Year: 1879



 North American Review discussion of Negro Suffrage. We at the North see and hear so little of calm Southern expression of opinion on this matter that we imagine it may prove instructive as we'll as interesting to eur read CTS: '"

 ''The precision with which Mr. Blaine states his premises and the unimpassioned spirit in which he draws his conclusions render the dis cussion which he proposes both possible and profitable. His statement itself deprives the issue of nearly all it's difficulty and danger. He lays down with force and clearness his propositions ;. .nas., .a t. ..l. is political impossibility under any circum- stances short of revolution. Ai i1 B" F ss2. That the ballet, inthe hands ofthe negro, however it's exercise | may have been embsr- rassed and diminished by what he considers, enormously, a general southern policy, has been to that race means of defence and an element of progress. ...' 50

 Il agree to both propositions. In all my ex- perlence of southern opinion, know no south ern man of influence or consideration who be- -lieves that the disfranchisement of the negro on account of race, color, or former condition of servitude, is a political possibility. am not now discussing the propriety or wisdom of universal suffrage, or whether in the interests of wise, safe and orderly government all sui frage ought not to be qualified. What mean to say is, that universal suffrage being given as the condition of our political life, the negro once made citizen cannot be placed under any other condition. And Tn this connection it may surprise some of the readers of this dis cussien to learn that in 1869 the white people of Mississippi unanimously voted at the polls in favor of ratifying the entranshising amend ment for which MT. Blaine voted in Congress believing, as they did, that when once the negro was made free man, property-holder and taxpayer he could not be excluded from the remaining privilege and duty of citizen, the right and obligation to vote. And think I can safely say for that people what MT. Blaine says for himself, that if the question were again submitted to their judgement, they would vote for negro suffrage in the light of experience with mere confidence than they voted for it in the light of an experiment.

 ''I concur also in the second proposition, that the ballot has been in the hands of the negro both defence and an education: and am glad to- find this important truth recognized so fully by Mir. Blaine. We might possibly differ as to the extent to which the defence was needed, or as to the progress which has

 

 remain for substantial agreement. There can be no doubt that in the unaccustomed relation into which the white and colored people of the South were suddenly forced, there would have been natural tendency on the part of the former masters, still in possession of the land and of the intelligence of the country, and of it's legislative power, to use an almost abso- lute authority, and to develope the new freed man according to their own idea of what was good for him. This would have resulted in a race distinction, with such incidents of the old system as would have discontented the negro, and dissatisfied the general opinion and senti- ment of the country. If slavery was to be abolished, it must. think, be admitted that there could be nothing short of complete abo- lition free from any of the afinities of slavery and this would not have been effected so long as there existed any inequality before the law. The ballot was therefore, protection of the negro against any such condition, and enabled him to force his interests upon the legislative consideration of the South.

 "What do not think MT. Blaine fully real izes, or makes due allowance for, is, that this sudden transformation, social and political, would necessarily produce some jar in it's practical operation, and that it's successful working could be effected only by experienced and conscientious men acting on both sides with good sense and good temper. Conquest on either side only complicated the problem. Its only solution was sagacious and kindly cooperation of all the social forces. The vote in the hands of the negro should have been genuinely a defence, not weapon of attack.

 ''The proper use of this defensive power, and it's growth into means of wholesome and pos tive influence upon the character and interests of the country, could only be attained by the education of the negro. And I agree fully with Mir. Blaine that his practi- cal use of the ballot was an important part of education. am willing to accept the present condition of the South as the result of that practical education. Will he? 1 say that the negro has been using this defence for ten years, that in this time hundreds of thousands of negroes, born free, have come to manhood under the experience of political life as open to them as to the old white governing race {: and Mir. Blaine himself asserts that elucation has been more generally diffused among the youth of the colored race than among the poorer classes of whites-whether truly or CT roneouslY we will not here discuss-and the result is, that throughout the South the races vote together that they have learned where their mutual interest lies and that whom God has joined all the politicians have failed to keep asunder.

 ''I have his essay before me. He denies that this is legitimate result. He insists that the facts prove that the negro vote has been cheated by fraud or defeated by force, and that the present condition of southern politics is an unnatural result. am willing to meet this issue on his own principles. 1 will in- dulge in neither invective nor denunciation. 1 will simply take the late government of South Carolina or of Louisiana or of other states un- der similar rule, and describe it in language that Mir. Blaine may himself select. When he has told it's history l will ask him whether he would willingly as patriotic American de sire to see his own state, or any other of the free states, reduced to such level? I am not afraid of his answer, or that of any man who has been bred under the traditions of vlrtu- ons civilization. ''''

 s'Then I will say to him This; it is true, is painful result but, when you put the ballot in the hands of anignorant negro majority as means of education and progress, you must be patient while they learn their lesson. We of the South have borne all thls, because we knew that the reaction must come. It has come. The results which you see to be so bad the negro has seen also. He has come back to us with the same blind impulse with which a few years ago he. fled from us He may be as ignorant a Democrat as he was a Republican, but years must yet pass before the ballot will educated nm fully into self-rellant, temperate citizenships and what we of the South have borne, our friends of the North must bear with us, until the negro has become what we both want to make him. This is part of his edu- cation By system, not one whit less sys- tenn of force or of fraud than that alleged to exist now, he was taken away from his natur al leaders at the South, and held to compact Republican vote. Granting dc not grant-thst the present methods are as bad as those then applied, the fault lies in the char acter of the vote. It is not educated to free action, and we must educate it to what it ought to be. Take the his history of the race as stated by MT. Blaine himself and isthere not progress, astonishing progress, when the mate- rial with which we are dealing is considered {? Force and fraud have been freely urged. Sup pose it granted. Could any one expect, did any one expect, that such tremendous politi- cal and social change-the sudden clothing of four million slaves with unlimited power could be made without violent disturbance and disorder Had any such change ever been made in any free state without convulsion Was it to be expected that, when the capital and character of a state were placed at the mercy of numerical majority of ignorant and poverty stricken voters, it would present { model of peace and order? f.-s.