Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-05-19

right OF col0red citizens to vote. He says
1t may bo admitted that the policy of tn
democratic party has been 10 exclude tn
negro from any share 10 the government @
the republic, and to ignore him as politica
element; but 1t is no less true that the prin
c'ples Of the party have always been in con
flct with this policy.
A democrat, as defined by the lexlco
grapher, Webster, is Zone who adheres to
government Of the people, or favors th
right of suffrage to all classes of men.
Every recognized opponent of the Demo
cratic party, and expounder of its doctrines
has defined democracy in similar terms
1t is impossible for believer in the unit,
OF the human race, protesting himself
democrat, TO dissent from the principle o
these definitions. II the negro be not ,
man, II he be not our equal before the grea
tribunal Of God, herltor of the same plal
of redemption, to be rewarded In the same
heaven or punished In the same hell, il
truth, he belongs not to the same species u
we do, then there would be reason for deny
ing to him this right naturally resulting
from the adoption of democratic principles
II any memper of the democratic city exec
utive committee Is bold enough to plac.
himself distinctly upon this unchrstian plat
form, and to dissfflrm the inspired words o
/ 49, eus uttSAIu AAbiu ihC buuLlib vi ukhT'
hill /: "God hath made of one blood al
nations of men, for to dwell on all the fact
of the earth, such an one might consistently
and without discredt to his logic, disalow
suffrage to the negro. Upon what othel
| ground can this restriction be maintained |
Can 1t be denied to him because of his color
or any other physical peculiarity? Certainly
not. Black men with their physical pecu
liarities exercise the highest functions of re
ligion In the oldest church in christcndom
II fitted to discharge such exalted spiritua
functions, what member of that church dare
refuse him the infinitely Inferior privilege Of
casting vote
Is it because he is intellectually inferior
and incapable, with the largest intelligence
to exercise the right of suffrage? This may
he true iu part, but ii is not universally true
There have been in the race TOussaint
rOuvertures, Dumases, and others, who
were not unequal 10 the white men of theil
time. II mere intellectual inferiority were
a sufficient justification for the exclusion oil
the negro from political rights, the argu-
ment, like an Australian boomerang, might
by its rebound iDjure its advocates.
The universally OF this policy of exclusion
is no longer an argument In its favor. In
the south, democrats have courted the negro
voie. Cannon have doomed in the north to
celebrate democratic victories won, in part,
by colored votes. 1t will not do for the au-
thors OF resolutions to sneer at the Ortho-
doxy of the democracy of the south, or to
explain away their c0urling of the colored
vote, by saying that their action was con-
trolled by congressional authority, and that,
under the exigencles of their case, II was
necessary to resort to trick, finesse, and
thlmble-rigging, to succeed and attain polit-
ical power. Certainly the members of the
committee will not 80 far degrade their
brethren of the south, or 80 Utterly deny
them q conscience as to think that they, for
mere par purposes, for temporary political
ends. for mOmentary success, would meanly
abandon, desert, and repudiate cardinal
principal.
After all. this objection to the negro is
only prejudice, founded upon tradition ol
| education.
In the republics of Greece and Rome the
slaves, of the Same blood and race with
their masters, frequently reduced to that con
dition by improvidence. were held to be
mentally incapable of performing the duties
Of citizenship, or participating in any way
in the practical government of the State.
Even philosophers and broad and genar-
GUS minds like Plato, dominated and In.
fected with the prejudices Of the times,
adopted and proclaimed these views. They
we're also regarded as indisputable truths in
| all the modern States of Europe, where vii
leiange existed without asuspicion that they
were unt0unded. or that intelligent minds oi
later day would discard them as unjust
| and inhumau.
And yet the politicians of those days, al
though protesting such doctrines, were com.
PEELED to violate their theories in their prac-
| tice, and recruit, in times of calamity and
peril, their shattered strength and numbers
from that class which occupied in the body
polite status little less degraded snd des-
plsed than the negro.
The resolutions further assert that the
| fifteenth amendment is unconstitutional AND
a nullity. Without directly advocating re-
sIstance to the laws, the tendency Of tht
resolutions Is to provoke 1t, and their tenol
to sanction it
Tue amendment has been adopted accord
ing to the provisions prescribed by the con
stitutiOn. 1t has become mart of the or
ganic law. Competent authority has Off
cially promulgated it, and every good demo
crat whose distinctive and honorable badge
has heretofore been obedience to the Law
must acquisce.
Though grave Irregularities may have CO
operated TO fix this amendment in the con
stitution. and though lovers of liberty may
look sorrowfully at some stages in its pro
gress, nevertheless 1t is now established and
fixed, and nought but reovlutiOn necessari
ly bloody and prolonged. can undo what ha
been done.
1t is unavailing to look back Let us mo-
deserve the rep7oach of being Bourbons
neither forgetting nor learning anything w,
must accept the new order of things, and
with united. and not disunited forces, attack
the party of Capitalization which now threat
ems The liberties of the Republic.
No greater mistake can be made, or ont
more dangerous iu its consequences, per
nicous in its example or more uudemocratit
in its character, than the attempt to found {
party distinctively upon class or color, Il
establish castles 10 politics, or to watchworl
n party absurdlv as "white mans party.
as II the vote of black man could not b,
used in favor of liberty, and against th,
encroachments of tyranny.
Besides many proscriptive and unwist
things contained in these resolutions, there
is in them an offensive assumption oi
authority to speak, ex cathedra, to lay dowr
without appeal the doctrines Of the party
and to excommunicate all who will not heal
and bow with reverence.
'Tp,n what meat doth this our Cesar feed
That he hss grown so greats"
Who commissioned this committee to speal
for the party? Not the rank and file. No
the men who make and control ubli,
opinion. Not the men who publicly resisted
the encroachments of unlawful power wher
bayoneis ruled Such men, in spite of th,
promulga,ion of hererodox resolutions, will
adhere to the principles Of the party.
The brave, the intelligent, the honest, the
men who believe in the providence of God
who orders and DEGREES all things for th,
best, who acknowledge the Gospel which
teaches the unity and spiritual equality o
the human family, will not be bound by thes,
resolutions. They stood up against tn,
terrorism of radicalism during the war, ant
they will not now be deferred by the penny
tin trumpet of the democratic executive
committee from placing their party in til,
line of progress and under the banner O
christian liberty. Yours, very truly,
JcHY O'BYRNE.
In New Orleans, on the 30th of April, tn,
colored people celebrated the adoption of tn,
fifteenth amendment by grand procession
and celebration. It is highly gratif, ing ant
encouraging to know th,t their behavior
was SO creditab'e as to draw encomiums
even from their enemies. The New Orlean
commercial, in an article written in n,
| ronI hrc,nr ah,otrfr nana ,p rot raat g.,