The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-07-12
A FREE BALLOT AND A FAIR
COUNT.

The Agreement of Messrs, Curtis, EG
munds, Harrison and Chandler Of
' this Point.
8 Surprising as it may seem Mr.. Georg
j William Curtis, in his Gettysburg ora
a ton on the Sd, inst, told his Souther
5 friends some very plain truths about th
] danger to the whole country from thei
habit of suppressing the negro vote
5 This Grafton of his was most admirabl
one and we regret that we cannot Civ
it all to our readers. The Boston Jour
nal says Of it
"Mr. Curtis has never in all his publ
, utterances touched higher plane tina
, in his Grafton OF Tuesday, on the battle
field of Gettysburg. His address wa
broad and statesmanlike, and fully woI
thy Of one of the grandest opportuniiie
ever offered to an American orator, O
an orator of any land"
or the part relating to the suppression
Of the suffrage the Journal remarks a
follows
But the words in all OF Mr.. Curtis
Grafton which will awaken the readies
response-and that, too, from men thu
great majority Of whom the orator il
not in agreement on certain other point
are those about the suffrage. Here hi
took as firm stand as any citizen coulC
with any reason ask, and surprised anC
delighted vast class of voters who haC
come to fear that Mr.. Curtis had imbibeC
the indifference prevalent among hiE
new political associates concerning
free and legal ballot. That he has not i,
a tribute to his tiength of character
and indicates that though Mr.. Curtis hat
seen fit to differ with his former friends
on some points, on others no less import
ant he is in full sympathy with them
No Republican will question the truth
of his observation that the remedy for
a suppressed or fraudulent ballot Ia not
national, but local. National laws and
national officials can modify abuses OF
the suffrage, but they cannot cure them.
That can be done only by an enlightened
and irresistible public sentiment"
Fhe orator says, Subject to the Con-
stltutional guarantee Of a Republican
form of government, and OF no disGTiIl
nation against race or color, the regula
ton Of the suffrage is wisely left 70 the
States, But the action of every State
upon subjects Of q common interest nee
essarily affect the Union, The suffrage
is the handspring, the heart of our &C m,
mon life, and whatever affects it iniur-
iously, touches the national sensorium,
and the whole country thrills. No com
munity politically founded upon the
legal equality of the suffrage can habit
ually disregard that equality without
moral deterioration, growing indiffer-
ence to the authority OF law apd destruc
ton Of the Democratic Republican prin
ciple. If ignorance ard semi barbarous
dominance be fatal to civilized commu-
mites, not less so Is constant and DELHI
crate defiance of law. In a national
union of States, where fair elections are
assumed, systematic fraud or violence
or suppression of votes, in the event of
a closely-contested poll, would ineYite.
bly, destroy the conviction that the ap-
parent result represented the actual will
of the legal voters, and that result would
be challenged amid violent disorder. 1t
IS not enough that national election be
fair, it must be the national conviction
that it is fair,
mo honest man should delude himsel.
with the theory that this is local ques-
ton. In New York there is very large
class of ignorant. un.Amorican voters.
who barely speak our language, who
have no knowledge or practice of free,
popular institutions, and who are alien
in tradition, sympathy and spirit. 1t is
class of no single nationality, but is
gathered from all other lands. 1t is
large enough TO control the State, and,
as the electoral vote of New York is
very important, it might easily depIde a
national election. But, whatever its
ignorance or degradation, this is a class
of legal voters. They have been enfran.
chised by the law, upon which rest all
our rights, and If by fraud, or force, or
by any Illicit method, this class of voters
should be deprived of their legal right it |
would not be New York question alone.
Virginia, Mississippi, Maine, Minnesota
would he equally CONCERNED, The ma
tional peace would be imperiled until
that deprivation ceased, and either the
right to vote were legally annrlled or
freely exercised II there be a national
question, question which virtually in.
terests every American citizen from the
Penobscot to the Rio Grande, question
which, while America ms are Anne. icaus,
will not be set aside, but mus be homo"
ably entertained and periodically ad-
justed, it is the question of a free legal
ballot,
1.-THE practical remedy foT its coercion
DR. its repression, indeed, is local, not ma.
tlonal. The citizens Of this magnificent
cannot reach across the
Potomac and impose their will retpect-
ing the suffrage upon the mother o.
States, nor can the States of New EnS
and dictate legislation TO the Slater of
he Northwest. But the Virginian
fnows that the Pennsylvania is virtual
y interested in his action. Iowa and
Wisconsin know that Maine and Rhode
Island have common stake in such
ocal laws, and as Washington and
Jefferson aud Madison took
counsel with Alexander Hamilton suG
Dr.. Franklin and Rufus King and Roger
sherman, bent upon a common purpose
nut with due regard to every local con-
litlon, 30 will their sons confer, frater-
Tally forbearing, until the gr at problem
u the suffrage and all other problems
re solved"
Senator Edmunds discourses on the {
anne topic in the article in The Forum
or July TO which we alluded last week.
lie Gays that the Republican party will
its cardinal principle of 1.-THE
ullest defense and promotion. at all {
lines and in all places, of equal political {
nd civil rights Of citizens Of the United '
Itates." " and "it will do this not |
m account OF The past, but Oh ccount {
4 the present and thefuture" though he '
dmits that 'the boundaries Of the law {
al national power in these respects ]
nay be marrow" He argues as follows; I
I'm respect Of the repression of prac-
zeal political rights In many of the |
tBtes, 1t has now come to be admitted q
hat such repression does e1ist and it Q
, defended (by the South) upon the plea '
hat the government Of these stales, and s
o Of their representatives in Congress I
nd their voice in the elections OF Presi. I
ents must, for the social welfare Of all. IN
e kept in the hands Of those who as I
ume themselves to be the intelligent 6
nd conservative class Of the commune s
y. But this isthe very essence OF the
lea Of all tyrants everywhere. It is
rue enough that Intelligence is better >
han ignorance, and that affairs can be !