The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-05
A Negro's Questions About His Vote

~ Negro = VucsiOhs HoooI "'S No'c
We reply with pleasure to certain ques-
tions put to us by a colored citizen OF
Brooklyn who signs himself The Son
of a Black Soldier" but communicates
his name and address. His numbered
questions are printed separately below
in order that the answer may imme-
diately follow each of them for the con-
venience of the reader:
81. Why do you characterize as hasty' the
policy which invested the emancpated males oil
African descent with the full right Of suffrage"
Because that seems to be the right
word for the sudden and wholesale ex-
tension of the suffrage, less than four
years after the end of the Civil War, to
millions of people whose capacity for the
responsibilities OF the ballot was untried
then, exceedingly predetermined in view
of race characteristics, and by genera
tons experience since then absolutely
demonstrated not to have existed.
-. Give details of the direful consequences of
this error Of national Judgment
The, story of the horrible conditions in
the PROSTATE States in the early days OF
reconstruction, first adequately told in
the case of South Carolina by that vet
eran Republican. abolitionist and old
Tribune writer, the Hon. JAMES S. PIKE
Of Maine; the destinies of men, women
and children of the superior race at the
mercy of ignorance and Irresponsible
itv in these Commonwealth where the
black vote was numerically predominant;
the evils of lawlessness growing out Of the
inevitable efforts Of the superior race to
protect itself against negro domination
at any hazard; the delay in the perfect
reassimilation of whole section of the
restored Union Of States; the political
hatreds kept alive for years by the
North's misunderstanding of the neces-
sity of the South's struggle for self
preservation: the demoralizing effect of
a condition Of law, organic and statutory,
impossible of reconcilement with actual
conditions of society. These are some
of the consequences of which the adjec-
tive direful is mildly descriptive.
3. Would tho boy OF hfteen or the woman Of
fifty ever be called upon 10 bear arms in defence
OF the country as the emancpated males OF African
descent have BEEN"
Probably not. Fitness to fight may
exist with or without fitness to vote.
Fitness to vote may exist with or without
fitness to fight. Neither capablity ex-
cludes or implies the other.
-. Al any time have white females and white
children ever been counted In the apportlonment
each as three -nfths OF person. II not. why were
those OF African descent represented and the others
not"
Our correspondent misunderstands the
fact. Previously to the adoption of the
Fifteenth Amendment, under the old
provision Of the Constitution referring
to slavery, when the enslaved blacks
counted each as three-ffths of per-
son, for the purposes Of apportionment,
white women and children, like all other
free persons except Indians not taxed,
counted as whole persons.
s. Was the recent decision of the Supreme
Court to which there is reference In your editorial,
a unanimous decision We might easily craw the
Inference from the reference that 1t was"
The declination OF the Supreme Court
to interfere for the enforcement Of the
Fifteenth Amendment in Alabama was
not unanimous decision. Few far
reaching decisions Of that tribunal are
unanimous. Three Justices, HARLAN,
BREWER and BROWN, dissented in the
Alabama case.
GO. Why Is the system Of suffrage as illustrated
In the Fifteenth Amendment Impossible OF appll-
cation with safety 10 the vital Interests Of the
States chiefly concerned"
Because, to put the unpleasant fact
squarely, the experience OF third of
century has shown that the most hopeful
path of elevation for the black race
toward fitness to exercise the suffrage
has been miscegenation.'
We print our Brooklyn correspondent
concluding remarks:
There Is much talked and written In these days
about the negro. and by every one but the negro.
But the negro knows the franchise Is legally his.
and. believe. he will know what to do when other
Americans so far betray loyalty and degrade honor
as to attemp, to legally deprive him OF 1t. The
sooner the country fairly and squarely faces the
question the better"
There ia no bar to the legal correction
of State or national mistake in the
matter of the extension OF the suffrage in
any direction whatever An educational
or property qualification that has boon
removed can be reimposed. A race ex-
tension by the Federal Constitution can
be withdrawn by the same process of
Constitutional amendment. That would
not necessarily abolish negro suffrage,
or take away our correspondent vote.
1t would leave each State Constitution
ally free to decide the question for itself.
The Retirement Of Signor Moretti.
NIoRETTIs restaurant closed for good