Year: 1865

THE NEWS ON NEGRO sUFF RAGE.


The Daiy Nens has given, within the past
few davs, some indications OF a change oi
heart on the question of negro suffrage, and yes
tordav. in a forcible and well-written argu-
nent. avows its thorough conversion to that
doctrine. The wonder is that, seeing the
truth so clearly as j. now does, 1T should
have ever doubted. For the faith that
is in it it finds reason, not IN any
particular sympathy for the emancipated
Slave. or any special desire to right
a wronged race, but in the broad democratic
principle that in republic the rights Of citizen
ship inhere in the citizen, and that when the
black man ceased to be a slave and became q
citizen. the elective franchise belongs TO MN ny
natural right, subject only to regulation Ny
the State This is sound doctrine lhouen
it will probably take the habitual reaueiS
of The Neps by surprise VINO na'o
becn educated in the belief that
black man has no rights which white man Is
bound to respect. Nor will it hardly less sur
prise, as it ought to put to shame, some other
journals which, while pretending to much
higher political standard than that OF me
Nf,,s are thus shown to be possessed
of not a 1.-THE of its honesty, ana
equally wanting in its political sagacity.
The war has brought many strange things TO
mass. and not the least strange is this OF an
ultra. Democratic paper, the persistent advocate
from the beginning, Of the Rebel cause thus
boldly uphoding the extreme result OF the eman'
cipation problem, which timid and tlme-seIV-
ing Republican journals either fear to touch or
openly oppose 1t may be one OF those
changes of base which The News has Learned
from the Rebel tactics in war, and which, under
some of the Union Generals, were, unhappiiy'
too often successful. 1t is flank movement
which we shall be very glad to see succeed
though it shall set some OF our frlenus 10


skedaddling" for a change of front.


We may safely, we presume, accept the aF'l-
Gle in The News as proof at least, that IL
believes that the Southern people themselves
will acknowledge that the blacks are entitled


to the right OF suffrage. If it is n9ht
in this. who doubts that this is the
wisest and best settlement of tie question
They accept, it says, emancipation, and


care BY no means reluctant to conform
their methods of State polity to the changed
condition of public affairs" If this be true we
NAV safely leave to the test of time the result
of that change, and accept what the future may
bring forth in politics with the addition Of some
half million of voters to the Southern vote.
The Ne,os may be right or it may be wrong as
10 the power that vote may give to
the Southern interest The extension
of the suffrage is right at any rate and We cheer
fully abide the issue. eve could mention.
SAYS that paper, 'more than fifty leading men
in the Southern States who seriously consider
this the day and hour when the preservation
and stability Of Southern interests impel them
to return on this subject to the ancient policy
of the early Southern statesmen" We
are most heartily glad to hear
it, and if anybody can speak with authority on
this point it is The Neus, which has been for
four years past in heartier sympathy and closer
communion with these leading Southern men
than any other journal or individual north
of Mason and Di1on's Line. That the
article should have been written
at all, is pretty good evidence that
it was written by authority; and if this
shall prove true, the fact itself will be accepted
by the Northern people as fruit meet for repent
ance, and as better expiation for the crime Of
treason than the hanging Of thousand Rebels.


We reprint in another column the whole Of
the article referred to.