Democratic messenger., 1881-03-12

answered 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 oppos-
ing the freedom of the ballot. Bad
local government is certainly a great
evil which ought to be prevented, but
to violate the freedom and sanctity of
the suffrage is more than an evil-it is
a crime. which, if persisted in, will de-
stroy the Government itself. Suicide
is not remedy. If, in other lands, it
be high treason to compass the death of
the king, it should be counted no less a
crime here to strangle our sovereign
power, and stifle its voice. 1t has been
said that unsettled questions have no
pity for the repose of nations. 1t
should be said, with the utmost empha-
sis, that this question of the suffrage
will never give repose or safety TO the
States or to the nation, until each with
in its own jurisdiction makes and keeps
the ballot free and pure by the strong
sanctions of the law.
But the danger which arises from ig-
norance in the voter cannot be denied.
1t covers field far wider than that of
negro suffrage and the present condi-
ton of that race.
1t is danger that Turks and hides in
the sources and fountains of power i'll
every State. We have no standard by
which to measure the disaster that may
be brought upon us by ignorance and
vice in the citizens when joined to car
ruption and fraud in the suffrage.
The voters of the Union who make and
unmake Constitutions, and upon whose
viii hang the destinies of our Govern
ments, can transmit their supreme au-
thority to no successor save the coming
generation of voters, who are the sole
heirs of sovereign power. If that gen.
Grafton comes to its inheritance blinded
by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the
fall of the Republic will be certain and
remediless.
The census has already sounded the
alarm in the appalling figures which
mark how dangerously high the tide of
illiteracy has risen among our voters
and their children.
To the South this question is of su-
preme Importance, but the RESPONSE
b t. for the existence of slavery did
not rest upon the South alone.
The nation itself is responsible for the
extension of the suffrage, and is under
special obligations to aid in removing
the illiteracy which it has added TO the
voting population. For the North aud
South alike there is but one remedy.
ALI the constitutional power of the ma
tion and of the States and all the volun-
teer forces of the people should be sum-
moned to meet this danger by the saw
ing influence of universal education. 1t
is the high privilege and sacred duty of
those now living to educate their suc-
cessors and fit them by intelligence and
virtue for the Inheritance which awaits
them.
In this beneicent work sections and
races should be forgotten and partisan
ship should be unknown. Let our peo-
pie find n new meaning in the divine
oracle which declares that ga little
child shall lead them," for our little
children will soon control the destinies
of the Republic
My countrymen, we do not now differ
in our Judgment concerning the coptro-
versies OF past generations, ard fifty
years hence our children will not be di-
vided in their opinions concerning our
controversies. They will surely bless
their fathers and their fathers God that
the Union was preserved, that slavery
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 possible for us now to make a
truce with time by anticipating and ac-
cepting its inevitable verdict?
Enterprises of the highest importance
to our moral and material well-being
invite us and offer ample scope for the
employment of our best powers. Let
all our people, leaving behind them the
battle-fields of dead issues, move for
ward, and in the strength of Liberty
and the restored Union win the grander
victories of peace.
The prosperity which now prevails is
without parallel in our history. Fruit
full seasons have done much to secure it,
but they have not done all. The pres
ervation of the public credit and the re-
sumption of specie payments so success
fully attained by the Administration of
my predecessors have enabled our peo-
pie to secure the blessings which the
seasons brought. BY the experience of
commercial nations in all ages, it has
been found that gold and silver afford
the only safe foundation for a monetary
system. Confusion has recently been
created by variations in the relative val
ue of the two metals, but / confidently
believe that arrangements can be made
between the leading commercial nations
which will secure the general use of both
metals. Congress should provide that
the compulsory coinage of silver now
required by law may not disturb our
monetary system by driving either met
al out of circulation. If possible such
an adjustment should be made that the
purchasing power of every coined dol
lar will be exactly equal to its debt pay
ing power in all the markets of the
world.
The chief duty of the National Gov
ernment in connection with the curren-
cy of the country is to coin and declare
its value. Grave doubts have been en-
tertained whether Congress ia author
lied by the Constitution to make any
form of paper money legal tender. The
present issue of United States notes has
been sustained by the necessities of war,
but such paper should depend for its
value and currency upon its convenience
in use and its prompt redemption in cion
at the will of the holder, and not upon