National Republican., 1876-10-18

support al the ensuing election. We have
said the object of this amendment was to
disfranchise the colored- voter. lis more.
1t win put money In the purses Of the
Democratic leaders. For who can doubt.
knowing their natural sntipstby to public
education, but that the poll tax for the sup
port Of public schools viii fad the same
destination as did the literary find intended
for the same meritorious purposeH Its
whole intent and object, therefore, Is q
fraud, delusion and q snare.
But the Virginia Democracy are becom.
ing 80 intensely honest that they also pro-
pose, by one of these amendments, to make
petit larceny work disfranchisement. That
immaculate party could aid In wholesale
steal of the arms, forts and other property
of the General Government, and then fight
for the retention of their stealings. They
could run up State debt which to-day,
principal and interest," amounts to nothing
less than sixty millions of dollars, on which
they are paying no interest," thus virtually
repudiating it. They can do all these things
and much more with impunity, yet If q
poor, unfortunate negro, the victim of their
enslavement, who has been reared as mere
beast of burden-without In most cases,
being taught the moral responsibilities of
man-we say if such one obtain improp-
erly as much as loaf of bread when hun.
CRY, he is to be deemed unworthy of suf-
frage, and simply because he will not allow
the party that has kept him in slavery to
use him. 1t is reasonable to suppose that
in a race that has been but twelve years out
of the degrading bondage of Southern
slavery, with its baleful effects on the mind,
there should be q much larger ratio of petty
thefts committed than among their late mas
tiers, whose pecuniary condition kept them
from the temptation. The slave, on the
other hand, was very frequently hal-fed
and scantily clothed, and if he took from
the master whose riches he had earned to
supply his necessities, be but complied with
law of nature. The final cure for all this
is in process of being worked out by
means of school. houses and churches, both
of which the Democracy would deny the
colored man, rather resorting for party
reasons to the mean and contemplate ex-
pedient of ipfiicting punishment fit only
for hardened criminals: That the Democ-
racy are responsible for the present pow
jerty of the Southern negro, that some
times incites to petty thefts to sustain life;
that they reared him IN ignorance and in
position of abject dependence that i'll
BELTS him in battle for life with his
Caucasian neighbor, matters not with his
relentless prosecutors. He votes against
them, therefore he must be disfianchised.
Adopt this amendment, and our word for
it there would be very few whites con-
victed of petty larceny in the Democratic
courts of Virginia, unless, perchance,
they might be able to put up job on Re-
publican, as has been done before.
There are several other features OF this
piece of political villaIny, christened by
courtesy as proposed amendments to the
constitution" to which we design to re-
fer in another article. Our advice to-day
to every honest and fair minded man in
Virginia is, see that youthave printed on
your ballots at the November election,
against the amendments to the constitu-
tion.'