Feliciana sentinel., 1879-04-05
the FEliCIANA SENTINEL.
A MATTER TO AVOUCH AND NOT TO
AVOID.

be blow at negro suffrage. Such
an objection should no: be spoken
out loud, because a very large mum
ber of people are averse to negro
suffrage and are not unf'iendly to
any method by which it can oe neu>
tra!ized. These persons are mainly
Republicans, who confess that Civ
ing the negro the ballot was
crime, as it forced a large number
OF persons into suffrage who were
unified for it ana who cannot be
ade fit for it. Other Republicans
see that negro suffrage is bound to
be loss 10 that party, and oppose
it on that account. The objection
to the repeal of the force bill that
it will end or nullify negro suffrage
is one which will make many
Republicans faver tho repeal. The
Democrats do not antagonize ne
gro suffrage, because they know
how to ase it. 1t increases the
representation, and does not inter
fere with the expression of the
South. Democrats ignore the
question of the competency of the
negro for the ballot, because they
can influence him TO vote with them,
and they can make him a force
against the very men who gave him
the ballot with the idea that he
would vote against the Democrats
forever.
No argument will be potentia!
in politics hereafter, which is based
upon the idea CT any effect of any
legislative policy for or against the
negro. The people are Indifferent
to the negro as policaI quantity.
They do not care whether he votes
at all. They are tired of the negro
as separate political matter. They
recognize that the passage of equal
laws puts the negro under the same
requirement to make them avaiIa~
bic for himself that the white man
is put under. If the negro with a
vote cannot commend himself to
politicians the same as any other
voter does, nobody means to stop
to take care of him. There is
nothing in the reason Of things why
a voter OF African descent should
be specially protected any more
than a voter Cf American, German
or Irish descent should be. The
latter classes have the intelligence
and courage to make themselves
valuable in politics. Such inte|li-
gencc and courage are the proof of
ability to deserve and use suffrage.
Wanting them, voters will 60 to
the wall, just as those who want
them to 60 the wall in business and
labor. Legislation can not supply
a man with competency to use his
own rights and opportunities. The
man must have the competency in
himself, or not having it he will lag
behind. 1t is just as impossible for
Congress to enact which horses
shall win at Saratoga, this summer,
az it is for Congress to make the
negro an effective factor in politics.
in lieu of his making himself one.
We repeat that any hue and cry
against the repeal of the force law.
on the ground that it initiates
against negro suffrage, would we'll
be abandoned. Men and women
do not care il it does. They feel
that the law ought to be repealed,
if its tendency is to prefer or to
take into account one class rather
than another. Moreover, negro
suffrage does not appeal to the
Judgment and moral appreciation
of the thoughtful and clean classes,
and thing that does not appeal to
them is fortul ate If it meets with
popular indifference rather than
popular hostility. If the worst
charges made by Radicals against