The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-03-09

oO1 AOuo NACIlA OGb1ASO W Jul ACOubICI II /
communities This is to be deplored |
though it was perhaps unavoidable.
But those who resisted the change
should remember that under our in
situations there was no middle
ground for the negro race between
slavery and equal citizenship. There
can be no permanent disfranchised
peasantry in the United States
Freedom can never yield its fullness
of blessings so long as the law or its
administration places the smallest
obstacle in the pathway of any viz
tuous citizen. The emancipated race
has already made remarkable pro
gress. With unquestioning devo-
ton to the Union, with patience and
gentleness not born of fear, they
have followed light as God gave
them to see light. They are rapid
ly laying the material foundation Of
self-support, widening their circle
of intelligence, and beginning to
enjoy the blessings that gather
around the homes of the industrious
poor. They deserve the generous
encouragement Of all good men.
So far as my authority can lawfully
extend, they shall enjoy the full and
equal protection Of the Constitution
and law.
The full and free enjoyment of
equal suffrage is still in question,
and a frank statement of the issue
may aid its solution. 1t is alleged
that in many places honest local
government is impossible if the mass
of uneducated negroes are allowed
to vote.
These are grave allegations. So
far as the latter is true it is the only
palliation that can be offered for OPP
pressing the freedom Of the ballot.
Bad local government is certainly
great evil which ought to be pre-
vented, but to violate the freedom
and sanctity Of suffrage is more than
an evil-it is crime which if per
sisted in will destroy the govern
ment itself, and suicide is not a rem
edy. If in other lands it be high
treason to compass the death Of the
king, it should be counted no less q
crime here to strangle our sover-
eign power and stife its voice. 1t
has been said that unsettled ques-
tons have no pity for the repose of
nations. 1t should be said, with
the utmost emphasis, that this ques-
ton of suffrage will never give re-
pose or safety to the States or to the
nation until each, within its own iu-
risdiction, makes and keeps the bal
lot free and pure by the strong sane
ton of law. But the danger which
arises from ignorance in the voter
cannot be denied. 1t covers a field
far wider than that of negro suffrage
and the present condition of that
race. 1t is danger that turks and
hides in the sources and fountains
of power In every State. We have
no standard by which to measure
disaster that may be brought upon
us by Ignorance and vice in the citi-
zens when joined to corruption and
fraud in suffrage The voters of
the Union, who make and unmake
constitutions, and upon whose will
hangs the destinies Of our govern
ments, can transmit their supreme
authority to no successors save the
coming generation Of voters, who
are the sole heirs Of the sovereign
power. If that generation comes to
its inheritance blinded by ignorance
and corrupted by vice, the fall of
the republic will be certain and rem
edilesS. The census have already
sound the alarm in appalling figures
which mark how dangerously high
the tide of illiteracy has risen among
our voters and their children at the
South. This question is of supreme
importance, but the responsibility
for the existence of slavery did not
rest upon the South alone. The
nation itself is responsible for the
extension of suffrage, and is under
special obligation to aid in relnov=
ing the illiteracy which it has ad-
ded to the voting population. For
the North and South alike there is
but one remedy. All the Constitu-
tional powers of the nation and of
the States, and all the TaiunteBp
forces of the people should be sum
moned to. meet this danger by the
saving influence of universal educa-
ton. 1t is the high privilege and
sacred duty Of those now living to
oI,7oo+o + i aI,. o,,oooce,r,,s Cd 81 H.,
by intelligence and virtue for the
inheritance which awaits them. In
this benefcent work sections and
races should be forgotten, and par
tisanship should be unknown. Let
our people find a new meaning in
the oracle which declares that lit
tie child shall lead them, for our lit
tie children will soon control the
destinies of the republic.
My countrymen, we do not now
differ in our judgment concerning
the controversies of past genera
tons, and fifty years hence our chill
dren will not be divided in their
opinions concerning our controver-
sizes. They will surely bless their
fathers and their fathers God that
the Union was preserved, that slav-
cry was Overthrown and that both
races were made equal before the
law. We may hasten or we may
retard, but we cannot prevent the
final reconciliation. Is it not pos
sibIe for us now to make truce
with time by anticipating and ac-
cepting its inevitable verdict.
Enterprises of the highest import
ance to our moral and material we'll
being invite us and offer ample
scope for the employment Of our
powers Let all our people, leaving
behind them the battlefelds of dead
issues, move forward and in the
strength of liberty and a restored
Union yin the orander victories of