Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-03-20

The following article was so badly pre-
sented in yesterdays Dispatch that we re-
produce it in corrected form. We can't
even lay the blame upon the printer.
The Right of Negroes TO Hold Ofioe'
The fifteenth amendment made voters of
the negroes-that is to say, the effect of its
ratification was to compel the several
States TO confer upon them the elective
franchise. That amendment, however, did
not secure TO them the right TO hold office
in any State. There is nothing in the Fede-
raj Constitution which prevents any State
from denying to them that right. This
fact seems to,have been lost sight of by
the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. as we
shall show. Last week we wrote the fol-
lowing little paragraph:
more RACE Troubles. will Mr..
HARRISON and bis Cabinet persist III appoint
ing negroes 20 Office when there are so
many white Republicans asking for all the
offices To be given out by the Admlnlstra-
ton? An Athens telegram in the Atlanta
Constitution says that the white citizens OF
Che High Shoals are indignant over the ap-
pointment of q negro g0uger. A gentle
man from Oconee county said that while
her people were law-abiding and peaceful,
thew had come to the conclusion, after
calm and considerate deliberation, that no
negro officer should be tolerated in Oconee
county. There are various rumors aioat
as TO race troubles in Oconee, but we trust
they may prove TO be untrue
Whereupon our Cincinnati contemporary
comments as follows:
1.-THE constitutional rights OF the colored
people and their representative rights as
- a r,f 70 no ikr
considered. Law-abiding people who
will not tolerate a negro in office have not
IN a reasonable sense finished their educa-
ton"
Here the Commercial Gazette assumes that
The right of the negroes to hold office is a
constitutional" right-meaning that it
Is secured TO them by the Federal Consti-
tuition. But the facts are that the thir-
teenth amendment did nothing more than
free the negroes; the fourteenth in terms
comedies the right of the several States to
DENY the right of suffrage to them; and
the fifteenth did nothing more than secure
TO them the right to vote. The State Con-
stitution of Virginia provides that tho ne
gro shall be eligible to office; but there is
nothing in the Federal Constitution that
touches his right TO hold office. Any State
IN the Union has the right TO exclude
the negro from Office.
The failure of the Federal Constitution
TO say anything upon the subject Of the
negro's right 10 hold Office was not al
accidental but an intentional omission
Whilst the fifteenth amendment was pend
ing in the United States Senate a senator
proposed to make it read The right Of
citizens of the United States to vote ana
bod Office shall not DO denied" NC, DC
But the Senate voted down this proposed
amendment,
Our Cincinnati contemporary must not
assume that there is any violation of the
Federal Constitution upon the part OF
those southrons who ask the President OF
the United States not TO appoint negroes
20 Office. Even if that instrument should
be amended and be made TO read as the
Senate twenty years ago refused to make
it read, the southern people could not be
charged with the offence with which the
Commercial Caste by implication charges
them. For such provision would mean
nothing more than that no STATE should by
law exclude negroes from Office. 1t would
not take effect upon persons at all. The
fifteenth amendment as il stands does not
apply to persons, and of course it would
not have applied 10 persons If 1t had been
amended as was proposed in the Senate.