Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-24
natl Enquirer, says of the fifteenth

natl Enquirer, says of the fifteenth
amendment
"Writing some time ago about the
fifteenth amendment, and the publica
ton of its PRONUNCIATION by the State
Department at an early day, | said it
would he declared part of the COnstitu-
ton before the first of March. know
from conversations with leading Radi-
Gals that this was the programe, and that
they felt able TO carry it out This was
independent of Ohio, and without count
ing New York, the validity of whose re-
cent action might be considered doubtful,
or at least might make a case for the
courts. 1t is now believed that the Sc
cretary of State will issue his proclama-
ton on Saturday next, declaring the
fifteenth amendment the law of the land,
the understanding being that Nebraska
will ratify in the meantime, and thus
make the requisite number of States
twenty-eight. What next? 1t is easier to
talk of redress than to find it, And there
really is no redress this side of notification
an experiment whichit is hardly desirable
to embark in at the present time, and which
would not be supported by the people
save in very few States. The proposed
appeal in the Supreme Court would be
well enough if it possessed a speedy re-
| suit in accordance with the wishes of
those who made it, but it does not. In
| the first place / am satisfied the court
would either evade the question or affirm
the amendment and in the second place,
even an adverse decision would come too
late to be of any avail 1t would take
months to make up the case, and per-
haps more than year to decide it. And
they know little of human nature who be-
lieve that four millions of people once
endowed with the right of suffrage could
be estopped in the exercise of that right,
and RENTED to lasting Acknowledgement
by the mere opinion of a majority of
nine men. The curtailment of suffrage
has never been accomplished except by
REVOLUTIONARY this, too, independent of
the means by which the right was origin
ally conferred.
"These facts may as well be ooked
squarely in the face now. The amend
ment is upon us, by fraud and violence,
yet it is just one of those unfortunate
cases in which there is no escape from
the dilemma. Suppose we go into court
about it. While the matter is under con-
sideration the negroes are voting all over
the land, and electing men to Office who
are pledged to prevent decision unfavor
able to them by changing the character of
the court, or abolishing it, if necessary.
The people of the North, too, will be
rallied by the false fear of war and
revolution to sustain the Republican party,
just as they have been rallied into the
support and Endorsement of all the hide
Gus features of reconstruction since 1865.
I once had some faith in an inherent love
of fair play and fair dealing as constitu-
ent element of American citizenship; but
the record of the last five years has
shaken it, and as l look back and see ev-
cry act of legislative vengeance and bru-
tality Endorsed by the repeated success of
their originators, am prepared to be-
lieve that party ties are stronger than pop
ular virtues or popular justice. When, for
the sake of political supremacy, men, who
in private and social life would scorn an
unworthy act, will go to the polls and
vote infamy after infamy, and degrade
ton after degradation upon a people with
whom they went to war for the sake of
the 'Union"-a people always brave in
war and honorable in peace; when men
in the North will roll up immense major
tiles in favor of military tyranny and ne
gro suffrage--the twin bastards of Con-
gressional unconstitutional is sheer non
sense to hope that in this matter of the
Fifteenth Amendment there will ever be
that sober second thought which has in
times past been corrective of great wrongs.
Let US lay no such fiattering JUNCTION to
/ our souls, -