The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1884-12-02
New ,EQsF fbr- ua1f r--
nave b.. sun. Nov. %
The Electoral Votes of the south.

"Fortv-two Presidential electors are
assigned to the South on account of the
colored population" said Mr. Blaine in
his recent speech at Augusta. Senator
Brown of Georgia estimates the number
of these electors at thirty-seven.
The difference between the two state
ments is not material to the argument.
The great fact stands that the political
power of the South has been largely in
creased, and will continue to grow with
each recurring census 1t certainly does
not lie in Mr.. Blaine's mouth to complain
of this result Of policy for which he
voted in the Thirty-eighth and Thirty
ninth Congresses.
Just as the rebellion was about to col
lapse, a Republican Congress passed
resolution, Feb. l, 1865, submitting the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitu-
ton, prohibiting slavery, to the thirty
six States then in the Union. That
amendment was promptly ratified, &C
cording to an official proclamation of Dec.
l8, 1865.
When the Thirty-ninth Congress met,
the Republican leaders set their wits to
work to utilize the enfranchised race as
an element of party strength. Some of
the wisest Of them were adverse to the
experiment; but they gave way under
the temptation of an indefinite lease of
power, promised by the managers as the
outcome of the negro vote.
The Fourteenth Amendment, comforting
suffrage and declaring that Representa-
tives shall be apportioned among the sew
eral States according to their respective
numbers, counting the whole number of
persons in each State, excluding Indians
not taxed" was submitted to the State
Legislatures by resolution of Congress,
June 16, 1866, and was ratified on July
Is, 1868.
Supplementary to these amendments
were the reconstruction measures, inclu-
ding the Civil Rights act, since declared
to be unconstitutional by the Republican
Supreme Court, all designed to crush
down the whites of the South and to So
lidify the blacks as Republican voters.
Old Virginia had been divided into two
States in 1862, furnishing two Republi-
can Senators; and Nevada and Nebras-
ka were subsequently brought in with
the same purpose, 30 as to keep two
thirds majority on hand.
To intensity this partisan policy, car
petbaggers were adopted as its admins
trative agents, and with what effect need
not be told now. That foul chapter in
our public history reacted against its au-
thors. 1t provoked the anger of the in
telligent impartiality of the North, and
it was one of the many causes that led
up to the election of Mr.. Tilden in 1875
and to the defeat of Mr.. Blaine in 1884.
The engineers got hoist with their own
petard, as might have been foreseen. In
tending to degrade and to weaken the
white race, and to elevate the black race
above them, the Republican leaders have
conferred upon the latter power which
could never have been attained without
the Fourteenth Amendment to the Con-
stitution. The sixteen Southern States
would have been entitled to representa-
ton for the number of free white persons
and three-ffths of all other persons under
the old Constitution. Emancipation has
added two fifths to this capital. In round
numbers these States would have under
the present apportionment fifteen and
half millions for distribution by the origi-
nal method, whereas by the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth Amendments they get
three millions additional, or population
only onefourth less than the six New
England States together. Moreover, be-