The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-01-23
VOL. VIII.
WHAT WILL rIGE LEGESLA-Ei sSs.
B1 ABOUT


January numbe- or the Iiternati9za
Re5ieis, undertakes TO show that suf
frage IS sn American birthrigle and
that the surest aud only means of ft.
ting men for offices Of good citizenship
is to invest them with the righ: 10 vote
The bIiiO., he asserts, Is the chiefes'
educator Of the illiters,e. tie admits
that the immediate iugestiture OF
| Southern ex-slaYes and white trash
with the privilege" was biunder
and that these Lhouid have undergone
a probationary training" Confess
| ing this, the venerable philosopher
confesscs everything. II ignorance
tlan untitled negroes and uniettered
tramps for the highest duties Of citI-
zenship, their condition either remain
ing unchanged OF growing worse, the
mistake should he corrected. The
evil which We never should have in
Cured, as Mr. Julian coniesses, is
hourly aggravated. The ballot has
filled to discharge functions which
Mr.. Julian asserts and thinks it
achieves. It has dragged down intel
ligencq and corrupted Honesty and
failed utterly to uplift ieeoranee. l.
has not only defeated intelligence and
honesty but driven both from voting
places. Decent people, accustomed
to clean clothes and absence OF
vermin in this hot latitude, abhor
the necessity, which a sense of duty
imposes, and eschew the exercise of
the privilege of suffrage. Mr.. Julian
never stood an hour sandwiched, on q
sultry, Southern-summcr election day,
sweltering in long line of tramp and
5enegambian voters. He has not seen
his vote made valueless the moment it
is deposited by that of grinning stu
pidity. He has not watched the pro-
gress backward of African fitness for
duties of citizenship. They have
learned accurately the market value of
a vote and how to vote early and often,
aud whenever they constitute a major
ity or bold the balance of power it is
needless to deny that property-owners
are compelled, in order to prevent
confiscation at the hands of knaves, to
create and expend corruption funds.
Negro votes are sold and bought, even
as were negroes themselves in the
oldcn time.
Mr. Julian's argument is based on
the assumption that the ballot itself is
a schoolmaster. It's use, he tells US,
educates and elevates. On the contra
ry, it corrupts, drags down and bar
barizes. It has uplifted the negro In
nothing, and only induced debased
whites to degrade themselves by adopt
Ing negro and tramp habits and asso-
cations in order to win Senegambian
votes. II, as Mr.. Golden declared,
the extension of the ballot promotes
the diffusion of intelligence, why has
this extension in England been SO grad
usl Mr.. Golden, like Mr.. Julian,
was an enthusiast and optimist. He
reversed the order Of facts. Steadily
growing English intelligence, beginning
with the elereS of Oxford and Cam
bridge and slowly overspreadiug Eng
land, was difrused at last among the
great body of English farmers ard
tradespeeple fitting them for the use of
the ballot. 1t was not, as Golden and
Mr.. Julian assert, the use of the ballot
that begat intelligence or virtue or de-
cency or patriotism. In truth, there
can be no proper moral or intellectual
training promoted 10y whisky, by
bribery, by bulldozing or by the prec-
tees of wheedlIng demagogues. 10 all
it's incidents, effects and results
the investiture OF worse than B9otisn
stupidity with the power to sell civic
privilege only augments the force of
social vices and units the so-called
citizen for any public or private duty.
There are not, in America or else
where, more intelligent or prosperous
or progressive negroes than those that
vote in Austin. Here, too, Mr.. Julian
should know, the relations of the
races are as kindly as in 1860 or at any
former period, and yet We have seen
them bought and sold, when the fate
of whisky was to be determined, like
cattle in market overt. In wrecked
and plundered Southern cities fixed
sums are produced by taxpayers that
enough negro votes may be bought to
prevent the accession to power
of thieves and plunderers, such
as they who have put Memphis
and many Southern municipalities to
beggared death.
The cost of local governments BY
this unobstructed sufTrage has been
quadrupled again and again in every
Southern city, town and county, and
simply because those who expend are
not those who pay, and because inno-
cent stupidity In ballot-boxes is easily
plucked by cunning knavery, Hous-
s01, as Northern bankers confess with
fearful eyes. and many counties and |
towns have been thus robbed to hope
less penury. The elect must steal
enough to pay the cost of corrupt |
elections and offices aud sinecures be
multiplied 10 reward the faithful. 1t |
is in corporations especially that the
number of votes should be lessened, |
aud for the simple reason that in these
the non-taxpayer has no concern. The
State protects the person through its
courts and habsas corpus intervenes
when a corporation may wrong the |
helpless. In all the relations of life
State law is dominant and with this
law the corporation has nothing to do.
It is taxing machine and operates
upon property slene. It guards prop
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