The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-16
THE SOUTHERN QUESTION.

The Democratic party are saying to their
followers: ''The solid South is just what the
rascally Republicans deserve for negro suf
frage. They howled until they freed the
slave; then howled until they made him
voter, and now howl because they can't use
him to keep themselves in power. 1t serves
the niggers and the Republicans right"
Did the Republicans commit a mistake in
comforting the ballot upon the negroY And
has that mistake returned to take its pay upon
its authorsG One thing is perfectly clear.
The South alone is responsible for what it is
pleased to term the crime of colored suffrage.
Every Southern State except Tennessee re-
jected the fourteenth amendment. That
amendment did not contemplate colored suf-
frage. 1t simply proposed to expunge from
the Constitution of the United States the in
famous three ffths count of the slaves for rep
resentative purposes, which was one of the
compromises of the convention of 1877. The
North said: 'SlaverY is abolished Why
should the States lately in rebellion be allowed
three -ffths more than the loyal States in the
congressional representation Why should
the negro be counted in an apportionment
where no one but the late rebel master gets
any benefit from the COUNT BY that process
the loyal mon of the North are robbed of the
just right they are entitled to in the national
government" Accordingly, in 1867, the
North said to the South: "Pas5 the four
tenth amendment, which provides that the
negro shall not be counted in as part of the
basis of congressional apportionment unless
he is allowed to vote, and you may be
again restored to the Union" This mild and
equitable proposition was scornfully rejected
Had it been accepted, the negro would have
remained without the right to vote. AS soon
as the South rejected the fourteenth amend
ment there was nothing left to do except to
insist upon the fifteenth amendment, which
confers the ballot upon the colored man. It
was passed as political necessity, forced upon
us by the stiff-necked South
Was it mistake7 Is lit evera mistake to
enfranchse human being? If So Gladstone
made the same mistake in 1882 when he ad-
mitted 100000 English workingmen to the
ballot. Curiously enough these same men,
in 1885, overturned Gladstone and Irish re-
form, and put Salisbury, and Churchill, and
Irish slavery in Gladstones place. The his
tory of English and American suffrage re-
form in this respect is exactly alike in its re-
dictionary consequences.
We may concede that the Southern negro
was not prepared for the noble gift of suffrage
and yet it does not follow that the fifteenth
amendment was a mistake. In 1868 the Re-
publican party reasoned-"Here is an oppor-
tunity that will never occur again. If we wait
until education and experience have prepared
the colored man to compete with his white
rival he will never be prepared. Let us do
justice first and trust to time and the ciyiliza
ton of the ninteenth century for the prepare
ton" A superficial view of the question is
outcome of this business would be- You ought
to have had capacity enough to have known
that the Democratic party would have done
just what it has done-robbed the black man
of his ballot, and through this robbery lifted
itself into power"
This assumes the whole point in DISPUTE
Will the American citizen submit to this rob-
berry, Will the intelligence of the United
States submit to the domination of party
that depends for its supremacy upon an organ
lied violation of the organic law of the land?
Will the voter of Indiana quietly submit
to the degradation of counting only one-third
much as the voter of South Carolina, or one
half as much as the voter of Georgia, Alabama
or louisiana Will the people north of the
Ohio submit to political contest when it is
only necessary to carry two Northern States
Indiana and New York-to neutralize the vote
of the remaining twenty-one StatesG
If humanity is mistake and robbery viz
tue; if to enfranchise a downtrodden race is
a crime and to violate the Constitution of the
United States is virtue, then the Democrats
have tbs argument In no other way can it
be proven that ''the solid South is Just what
the Republicans deserve for negro suffrage.