New-York tribune., 1870-02-01
IMP.IRTT4L SUFFRAGE And TIE POLITE.
CAL FU1 URE.

CAL FCIUEE.
So long as there was hope that the XVIII
Amendment to the Federal Constitution migls
be defeated, the Democratic politicians fonght
it with malignant desperation. AT length, the
handwriting ON the wall can no longer be
ignored nor misinterpreted and they begin to
scrutinize the toads head with resolute intent
to discover or invent the requisite jewel. The
Louisville COurier-Joarndl (for example,) which
has been conspicuous in the anti-negro crusade,
now says:
every one OF the Southern States reconstructed under
the Fifteenth Amendment will fall into the hands OF the
Democratic party aud the Republicans cannot risk
division in the North On suffrage they can hold together
not on any other proposition concerning the negro.
Suffrage being settled leaves the uras nothing to do but
to agtate for social equality which cannot be made to
work political instrument Besides, the disappear
ance Of the negro question live and progressive ele-
ment in politics will clear the field for new divisions
and combinations upon financial topics from which the
Democrats have everything to hope SO that the jnba
ton III Radical circles the Fifteenth Amendment is
pure efIeryescence and amounts to nothing at all
very few months universal suffrage will develop the
truth of this most thoroughly"
Comments By 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 Demo
Gratis in our late Constitutional Convention,
cenched by solid Democratic vote at the
polls last Fall denying the Right of Suffrage
to any but comparatively rich Blacks. Then
consider the recent foolish haste of our Demo
cratic magnates to rescind the ratification of
the XVIII Amendment by our last Legislature
Il. ..l, hat, 20 Lo,lo
by the Democratic Legislature of Kentucky.
This Democratic withdrawal of our States
ratification was carried by the votes of
Senators and Assemblymen who knep
that they defed the will of their constituents
in so voting-knew that they were elected by
corruption and fraud, favored by apathy and
heedessness 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 confded
to them in thus voting. And all for what
Where is the net profit OF the performance
We are reminded by it of the African who
JlSltuSuJ dS HC buppOSbuj W a. iIOhi
Whitefeld, and was moved by it to violent
physical demonstrations of penitence and con-
viction, but was astoundcd, soon afterward by
the assurance that he had not heard Whitefeld
at all-that the famous reviyalist was taken
suddenly i'll, 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 compelled
to be Republicans To vote otherwise is to
confess themselves baser than their worst enc
mics ever declared them. A few may be con
strained 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
aud terrorism-by coercing thousands of Blacks
to vote against themselves and teu0rizing
thousands more into avoiding the polls. The
electors who oosf fine vote of those STATES rem