Evening star., 1916-01-09
FIFTY YEARS AGO
IN THE STAR

The negro suffrage question was
| subject of deep interest to the people
of Washington at
Negro Enlistments this time fifty
and Suffrage. loving the e,ec-
| tion at which a practically unanimous
vote was cast against the extension of
| the franchise to the negroes. the mat
| ter was debated in the local press
| actively. In The Star of January s.
| 1865. is the following:
Probably no population ever suf-
| fered the same amount of systematic
| Misrepresentation that the citizens of
Washington have at the hands of the
| advocates of negro suffrage. who. in
| their vehement zeal to accomplish their
| end. stick at nothing in the way OF
| unscrupulous untruth to put this COM
munity in a false position. labored
| effort has been made to show that the
coiored population of the District fur
| nished an undue proportion of the
troops raised here during the rebellion.
thereby to demonstrate the superior
! patriotism of the negroes, and to afford
| an argument why, Of all communities
in the country, the whites of this Dis
tT1Ct SnOuIu De SelecteO Tor tne expert
ment of social degradation through en-
forced negro equality. To this end the
| most fagrant misstatements have been
put forth and have been accepted un-
Willingly by. the press of the country
as the real facts in the case. The as
founding allegations have been made
! through petitions to Congress and
otherwise that. out of a population of
eighteen or twenty thousand, the ne
groes Of the District furnished a fight
/ ing force of six thousand. and that the
whites, out of population of sixty
| thousand. furnished only eighteen hum
dred! And the Chronicle only few
days ago put in loaded editorial type.
| indorsed as Facts and Figures a
statement that three regiments of COL
ored troops had been organized here
with total of 3.54s men. and the arti-
Gle after further glorifying the num-
| bers and services of the black troops
proceeded in a style of remark exceed
| ingly derogatory to the white troops
! of the District.
I'VE have taken some pains to ascer-
| tain the exact facts in the case, in
order to present them for the consid-
GRAFTON Of persons Of candor who wish
| to deal fairly by us in the premises.
From the mayor we obtain the follow
ing official data: The whole number
Of men credited to the District of Co
lumbia during the rebellion was 1882,
OF whom 1929 were whites and 1888
were were e9iored OF the colored 1,o5l
III
| substitutes. We commend these official
! figures to the attention of all who may
have been biased by the false state
| ments alluded to. and especially ask
| their consideration by our brethren of
| the press who have been thus misled
II will be seen that while nearly 1900
| White troops were raised here but
1883 colored troops were produced. and
that OF that number. 1.161, or nearly
+, half of the colored total. went in as
| substitutes for whites"
Of interest in this connection is a
| letter written by Mayor Wallach to the
| President of the Senate
The Mayor's regarding the result of
| r.44. the negro suffrage cleo
tion, the text of which
appears in The Star of January s, 1856.
as follows:
'I have the honor. in compliance with
an act of the councils of this city, ap-
| proved December 16. 1855, to transmit
| through you to the Senate Of the Unit
ed States the result of an election held
| on Thursday, 21st Of December. to
| ascertain the opinion of the people of
Washington on the subject of negro
suffrage, at which the vote was $685.
segregated as follows: Against negro
| suffrage. 6.591: for negro suffrage, 35:
| majority against negro suffrage. 6,556.
This vote, the largest with but tive
exceptions ever polled in this city, con-
clusively shows the unanimity of SEN
timent of the people of Washington in
opposition to the extension of the right
of suffrage to that class: and that its
integrity may be properly appreciated
by the Senate. I give the aggregate Of
! the vote cast at the five elections i'm
mediately preceding for mayor: In 1856,
$40; 1858. 6,s13; 1860, 6.s75; 1862, 1916:
| 1864, 5,720. No others, in addition to
this minority of thirty-f1ve, are to be
| found in this community who favor the
extension Of the right of suffrage to
the class and in the manner proposed,
excepting those who have already me-
| moriaized the Senate in it's favor, and
| who, with but little association, less
| sympathy and no community of inter
| est or affinity with the citizens of
Washington. receive here from the gen.
eral government temporary employ
ment. and having at the National Capt.
tai residence limited only to the du-
| ration of the presidential term. claim
and invariably exercise the elective
franchise elsewhere. The people of this
city. claiming an independence of
thought and the right to express it,
have thus given grave and deliberate
utterance in an unexaggerated way to
their opinions and feelings on this sub
ject.
The unparalleled unanimity of senti-
ment which pervades all classes OF this
community in opposition to the extern
sion of the right of suffrage to that
class engenders an earnest hope that
Congress. In according to this express
! sion of their wishes the respect and
consideration they would, as individual
members. yield to those whom they i'm
mediately represent. would abstain
from the exercise of its absolute power
and avert an impending future ap-
parently SO Objectionable to those over
whom. by the fundamental law of the
land. they have exclusive jurisdic-
ton"
Half a century ago a favorite form of |
public entertainment was the biblical |
tableau. which throve |
Religious on the patronage of
members of the church, |
AooieauA. es who strongly disap |
proved of ordinary stage productions. |
In The Star of January 3, 1866, is a |
notice of an exhibition of this char
acter that was about to be given in |
Odd Fellows Hall. on 7th street. of |
The Great Miltonian Tableaux" il