Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-10-21
gEeBo SUFFRAGE

IA1AA NAAAk AAAN AAOAN AAAAAAAAANnA
Radicals of the country seq as plainly
and know as well the damning evils
Of negro suffrage to any people as the
Democrats or the people Of foreign
countries do. In an article headed
Cuba and the United States, the Rad
zeal n. Y. Post, edited by the distin-
guished WM. CULLEN BRYANT, thus
distinctly speaks out its honest con-
victions:
There seems to be a general feeling
that while the United States are bound
to act fairly towards Spain in the
matter OF Cuba, it would be a piece Of
good luck for US if events should so
fall out as TO enable Us, by fair play,
TO acquire the island.
We have on several occasions eX-
planned why, on financial grounds, we
can better afford to do without Cuba,
than possess it. But there are pOliti-
cal reasons, also, not less strong, and
indeed stronger, why Americans, de
sirOus to see their form Of government
unchanged, and their politics at least
no more debased than now, should,
whatever may be their sympathy
with the Cubans, oppose any scheme
which looks to the annexation or the
island to the Union.
We have already, in the Southern
States, a large population of very ig-
nOrant people, TO whom, for their own
protection, il has been thought neces-
sary TO give the vote. However that
experiment may turn out, even those
who most Vehemently urged il will
acknowledge that it Is an experiment;
and no one probably denies that il is
a disadvantage TO the country to have
Us part Of its population so many ig-
nOrant citizens, uuaccustOmed to, and
unacquainted with the forms Of free
government, and tOa great extent I'M
aware Of the importance of the vote
they are to cast.
That's to say, we should be far bet
ter of, our political Institutions would
i be safer, if the millions of blacks in
the Southern States were as well edu-
Gated and had had as long a training
in the management of nee govern
ment as the whites Of the Northern
/ States. We do not by this mean to
say that the blacks in the Southern
States ought not to possess the fran
chise. 1t j., probably, as William
Beach Lawrence, an eminent Demo-
cratic statesman, pointed out shortly
after the close OF the war, under the
circumstances, TO enable them to pro-
tect themselves, and an important
means to secure peace in the Southern
States.
That Il UU secure also good gOUern-
--a - -. 1900 $500 xg-..LFE.y
There is reason t0JeGT that the ig-
Hor0g3t Of the 6IacEs there, like the more
ignorant Of the rhiteS here, 5CiU become
the sport and tools Of political deHlG-
0Ogtes; and the immediate future Of
The country Is certainly not made more
h0PcfUI By the fact that Hey farm q part
Of our population.
Now, If this is so, should we not
make u grave blunder to take into our
Union, wen if we could get it for
nothing, a new State in Cuba, an
island, a large part of whose pOpula-
ton consists Of barbarians, not very
long ago imported from Africa, and
! of the lowest order of Chinese? Can
We, with safety or cOmfortsStO our
( selves, adopt this population as a part
/ of ourselves? 1t may be, as most peo-
| pie say, that Cuba'S manifest des-
tiny" is to be a State ofthe Union;
but have we not the right, and is it
not our duty to ourselves aud our
country, 10 keep her ont Is long as
possible? Should we not, in all that
we do in relation to Cuba, insist that
If the island is to be free from Spain,
it shall become an independent State?
May we not rightly prefer to see Cuba
remain under the Spanish flag IN pre-
ference to having it under the Ameri-
can flag?
What an argument this for the adop-
ton Of the XVIII Amendment by
Tennessee, or the voluntary eontinu-
anee by the state of negro law! The
question is whether it cua-not wheth-
it ought to be avoided. We subjOin,
also, the following comments by the
Charleston Courier:
We hail with pleasure an article in
this strain from one of the ablest
among the Radical newspapers Of the
North. Ii vindicates fully the action
Of the intelligent people of the South
with regard 10 the ignorant use of the
ballOt-bON 10y people who had been but
recently in q condition ofservitude, and
who were in a position to become what
they have since become, the easy prey
Of designing adventures. We Op-
posed the Reconstruction Acts for
the very reasons given by the New
York Post against the annexation
o. Cuba. Our cry was then unheeded.
The South had been conquered. 1t
was necessary that she should be
humblcd. Her restoration to her
right position in the Union would
have given to the councils OF the ma
ton men of whom it is not saying too
much to assert that they are second to
none in the country. Taxation, it is
true, would have been diminished.
The blood spots which mark every
threshold in the land would have
been obliterated; prosperity would
have been restored, and the country
would have been united in bonds of
the closest union, but RadicaliSm
would have been dead. The
Democratic party might have been
restored to power, and the adven-
turcTs who have swarmed Ike
locu>ts over the South, would havere
manned at home in the North instead
of filing every Office of profit, honor
u trust in Our section Of country. To
prevent this, the Reconstruction
Acts were devised, and notWith-
standing the protests Of the intelligent
portion Of the Southern people, gov
erumeuts were established, which
have failed TO represent, in any sense, /
the better portion Of our population.
These governments, if they did not
command the respect, at least received
the sanction of the entire Radical
press. Their establishment was made
cardinal principle of party faith, and
woe 10 the Republican who was not
lOud-mOuthed in their praise. Even
the ErsHiqg Post gave them the sane
ton of its high character, great inlu-
ence AMI greater talent.
When, however, "negrO suffrage
had becomes fixed fact, recognised in
the Southern States, when the cOlOred
voters have been fully educated with
regard to the responsibilities of suf-
frage, when they have begun to learn
that their true interests are allied with
the interests Of the white people of
the South, and when recent develop
ments have shown that the vote of
the cOiOred man is not the absolute
property Of the Loyal League and the
Radical party, the leaders Of that
party begin to confess what they, as
well as we, always knew, that the
of the Radical party was not
only unjust, but was also unwise.
What is true or Cuba to-day, was true
Of the South, when the reconstruction
acts were passed, and the confession
of the Ere1iQg Post furnishes us con-
proof that a change is being
effected in popular opinion at the
North, which viii, before many years,
the opposition which the South
ern people made to the government of
ignOrance and the rule Of the stranger.
As OUR readers viii take an interest
in what the Pennsylvania papers may
of the result in that State, we sub
DIN the following from the Philadel-
phia Age, one Of the most candid, out
uakpu and reliable of them all Tho