The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1876-10-21
The Increase Of SoutIsern Power
by Negro Suffrage.

The stsadfast readers Of the CLARioS
will remember that in the dark days Of
reconstruction, when almost solitary
and alone" and amid misrepresentation
and abuse, We were appealing to the
white people of the State not to attempt
TO prevent the inevitable fact Of negro
suffrage, but to accept it and make the
best possible use of it, we urged as a
reason for this course that as voters the
negroes would prove an agency Of i'm
m ense power to the Southern section in
the federal government and we insrted
that the argument would be practically
demonstrated in a decade il our people
would mako the best Of the oircum.
stances in which they were placed and bide
their time in patience. Fully az soon as
we expected, the prediction has come to
pass. The Southern States will have
40 votes in the electoral college. One
hundred and eighty.Gve are necessary to
elect President. Take away negro
suffrage, and the Southern strength in
the electoral college would DO only 90.
Take away the increase derived from
the negro vote in the electoral college
and you destroy what is now admitted to
be the almost certain prospect Of the cleo
ton Of the Democratic nominations for
the Presidency aud Vice Presidency.
Not only so, but it has correspondingly
increased the Southern representation in
the popular branch Of Congress. Take
away suffrage from the negro and reduce
him to the scale Of IA dumb brute so far
MS participation in the government is
concerned, and what, under the existing
basis Of representation, would be the
number Of Representatives Missis sipp
would BIO entitled to in the National
House Of Representatives?
The logic Of these results, which
have flown from negro suffrage by regu-
lar operation Of cause and effect, has not
escaped the Republican leaders of the
North. The discomfort it has produced,
and which, in the chapter Of events, may
develop into Northern Republican
movement for depriying the negro of his
suffrage, directly or indirectly, was fore
shadowedin the suggestion contained in the
last annual message Of President Grant,
that VII educational qualification should
be established for voting And here is
another more direct appeal to Northern
sectional feeling in behalf of a movement
to disfranchiso the negro A correspon.
dent of a Republican journal says:
"Behold what great power negro suffrage
has given to the South! IL has increased
tHVll ~ lNlktiJ LUhl, WIFI
the aid Of New York, Connecticut and Cal
ifornia, for instance, they can control legis-
latIon, elect the president, aud adm mister
the government machine ne they NAV see
1t. The rest of the United States can whis-
tie. Tho solid South and the three States
named will be tho government In all that
tho term applies. The far-seeing men In
the South, or those who are esteemed as far.
seeing, declare that nothing can prevent the
South from having = controlling voice In
the government but the disfranchlsemen of
the blacks And they argue that this
Will be the next great question which will
agitate the country, the North contendlng
for black Acknowledgement, In order to keep
the South from running the government
II Is plain, very plain, that the blacks will
be made subservient TO the whites In
every Southern State, and that so fur from
enabling the North to hold the government,
this Acknowledgement is having precisely
the opposite effect, giving the South SO largv
number of Congressman and electoral
votes that the South will virtually here
after be the ruling power in Washington"
Now when the issue thus foreshadowed
is presented by the Republicans of the
North, upon whom will the negroes,
against whose privileges it is directed,
rely for championship The day is not
far distant when they will turn with
anxious hearts to the Southern whites,
whose counsels they have in too many
cases discarded at the instance of selfish
Adventures whose motive of action has
been to plumber and Cypress both races.