The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-25
MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1869.
The Suffrage Question.

sent or past, it certainly is that question
which touches the highest privilege that
free man can enjoy--the right Of partici-
patipg In the choice Of the men who are to
make and administer the laws to which he
is compelled to submit. The fundamental
principle of the American system Of govern
ment, as enunciated in the Declaration of
Independence, is that governments "derive
their Just powers from the consent of the
governed" by the side of which all "glitter-
ing generalities" about equality, life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, so lavishly
scattered through that celebrated document,
dwindle into mere rhetorical fourishes. You
may dilate upon these things to man until
ysu succeed in talking him blind, without
convincing him Of their utility, II you con-
tinue to deprive him of vote. They look
very we'll upon paper, and sound very pretty
on the Fourth of July; but, after all, the
grsndest theory proclaimed in the Declaration
is this one which declares that governments
"derive their just powers from the consent of
the governed" Any community, whether it
b the insignificant State of Delaware with its
%, 900 blacks, or the more pretentious State
Of Kentucky, with full ten times that number,
which studiously denies the right of man to
participate in the formation of the govern
ment simply because of his color, is guilty of
an unreasonable and unwise violation of the
principle in question, is hostile to the most
essential doctrine of our professed govern
mental system. II all the instincts of the
oolored race were necessarily as brutal as
af "A
some other white men whom we could
name; if a white man be, as some
quaok savans would have US believe, merely
o highly developed oyster, and if the negro
be, as the Pomeroys profess to believe, an
oyster in an inferior stage of the developing
process, there would be show Of reason in
denying him participation in all the rights
of citizenship until his skin should become
bleached by the lapse of time to the Caucasian
standard of whiteness. On any other grounds
the denial of the right of suffrage to the colored
race as a race is defiance of common justice,
common sense, and common decency.
Yet, holding these views as we do, we con-
fsss that we entertain but little expectation
of witnessing the speedy triumph of common
through the agency of constitutional
amendment. The subject was brought before
the House Of Representatives at Washington
on Saturday, and the greater portion of the
session consumed by Mr.. Boutwell,, of Mas
saohusetts, with an elaborate argument in its
favor Mr.. Boutwell, and the other Republi-
can members of Congress who have enlisted in
4I,o tba;r Shn.
Thirty-three working days only are left to
the Fortieth Congress, in the lower house of
which the Republican side counts ia
votes to 4S on the Democratic side.
This gives the two-thirds vote requisite
for the recommendation OF constitutional
amendment, with a handsome margin for
absentees and other contingencies of weak
ness. In the next House, however, when the
elections yet to be held have transpired, the
Republican force will muster only 143 votes,
while the Democrats will have 50, the Repub-
licans thus lacking seven votes of two-thirds.
Several seats for which the Democratic candi-
dates have received the certificates are being
contested, but there is no likelihood of the
Republican strength being in this manner
swelled to l60 votes; and when the three
States not yet readmitted to representation are
fully restored to their former relations to the
Government, it will be necessary for the Re-
publicans to make clean sweep of them
to attain a two-thirds vote. In this
state of affairs, if constitutional
amendment is to be submitted by Congress to
the Legislatures Of the several States, prohibit
ing any State from abridging or denying the
right of citizen of the United States to the
ballot by reason of race, color, or previous
condition of slavery, it must be done before
the fourth of March, or postponed for two
years at least. This statement, as matter Of
course, assumes that the Democratic party
shall adhere during that period to its time
honorsd maxim that "a niger has no rights
which white man is bound to respect;" and
shall have no rights conferred upon him
which the Democratic party can possibly pre-
vent. No test vote has yet been taken, so that
We are unable to predict positively the action
of the House when the issue is brought before
II in such a way that it cannot be lodged; but
If we are to Judge of the e'present temper OF
that body from its past record, we are justi-
fed in believing that the measure will re-
ceive two-thirds vote, with possible defec-
tion in the Republican ranks sufficient to i'm
peril without defeating it. While the different
States would thus be given an opportunity to
declare their sentiments on the question, no