Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-14
NEGRO SUFFRAGE - PRESIDENT
GRANT AND SECRETARY cox,

GRANT AND SECRETARY cox.
Gen. Grant came out in his in
augural in favor of the ratification of
the proposed fifteenth amendment
to the constitution of the United |
States, which forces negro suffrage |
upon every State in the Union. His
selection of Gov. Cox, of Ohio, as
Secretary of the Interior, who is on
the record as decidedly opposed to
comforting the right of suffrage on
the negro, has somewhat surprised
the extreme Radicals who have
favored this measure. Gov. Cox
had been understood before the war
as favoring negro suffrage, but his
service as a General in the army
had afforded him an opportunity to
see the negro as he is in the South,
and to study his capacity for exer-
cising intelligently the right of suf-
frage, and the consequence was
decided change in his opin-
ion upon this question. During
the canvass for Governor in Ohio in
1865, he was forced into an avowal
of his opinions on the question of
negro suffrage. 1t will be remem-
bered that his views at that time
created quite sensation through
out the country, because he was SO
directly opposed to giving the ne
| gro the freedom Of the ballot box
| without restraint. He was compli-
mented in many quarters at the
time for the bold manner in which
he advocated his views. His State
has since endorsed them by direct
vote on the question by majority
of fifty thousand. AT that time
Gov. Cox declared against the en-
reimbursement Of the blacks in the
Southern States, and he has never
since made any public acknowledge
ment Of a change in his opinions.
| He declared then that there was an
enmity between the races that could
never be obliterated by the enfran-
chisement of the negro, and that
there was no such thing as securing
political or social equality for the
black race on this continent. His
concluding words were exactly
these:
"The autagonism Of which l have
| spoken is not entirely one sided. On the
| part of the former master, it takes the
| form of an indomitable pride, which ut
terly refuses to entertain the idea of sos
cial or political equality, mingled with
hatred intensified by the circumstances
and results of the war. This feeling is
| not confined to the slave owners alone,
| but the poor whites share it fully and
often show it more passionately. On
the part of the freedmen it is manifested
in an utter distrust of the dominant
race, and an enmity which, although
made by circumstances more passive
and less openly manifested, is as
real and implacsble as the
other. They have the mutual
attraction of race among themselves,
and repulsion to the whites as another
people, developed to degree which sur
prised me The daily and hourly repe-
tition of proofs Of the fact, many of them
too subtle for description, but none the
less convincing to the observer, has fully
convinced me that never between Nor
man and Saxon, nor between Gaul and
| Frank, was there a more conscious has
tired, or an antagonism more likely to
prove inveterate than between black and
| white on our Southern soil.
These views do not coincide with
| the position of Gen. Grant as de-
clared in his inaugural. According
to Gov Cox's theory, the ratifca-
ton of the proposed fifteenth
amendment will not be a guarantee
of future peace and harmony.