New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-05-19
DIR COLOPED BROTHER.

For the first time in fifty years, the negroes
of our City and State voted at the election
this week on the same terms with Whites.
They had always done so prior to the COnven-
ton of 1921 they ought to have done so ever
since but the efforts of the Wings in 1916 and
the Republicans in 1860 and again in 1869 to
reGnfranchise them, were defeated by rally
of the entire Democratic host to keep them
under foot. We trust that their Right of Suf-
frage, having been placed under the guaranty
of the Federal Constitution, is hencefOrth secure
beyond contingency.
Speaking generally, our new class of voters
exercised their right most creditably. Nearly
all of them voted, as their White brethren de-
plorably failed to do; having quietly voted,
they went directly about their business, without
brawling, or fighting, or bullying those who
saw fit to vote otherwise than as they did.
AS a body, they were neither drunken, nor
noisy, nor quarrelsome, but acted well the part
of sober, intelligent, conscientious citizens They
INSTRUCTED no mans way to the pOlls they
overhauled no White man because of the man.
ner in which he saw fit to cast his vote. Their
conduct and bearing proved them worthy to
enjoy and fit to exercise the inestimable prerOg-
alive of republican frcemen.
Yet there were few among them who failed
to comprehend that the right to vote implies
freedom to vote fOolishly, madly, if the voter
so Wills 1t may be ever so wrong for negro
to vote a Democratic ballot but then, if he
sees fit to do it, no other negro Cor White) has
any business to call him to account, much less
chastse him. Brett Harte, the California
moralist, in his dissertation on the geological
fracas "upon the Stanislaus," correctly says !:
But first would remark that it Is not proper plan
For any scientific gent to whale his fellow man.
And II member do MT agree with his peculiar within,
To-Day for that member for to put head on him.
and the truth thus enuncated applies to
political equally with scientific controversies.
Doubtless, it is annoying to a just en-
franchised negro to see his ebony neighbor
and sometime friend make use of his newly
acquired right to exalt those who have always
spurned, fouted, and trampled on his race,
and depress those who have labOred and
suffered for its elevation but experience will
teach him that there is good deal to be borne
in politics as in other spheres of human activity.
The Irish patriot, who thanked God that he
chad a country to SELL" has had many imita-
tors. And if our impatient brethren of Afri-
can hue and lineage fancy that all men--Or
even all niggers-are going to vote under the
guidance of their purest and most exalted i'm
pulses, they will find themselves woefully mis-
taken. Far better that they should attain
forthwith the philosophc cOmplacency and
poise of their Newark brother, on occasion
of the desperate and doubtful struggle for Rep
resentative in the LecomptOn Congress Q858),
in which Gov. VIM. Pennington Repub.) ran
out j. r. Wortendyke Uecompton Dem.) A
Democrat, meeting him in the street, accosted
the kinsman of TOussaint thus:
"You niggers, suppose, are all for Pen
ningtOn, of cOursef"
"Why no." responded the sable philosopher,
"not all. There 3 some mean niggers, as well
4" as mean White folks; and they are for WOr-
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