Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-01-24
Ignorant Voters at the South.

EVEN if the proposed investigation
into the alleged Southern election
frauds result in no important disclos-
ures, the resolllgtiien n9af at Nj gR66d Rd effect. feet
1t has already led to several more or
less clear declarations of sentiment on
the subject which ought to prove use
full. 1t has drawn from a great many
Southern politicians and newspapers
the frank avowal that they look upon
any inquiry into their treatment of
colored voters as malicious revival of
the animosities of the war, and an in
vasion of State rights; what they may
see fit to do with the freedmen within
the boundaries of their own sovereign
States they deem to be nobody's busi-
ness but their own. Secondly, it has
drawn from another class of Southern
politicians the plea that if tissue-b ballots
were used by the Democrats last No
vember, they had previously been used
by the Radicals, and that there can be
no great harm in the practice by the
red-shirts of a style of fraud which they
learned from the carpet-bagger. Third
ly, it has drawn from certain Northern
sympathizers with bulldozing state
ment that the exclusion of the negro
from politics is very good thing, and
though they may regret the violent and
unlawful methods by which the South
has found it necessary to bring about
this result, the result itself is a bless
ing.
1t is well to have all these opinions
duly paraded for inspection. The sub
ject has been befogged by much ran
dom defamation, the most mischievous
variety being that of the Northern so.
called social philosopher, of quasi-lib.
eral tendencies, who approves of fair
elections in the abstract, but is ready
to wink at almost any process for the
suppression of the concrete negro voter
justifying himself by the plea that the
negro being poor, and ignorant, and
irresponsible, is not fit to exercise the
suffrage, and that he ought to be KEEP
away from the polls until he has got ar
education, 1t is open to question
whether the ignorant classes at the
South are less fitted for the suffrage
than the corresponding white popula
ton in our large commercial and man
ufacturing cities, but the point does no
now call for discussion. We may ad
NIT all that the apologists of stuffed
ballot-boxes say of the dangers of ne
gro constituency, and yet the case viii
not be altered. When the Southern
whites complain that reconstruction
placed all the wealth, culture and in
telligence of their section at the mercy
of unlettered field hands, we must asl
them who is responsible for the exist
| - 1t,oh nf irrpnronnap
was by the deliberate choice and agenc,
of the whites that majority of the pop
ulation was kept in a condition o
social and mental degradation, de
MED the privilege of even rudi
mentary education, and trained durin!
two centuries to be dependent, timi,
and as Indifferent to all public interest
as TO the politics of the Pitcairn Island
ers. When emancipation came, tn
Southern whites might have retained
great deal of influence over the freed
men if they had frankly recognized tn
inevitable change, and aided these poo
people to fit themselves for new re
sponsibilities. But they preferred b
sulk in proud poverty; and the coloret
voter was almost driven into the arm
of the carpet-bagger.
The white man now emerges agai
into public life. Having seen his mis-
take, he comes back to correct it wit
his shotgun. He proposes to accep
emancipation, so far as it increases tn
representation of the Southern States
but not so far as it increases the cor
stituency of voters. And if we remon
strate with him, he answers: 40, thes
niggers are not fit for the ballot. Sc
what they did when we allowed theI
to vote as they pleased. They mus
get an education first, and we will Sc
about the voting afterwards" 1t
hardly necessary to say that if they al
not allowed TO exert the political pOwt
to which their numbers entitle then
/ then those who refuse them this pow6
J should not themselves exercise i
When the planter demands the priv
lege of voting for himself and his el
slave too, because the slave is ignoran
! he asks to be permitted to profit by h
own wrong.-N. Y. Tribune.