National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-05-05
THE FUTURE OF THE DISTRICT.

LII Tue dUS6uC6 VI SOu6buluS else W Iuluh
and talk of, some of our citizens have en-
gagged in speculations regarding the future
government of the District. None of them,
so far as we can learn, object to the present
form of government by Commission, except
on principle. There is equal unanimity in
support of the opinion that the present
Commissioners are honest, capable and ju-
diciously economical. Their administra-
ton of our affairs, it is admitted, has been
as acceptable as it would have been if their
places had been filed by persons elected by
the people themselves, and it promises to
continue the same. But, in view of the
fact that the lower House of the Forty
Fourth Congress is Democratic, while the
Senate is Republican, it must be conceded
that there is a certain probability of a great
divergence of opinion when any PROPOSE
ton shall be submitted either to change or
continue the pending system. Of course
petitions will be presented for the re-aSser-
ton of the right of suffrage. The Demo-
rights of the people, will then have an op-
portunity to show their hand. That they
will be inclined to embrace it we do not
doubt. The temptation will be great to
them to put before the people in the coming
Presidential campaign the declaration that
they restored suffrage to community that
had been deprived of it by the acts of
the Republican party. But, in effect
ing this restoration, they will be GER
tainly called upon to decide the ques-
ton of negro suffrage. They will not
dare TO vote to give suffrage to one
class of citizens who have heretofore
enjoyed the right, kand deny it to an
other. Right here they will find their
dilemma. 1t is among the leading features
of Democratic belief that the Southern
States have been ruined by the votes of
ignorant blacks and while the theory of
the party is equal justice to all men, its
practice is to discriminate between classes
and races. So true is this of its practice
that opposition to negro suffrage is in fact,
the basis of much Of its opposition to the
Republican party. Think of Lamar, of
Mississippi, voting for bill to enfranchise
black men when his cor stituents shoot them
down in their tracks to keep them from
reaching the polls! Or imagine Fernando
Wood, with his record of opposition to the
colored race, doing the same! To be sure,
both these gentlemen enjoy the doubtful
distinction of representing constituencies
composed in part either of poor white trash
orignorant foreigners, who are no better and
not half so intelligently independent as the
average colored citizen of the District but
that would make no difference. They would
oppose the enfranchisement of the blacks
on general principles, the same as though
they represented the most cultivated native
and naturalized aggregation of voters in the
country.
After all, these speculations are idle and
premature. What we must have to secure
success in the future is a thorough accord
of purpose. We may begin now, however,
to point out the way to accomplish that
accord, and we must begin by admitting
that we are not individually infallible; and
that perhaps some of the enmities engen-
dered in the past were not altogether I'M
provoked by both sides. Personal ambi-
tiOns, personal spites and personal fears go
10 make up the sum total Of political dis
cord the world over. They have often
times as much to do with political divisions
as the underlying principles of the parties
created by those divisions. Every citizen
of the District will acknowledge this to be
true, and that we have not been free from
the influences of this essential condition of
affairs. 1t cannot be expected that we will
be able TO avoid all OF these contentious in
the future, but we can, at least, profit by
the experience of the past and avoid those
which have served TO provoke our sorest
distress and to render unavailable our nat
ural strength with Congress, as a depend
ent upon its favor. If we cannot do this,
let US remain as we are. The Commission,
as we have said, does remarkably well, and
satisfies the reasonable desires of every
man, except the natural yearning to have
a more direct voice in the kind Of govern
ment which shall control us.