The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-04-02
TIE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.
Opinions of the Press.
The Democracy Quiescent .

reference to the validity of the Fif-
Amendment, including some
of the ablest of the Democratic pa
pers. We think our Democratic
friends In Evansville will conclude
that it will be best to accept the situa.
ton as philosophically as the Louis
vile Courier Journal. Our main OBJ
ject in making these quotations is to
convince the Democracy of Evans
vile Of the supreme folly of attempt
ing TO resist the Constitution of the
United States:
From the Louisville Courier-Journall
The sword of Damo-
cles, SO long suspended, has fallen at
last; but as the country has been
pretty we'll prepared to receive the
blow, it is not likely to be greatly
shocked by it. We may regard the
message which the President sent to
Congress yesterday as sufficiently final
In its way. The protests Of Mr.. Wood,
on behalf of New York. and Dir. Nib
lack, on behalf of Indiana, will go for
nothing. They we're doubtless meant
only to gain time, and if they effect so
little, they will do more than we ex-
pect them to do. To all intents and
purposes the job is done. and it is
quite idle to consider it in any other
aspect.
Yet, reviewing the progress of the
struggle over the Fifteenth Amend
ment from its inception to the pres
ent hour, we cannot but regret the
error which led the Democratic lead
ers to misconeeive the question and
to mistreat it from first to last. Its
suffrage feature was neither its worst
feature nor its weakest feature.
The Amendment, as we have said,
is revolutionary. The appliances
which have coerced its ratification
are revolutionary. Uunder the pre-
cedent set by the Amendment itself,
and sufficiently proven by the medi-
tated legislation, and by aid of the
machinery which, if it did not create
it at least perfected, almost any, nay,
any and every sort of partisan IL
cense may be perpetrated hereafter
by Congress. But, no matter how we
may deny the validity of the ratiica-
ton, or question the wisdom and pu-
rity of the measure, zoe cannot contest
IT'S poaeer. 1t IS, to all iatents and pur-
poses, an organic ld1D ofthe land, and
a1iH be enforced as such. = = Y
Moreover the Democratic party ele-
ments were divided either by their
opinions or by their necessities.
| Many very able Democratic leaders in
the North saw the matter as we saw
it. The entire South had been forced
to accept it by circumstances, and all
of us know that circumstances are as
effectual as volition itself when they
happen to be strong enough, as they
were In this case. Practically, there
fore, in the South, universal suffrage
meant the enfrGnchisement of white
men and an increased ratio of repre-
sentation in Congress. The negro
had already got his share of the bal
lot-box. 1t seemed only fair that a
bad principle applied to the South
should be applied also to the North,
and that the Northern States, having
forced negro suffrage on the Southern
States, should be forced, through a
necessity created by themselves, to
take it for better or worse, as they
might find it.
From the C1nclnnal1 commercial
That this is the law of the land is
no more doubtful than hat the Amer
lean Republic exists. This is the
consequence of the war. and termin-
ates the conflict, with the Inaugural
ton of poetic justice in constitutional
equality. Congress may proceed with
the appropriate legislation" We
expect q rapid, general and cheerful
aequiesence In the right of black men
to exercise the elective franchise, and
that very soon the bitter prejudices
against that class of citizens, and the
injustice that has been done them,
will be as much matter of surprise as
of regret.
No legislation by Congress or the
State IS required here to confirm the
rights of c0l0red citizens. They aCiH,
on Monday neat, VOte a0ithout objsc
ton and without inquTiyGS to their par
eRt0ge. Experts will not be in de-
mand, as heretofore, to determine to
the fraction the amount of colored
blood that the veins of a citized con-
tain. We may expect that the newly
~enfranchised people will receive q
vast amount IF good advice, and that
they will enter upon the discharge Of
their responsible duties as citizens
duly impressed with the gravity of the
situation, and Astounding In excellent
intentions.
From the Cincinnati Gazette, 3lstl.
There will be no more ~quibbling.
no more surmising as to the time the
Fifteenth Amendment will go into
effect. The official proclamation GER
tify1ng TO as ratification Uas issued
yesterday, and to-day The principle of
universal manhood suffrage obtains
throughout The nation. Before the
high and sovereign authority of the
national law, the local laws of every
State give way, and the colored man
of Kentucky becomes entitled to the
ballot equally with the colored man
oe Ohio or Massachusetts,. Distino-
tious in regard to the ballot arising
from race, color. or previous oondi-
ton of servitude.'' are done away
with, and every man stands equal, not
only before the law. but before the
ballot hog. + = X
Congress having passed an act ad-
misting Texas into the Union, and
this having been approved By the
President, the proclamation ANNOUNCE
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