The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-30
WHEN

but methods equally as reDugnant to con-
stitutional provisions and sound morality.
A NATIONAL QUESTION.
"The equality of citizens of the Republic
under the federal Constitution is a prin-
ciple of government which affects all alike,
and infraction of the rights of the one in
evitably involves infraction of the rights
of the other. The endency towards dis
reimbursement is not a race question, nor
a sectional question. although for the pres
ent We are the principal victims of IT.; it
is a national question, and affects all of
the citizens of the United States. because
where we are injured in our rights to-day
others may be injured in theirs to-mor-
row. Indeed, If a fundamental guarantee
or the right of life. liberty or property
under the Constitution. in which we are
vitality concerned, may be violated with i'm
punity, there is no reason why the cog
nate rights Of others may not at some
stage of our politics be violated with equal
impunity. We regard IL as an immoral
and unprecedented construction of the
fourteenth amendment to covertly seek to
rob a large number of the citizenship of
this country by State notification of the
fourteenth amendment. What We contend
for is, that the citizenship of the United
States as prescribed by the supreme law
should not be affected in any of its parts
for whatever reason, by any coordinate
member of the federal compact.
"We are not opposed TO restriction of
suffrage rights by any State. by property
or educational test, which shall apply to
all citizens alike: but We maintain that
the State Constitutions of Mississippi,
South Carolina, North Carolina and Louis
lana, enacted by a minority of the citizens
Of those States without submission for rati-
fication 10 the people, confessing thereby
that the action would not receive the ap-
prevail of the people. are immoral in their
purpose, in contravention of positive guar
antees of the federal Constitution, and in
direct violation of the reconstruction acts
by which those States were Omit
into the Union.
RIGHTS OF AFRO-AMERICANS.
9TH suffrage rights of the
can people, assured by the valorous conduct
OF the 5000 black soldiers who fought to
| preserve the Union of our States and to
suppress the slave power. is the priceless
jewel that we enjoy as the result of that
valor; and We are unalterably opposed
to any restriction of it which does not ap-
ply to all citizens of the States alike.
THE interests of the white men of the
South are as much involved in this suffrage
question as are ours. Their interests are
identical with ours; what benefits them
must benefit us; what Injuries them must in
jure us. 1t should not be difficult for them
to see that forcing this question into the
prominence which has been true of late
cannot but be injurious TO their influence
as well as to our own In the government.
There is not a member of this council who
aces not know that the white man of the
South can be generous as well as magnani-
NOUS, and where our interests are so gen.
orally intertwined we have d just right.
and We do not feel that we entertain ii in
vain, TO ask them to make a larger ex-
hibition of this generosity and magnanim-
ry. which We know by personal experience
10 form so large a part of their character.
1--WE feel to say to them that il is well
&c have the strength of a giant, but at the
same time We ask them IL 1t is wise to use
such strength as a giant. Let the Afro
American people stand unfinchingly by
their suffrage rights. IT is a life and death
struggle. Looking at it from this point of
view We should be unfaithful to the trust
committed TO us If We do not warn the
race against the danger of supporting
any man OF party in the North or the
South who is opposed to the full and free
exercise of the elective franchise. under
the provisions of the fourteenth and ff-
| teenth amendments to the Constitution.
I'VE have faith to believe that revolutions
never go backwards, and that the abiding
sense of justice in the American people.
North and South, will ultimately impel
| them to concede TO us all that we contend
for, and which is inherently ours, as it is
inherently theirs. and we believe that the
God of our destiny will guide us to that
| good understanding which is the basis of
national power and happiness"