New-York tribune., 1880-06-30
TIE q tRFE RALL0TD

We commend most cordially the 6fth de-
claratiOn of the Democratic platform adopted
at Cincinnati which says: HThe right to free
"ballot is the right preservative Of all rights
and must and shall be maintained IN every
Gpart OF the United States" Nothing could
be truer than that it Is 4" the right preservative
sOf all rights" Republican statesmen recog-
nized it when. after emancipatiDg the black
race and giving these former slaves the right
to their own souls and bodies and TO the fruits
Of their own labor, so long wrlng from them
by their taslxmasters, they put this weapon in
their hands for their own self-protectior. 1t
was the only way to make them secure In Sheir
freedom; the only way by which they could
preserve the rights with which the proclama-
ton and acts OF emancipation bad invested
them. That was the argument that out
weighed all others. It was said that there was
great danger in this overwhelming enfranchise-
ment Of ignorance; 1t was urged that at least
An intelligence test should be interposed; that
men " no could rot read nor write, and conse-
ouently did not understand the meaning OF the
ballot or of free institutions; could not safely
be entrusted with the elective franchise.
To this the all-sufHcient answer was that it
WAS the only security that conld be given them
AGAINST reinstatement. 1t was Republicans
who s,id vt that time that the right to free
Gballot is the right preventative Of all rights"
and IL vas Republican policy, Republic An
leeislation, rand Republican administration
that eaye that truth Its living force and widest
expression when the black man was endowed
with the right to free ballot that he might
nreserye for himself the right to his own flesh
and blood and to the labor Of his own hands.
II IA for this right to free ballot that Repub-
licaus have been contendinR for the past
fifteen years for this that they adopted the
amendments; for this that they strengthened
the amendments by additional statutory enact
ments. It was to enforce the right to free
ballot that Republican Legislatures in Southern
States provided penalties by law for intimida-
ton and violence at the polls, and ordered
that precincts where voters had been de-
priyed of @ free ballot by intimidation should
be thrown out In the count And II was be-
cause of the enforcement Of those provisions
that the Democratic party, deprived thereby
Of the fruits Of their shotgun policy In 1915,
have been howling these three years that they
were defrauded.
1t is one great thing. too, for which Repub-
licans are still contending. Were the right to
free ballot permitted to be enforced in the
Southern States and they to whom 1t was
given as q protection and defence were allowed
to exercise it unharmed and 70 have their
votes honestly counted, there could be no Solid
South nor any danger Of Democratic ascend
ancy in the Nation. 1t iS Republican, not a
Democratic, principle. In Democratic plat
form 1t is iDsincere and false. They do not
mean that ait must and shall be maintained
@in every part OF the United States" They
know that if it were their last hope of success
would be destroyed. They want free ballot
for fraudulent voters and repeaters in Northern
cities IN the doubtful States, but not elsewhere.
They cannot afford free ballot and honest
count In any Southern State.