, 1879-01-23
EXERCISE OF ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
,.peeo71NpfIIon. JAS. q. Blaine.
[Conclnllcd.1

l
electors for President and Vice Pres
ident of the United States, Repre-
sentatives in Congress, the executive
and judicial officers of Il State, or
the members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such State, being
twenty.Cne years of age, and citi
zens of the United States, or in any
way abridged, except for participa
ton in rebellion, or other crime, the
basis of representation therein shall
be reduced in the proportion which
the number of such male citizens
shall bear to the whole number of
male citizens twenty-one years of
age in such State.
The patent, undeniable intent of
this provision was that if any class
of voters were denied or in any way
abridged in their right of suffrage,
then the class so denied or abridged
should not be counted in the basis
of representation; or, in other words
that no State or States should gain
large increase of representation in
Congress by reason of counting any
class Of population not permitted to
take part in electing such Represent
atives. But the construction given
to this provision is that before any
forfeiture of representation can be
enforced the denial or abridgment
Of suffrage must be the result of
law specifically enacted by the State.
Under this construction every negro
voter may have his suffrage abso'
lutely denied or fatally abridged by
the violence, actual or threatened OF
irresponsible mobs, or by frauds and
receptions Of the State officers from
the Governor dowr to the last elec
tion clerk, and then, unless some
State law can be shown that author
ICES the denial or abridgment, the
State escapes all penalty or peril of
reduced representation. This con-
struction may be upheld by the
courts, ruling on the letter OF the
law, (which killeth," but the spirit
Of justice cries aloud against the
evasive and atrocious conclusion that
deals out oppression to the innocent
and shields the guilty from the lie.
gitimate consequences OF willtuI
transgression.
The colored citizen is thus most
unhappily situated; his right of suf
frage is but a hollow mockery; it
holds to his ear the word of promise
hut breaks it always to his hope, and
he ends only in being made the un-
willing instrument of increasing the
political strength of that party from
which he received ever.tightening
tettels when he was a slave and con
temptuous refusal OF civil rights
since he was free. He resembles in
deed those captives in the East who
deprived Of their birthright are com
peled to yield their strength 10 the
upbuilding of the monarch from
whose tyrannios they have most
to fear, and to fight against the pow
er from which alone deliverance
might be expected. The franchise
intended for the shield and defense
of the negro has been turned against
him and against his friends aud has
vastly increased the power of those
from whom he has nothing to hope
and everything to dread.
The political power thus appropri-
ated hy Southern Democrats by
reason of the negro population
amounts to thirty-fve Representa-
tives in Congaess. 1t is massed al
most solidly and offsets the gaeat
State Of New York; or PennsyIua'
MIA and New Jersey together; or the