The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-04-08
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND NEGRO
SUFFRAGE.

SUFFRAGE.
The Legislature of this State has provided
for registering the negroes who will be voters
under the Fifteenth Amendment, and it ap-
pears to be conceded that in view of all the
circumstances surrounding the case, such ac-
ton was demanded at their hands. The ne
gro is now a voter, and will remain one as long
as this amendment usurps the place of law as a
part of the constitution; but we nevertheless
have white mans party, which we hope to
see remain one for period at least co -exten-
sive with this exercise of negro suffrage
The attitude OF Une Democratic purity toward
the newly enfranchised is one that should be
understood clearly from the beginning. 1t
is of no practical use to canvass with bated
breath and timid utterances the question of
what course to adopt in this matter, as being
polite or the reverse. 1t is right and proper
for the negro to know at once, and for all,
that he can never expect to be upon that per-
feet equality, so far as the Democratic party
is concerned, that will confer upon him q
right to contest for place and position at the
hands of its voters. This is an equality that
no legislation can compel. No law of Con-
gress or proclamation of any President can
make it obligatory upon an individual to re-
ceivc into the bosom of his family, upon terms
ofperfect equality, those whom he wishes not
so to receive; neither can any political Or
ganiZation he co-crced by the same means to
offer for the sutfrages of the people, for place
and position, an Indian, Chinaman, q Malay
or a Negro. If in the hereafter the ncreas-
ing intelligence of the negro should prompt
him to cast his ballot away from theparty that
claims it now, because of the signal benefits
it pretends to have conferred upon him-if
his discernment shall become acute enough
to perceive that the great tenderness protested
to be felt for him insists upon requital, by
blind obedience to that party's behests, and
he should be CALLED little by the chains of
his political enslayement and take to himself
the liberty of sundering the same and voting
as he pleases-and in such contingency, re-
mote or otherwise We do not care to stop
here to argue, if he shall cast his ballot with
the Democratic party, it will be, we trust
nevertheless still n white mans party unsul-
lied even by counting the support it may
thus receive, further than by remaining true
to its best traditions and the cardinal princi-
Piles Gifts organization. The Democratic par
ty has asserted from early times of the Re-
UPON tne quallncatlons or Their voters; that
this pretended adoption of an amendment to
the constitution was illegal in its inception,
and has not become of valid and binding
force and effect, for want of its free and I'M
trammelled endorsement by the Legislatures
ofthe States; that even now, when it seems flu
tile to talk ofresistance TO these measures, still
it may become question, behind all the rest,
how far the State of Maryland, for example,
may be bound by Il contract she did not as
sent 10, In view of all these thinge, we
say it is impossible, to be true to ourselves,
that we should tamper at all with a ques-
ton, be it polite or not, that strikes at the
very foundation of our political faith No,
our hopes for the future are based upon or
should be based upon, the idea of the Demo-
cratic party's remaining the white mans
party-receiving aecessiOns TO Its strength
from the force of its principles alone, and
maintain the dignity of its position. We can
now, less than ever before, afford to sully its
fair fame with questions of policy at the ex-
pense Of principle. The Republican party
has dragged in by the head and shoulders the
negro element as main prop to its politi-
cal structure. TO retain their support the
emoluments of place and the dignity OF high
positions must be offered by that party to the |
negro. No less will satisfy, and according |
80 the political faith of the Republican party,
no less ought to satisfy the newly enfran-
ehised imam and brother" But we believe,
nevertheless, that there must remain in this
country one organization at least, unmixed
withnegro equality, and unsoiled by even cleo
pioneering contact with him; that the negro will
IN time have discernment enough to perceive
that this party is truer friend to his race than
those who bolster him up with notions of an
equality he can never really attain to, in order
that they may use him as political tool If
the Republican party fulfil its professions and
promises to the negro race in this country, it
not stop short of social as well as politi-
Cal equality with him; if it fail to fulfil these
1t will have perpetrated a deception upon
him that will forfeit his confidence, for all
time to come. We believe that there arc
many of the white men of that party who
will pause ere they suffer themselves to be
placed in either of these positions. If they
Will but stop to think, il is all that we ask.
But one result wn orc confdant ,ro,lJ ,lo, |
be reached-a determination to keep and
maintain this government as a white mans
though negroes and Chinese
may vote under the fifteenth amendment.
TOWN ELEcTIoN.-Our neighbors of Tow {
sOntnWn Raltimnra county hold thn;r 6.u. |