The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-03-06
borne in mind that at the time this was


to give all the reasons that induced me
to take this course; it is sufficient to say
that I fully realized that when a mar
had been made citizen of the United
States he could not be debarred the righ
of voting on account of his color. Such
exclusion would be opposed to the entire
theory of. republican institutions, and
foresaw that, unless the States, while
they had the right of regulating the cleo
tive franchise, prescribed the qualitica'
tions of their voters, the National Gov.
ernment would intervene, and we should
have universal suffrage forced upon us
My object, then, was, by fixing an edu-
cational qualification as prerequisite
for voting, to allow the most intelligent
of the colored people to vote at once, and
this would have been an inducement to
the rest of the race to endeavor to qualify
themselves for the attainment and exer-
else of. this privilege by securing the
necessary education. The admission OF
the limited number who would have pro-
duced no confusion in the machinery OF
the State governments, and the relation
between the two races would have been
friendly and harmonious; but the course
that I recommended was not adopted, (,
and we of the South have been subjected
to all the humiliation and crime brought
about by reconstruction. AS the negro
is now acquiring education and property,
he is becoming more conservative, and
naturally desires to assist in the estab-
lishment and maintenance of good gov
ernment and home rule. have endeay-
ored-and / think not without success
to teach him here how TO use the vote for
his own good, and the benefit of the po-
litical society in which he lives and with
which his future prosperity is identified.
The result has been shown in the last
two general elections in this State, where
thousands of negroes have voted with
their white friends; and if any doubt is
entertained of the sincerity of these vo-
tiers, and any impartial visitor from the
North will take tie pains to inquire
throughout the State, will venture the
assertion that in every locality he will
find as earnest, as active and as consis-
tent Democrats among tho colored peo-
pie as among the whites, and these col
ored Democrats are generally among the
more intelligent of their race.
Under these circumstances, as the
negro is endeavoring very generally to
qualify himself for the duties of citizen
ship, the wrong of DISTINGUISHING him
would be Us great as that inflicted upon
us in the first instance, when universal
suffrage was given to him while he was
yet utterly unprepared to exercise it.
The second question to which my at
tention has been invited is, "Ought the
negro to have been enfranchised" 1t
may seem inconsistent with the views [
hare expressed in the first part of this
article to say that I do not think he
should have been enfranchiscd at the
time and in the manner in which it was
done. Ny first objection is, that the
mode that was pursued, if not directly
unconstitutional, was certainly extra
constitutional, and I am utterly opposed
to any violation, direct or indirect, OF
that instrument. Whenever political
party thinks it is necessary, in order to
secure its supremacy, to act outside OF
the Constitution, and this is permitted
by the people without rebuke, we may
be sure that we have entered upon that
downward plane which every previous
republic has travelled to destruction.
The oAly hope of maintaining our insti-
tutiol.i in their integrity is by strict
obserlnce of the Constitution, and no
partylhould be allowed to remain mo-
mcnt lin power which countenances in
any manner any violation of its sacred
provisions.
My next objection to comforting suf-
frage on the negro, Immediately upon
his emancipation, that he was totally in
to exercise or even to under
stand the rights conferred upon him.
The injection of such mass of Ignorant
and unframed voters into the body poll
tic was the most perilous strain to which
our institutions have ever been subjected,
and the danger arising from this expert
ment has not yet passed. 1t was crime
against the whites of the South to dis
franchise them in large part while en-
franchising the negro, and thus practically
placing ali the rights of the former at
the mercy of newly emancipated slaves.
All these difficulties might have been
avoided had partial suffrage been adop-
ted in the first instance, and the relations
between the two races been allowed to
adjust themselves by the unimpeded ac-
ton of natural laws. This course would
have been infinitely better for the negro
himself; as it would gradually have
trained the exercise of the rights Of free
men, and would have prevented that an
tagonism between the two races which
has resulted, in so many instances, to the
injury of the negro.
Those who assert that the negro should
have been enfranchised have not hesi-
tated to declare that the Indian, the ma
tive freemen of America, and the Chi
nese, who have sought our shores in such
numbers, should be debarred that right
There seems to be some inconsistency IL
these views, and the advocates of negro
enfranchisement should be called on tc
show why the privilege should be grant
ed to him, the newly emancipated slave
and yet denied to men who have always
been free aud who possess more intelli
gence. g..
When the negro was made citizen
it followed as logical consequence, un
der the theory OF our institutions, tha
he must become voter. My objection
to his enfranchisement, therefore, is con
fined to the time when and the mode il
which this privilege was conferred upor
him.
l have answered these questions witt
entire frankncss, in the hope that such
discussion, free from political acrimon!
and partisan misconceptions, would en-
courage the calm and conscientious con
sideration of the whole subject.
WADE HAMPTON.
A MIDNIGHT SCENE IN JERsUALEM
ok.o11ir,r hon