The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-02
IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE AND THE
POLITICAL FUTURE.

From the NJ Y. Tribune
SO long as there was hope that the fifteenth
amendment to the Federal Constitution might
be defeated, the Democratic politicians fought
it with malignant desperation. At length,
the handwriting on the wall can no longer be
ignored nor misinterpreted, and they begin TO
scrutinize the toad's head with resolute intent
to discover or invent the requisite Jewel. The
Louisville Courier-JourBdI (for example),
which has been conspicuous in the anti-negro
crusade, now SAYS 1tr.
"Every one OF the Southern States reconstructed
under the fifteenth amendment win fall into the
hands OF the Democratic party, and the Repub-
cans cannot risk division In the North. On suf-
frage they can hold together-not on auy other pro-
tied leaves the ultras nothing to do but to agitate
for social equality, which cannot be made to work
as a political instrument Besides, the disappear
OF the negro question live and progressive
element In our politics viii clear the ned for new
from which the Democrats have everything to hope
so that the jubaton in radical circles over the if-
amounts to nothing at ali. A very few months Of
universal suffrage Will develop the truth OF this
most thoroughly"
Comments 6y the Tribune.
Supposing the above to be true-or even
half true-what madness has ruled the Demo-
cratic councils for the last three or four
years Just think of the mountains of insult
and scorn heaped upon the blacks by the De-
mocrats in our late State Constitutional Con-
vention, clenched by solid Democratic vote
at the polls last fall denyino the right of suf-
frage to any but comparatively rich blacks
Then consider the recent foolish haste of our
Democratic magnates to rescind the ratifca-
ton of the fifteenth amendment by our last
Legislature, and the cheers with which that
vote was hailed by the Democratic Legislature
of Kentucky. This Democratic withdrawal of
our States ratification was carried by the votes
of Senators and Assemblymen who b7leao that
they defed the will of their constituents
in SO voting-knew that they were elected by
corruption and fraud favored by apathy and
heedlessness on the part of many Republicans,
who fancied that no great national issue was
involved in that election. The Senators from
the Saratoga, Clinton, Oneida, Dutchess, and
Chenango Districts, the Assemblymen from
Warren, Clinton, Schuyler, Steuben, Otsego,
Fulton, Saratoga, and several other counties,
well know that they abused the power con-
fided to them in thus voting And all for
what Where is the net profit of the per-
formancep We are reminded by it of the
African who listened, as he supposed, to
sermon from Whitefeld and was moved by it
to violent physical demonstrations of peni-
tence and conviction, but was astounded, soon
afterwards by the assurance that he had not
heard Whitefeld at all--that the famous revi-
valist was taken suddenly ILL., and another had
to supply his place. ''Then (said he) this
niger has rolled his new clothes in the dirt
for nothing"
SO long as Democracy, in the partisan
sense, means denial of the negros humanity,
and means little else, the blacks are COM
PEELED to be Republicans. To vote otherwise
is to confess themselves baser than their
worst enemies ever declared them. A few
may be constrained to do it, Just as an Irish
peasant sometimes votes for his landlords
candidate against the champion of his race
and his faith; but there is no deception in
either case. The vote represents the voters
bread and butter, not his convictions nor his
wishes. Thus the States of Georgia and
Louisiana were carried for Seymour and Blair
in 1868 by constraint and terrorism-by CO.
ercing thousands of blacks to vote against
themselves and terrorizing thousands more
into avoiding the polls. The electors who
cast the vote of those States represented the
weakness, the poverty, the dependence, the
cowardice of those thousands; there was no
belief on any side that they represented any
| thing more.
OF course, the Democrats will change their
| tactics directly. They have fought impartial
suffrage to the bitter end; they will stop fight
| ing it when the fifteenth amendment shall
have become part of the Federal Constitu-
ton, because to fight it longer will be suicide
| They cannot nationally expect to carry South
era States as they carried Georgia and Louis
lana in 1868. The blacks, as a class, have be-
come moro intelligent and more independent;
and each intervening year we see them less
| abject and more intent on vindicating their
political rights. Wealth and social prestige
may control some of them but the immense
majority will vote for no champion of gov
ernment by caste.
We expect to see the Democratic politicians
striving to make up for lost time by extra
ordinary efforts to ingratiate themselves with
their late chattels. They will insist that the
past has been a muddle and misconception,
which should be utterly sponged out and for
gotten-that they never meant to resist negro
enfranchisement, but only the domination OF
the canting, lying thieving, psalm-singine
Yankees and carpet-baggers They will gel
up barbecues, invite the blacks to take their
choice of tables, and harangue them on the
recollections of their common boyhood, with
its pranks and games, and appeal to then
Southern nativity, sympathies, andprejudices
A Texas lawyer who had fought zealously fol
secession, remarked in 1866 that il at first
came little awkward for men of his stamr
to address negro juries; but they very soon
caught the knack, and opened with "FelloW
Citizens and Gentlemen of the jury" as
though they had never addressed jury which
was not black. Human nature has wonder
full facility of adapting itself to circumstances
And the Democrats will make their wa,
with the negroes, though not so fast as theI
seem to imagine. The blacks forget easily
but then they have more to forget than an,
people ever had before; and some part of /
is very recent and very foolishly aggravating
With regard to much of their recent treat
ment by the sham Democracy, they will b.
| moved to INQUIRE in the words of a fadini