Year: 1866

At the election last fall, the people


voted upon and defeated a proposition to


confer the right Of suffrage on the negroes


Of Wisconsin, but a recent decision of
/ the Supreme Court Of that State defeats


this recently expressed decision of the


people, and forces negro suffrage upon


them.


Speaking of this decision, an exchange


gives the history Of the negro suffrage


question in Wisconsin, as follows:


The original Constitution OF the State
I provided for a submission Of the question
I Of negro suffrage To the people at some
general election, and if the oppression


was approved by majority of all the


votes east at such election y the right


wss to be considered as granted, and the
Constitution of the State % that extent
amended. At the general fall election Of
1919, the question was submitted 10 the
people by an act Of the Legislature,


passed at a previous session. But few


votes, either for or against, were pOlied-


in many election districts not 4 vote was
cast upon the subject, as nothing was


known about it. The whole vote was


hardly one-third of the votes cast at such
election. ltwas clearly the intention of the
trainers Of the Constitution, in providing
that any question Of amendment to that
instrument should only be submitted at
a " general election TO provide, in so
far as possible, for obtaining full eX-
preston of the people Of the State upon
such an amendment. Hence the re-
quirement that a majority of all votes
cast at such geneTall election should
be necessary to its adoption. The board
Of state canvassers, some Of whom had
been members of the constitutional Con-
vention and the authors Of that instru-
ment must be supposed TO know its true
intent and meaning, declared that the
negro suffrage amendment was lost.


In the justice and legality Of that de-
cision, the people Of both political parties
in the State have acquiesced for sixteen
years. II is only since the people have
SO decidedly expressed their repugnance
70 conferring the elective franchise upon
the negro, that the radicals, by whom
that state IS ruled most recklessly, have
devised this process to invade the popular
viii. The trainers of the Constitution
and their Contemporaries sustained the
decision of the board Of canvassers in
1919. The people of the State in 1865
AaR z letlutu against All Y cLlanee, nut the
radical rulers, both in the Legislature
and upon the bench, ignore all such eX-
pressions and lsisurely settle the ques- !
ton Of constitutional law to suit the exi- |
gencies of their party.


As the Supreme Court Of that State 1
enjoys the infamous honor of having, in /
the celebrated Booth fugitive case, as
serted the right of State courts to set at 4
defiance the laws Of Compress and the /
action Of the Supreme Court of the /
United States, and, of having furnished /
70 South Carolina text and argument /
in favor Of secession and rebellion, so in |
this more recent adjudication, that body /
aspires TO notoriety by bidding defiance /
to the white. electors of that State, and 4
reversing a decision which has been /
acquiesoed ia FOR half generation.


The decision is in direct violation Of /
the clause Of the Constitution which re-
quires a majority Of all the votes cast at /
a general election TO effect En amend 1
ment or alteration In that instrument
So, Wisconsin is TO enjoy the blessings of
negro suffrage until the people have
another opportunity to express their SOW
ereign will upon she subject This op-
p0rtunity they will never have 50 long
as Che present party is in power.