
That objection, so far as it has any force, ap-
since it is inevitably and throughout limits
ton of State power 1t applies more especially
to the Amendment whereby Slavery was add
shed and prohibited; for that touched STATE
Rights in their very tenderest point The Cil
Rights BILL and everything that has been dole
to render our Union land of Equal Rights
and Equal Laws is open to this same objection.
"The Right Divine of States to govern wrong"
is certainly impugned by the XVIII Amend
ment; and we thank God that we have lived
to SEQ it.
Friends of Impartial Suffrage let US organize
and prepare for determined struggle. Thee
should be an appeal for naked Justice prepared
and put into the hands of every voter forth
with. This is the year 1869; and we shall not
believe that our people will vote down Impair
tial Suffrage if the question is fully brought
home to their understandings and cOnsciences
If they do, let us send deputation to pros
trate themselves in our behalf before the tomb
of old George ILL.,, and ask His Majesty's par
don for our fathers ungrateful, wicked re-