Year: 1866

Certain individuals of her people who
violated their oaths to support the Fed
eral Constitution, in going over to the
rebellion, are disabled from holding
any Federal Office hereafter, until alb
solved by two-thirds vote of each
House of Congress but by that vote
they can be reinstated even in Con-
gress itself, if duly elected by their
people.


Next, in regard to the rights of suf-
frage to the blacks this amendment
simply provides that when in any
State the right of suffrage ''is denied
TO any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age
and citizens of the United States," or
when this right is in ''any way abridged
except for participation in rebellion or
other crime, the basis of representation
therein shall be reduced in the proper
ton which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number
of male citizens above the age of TWEEN
ty-one years in such State" In other
words, if you give all your males,
whites and blacks, above the age of
twenty-one years, the right to vote,
you shall count them all in counting
your people for Congress, but neither
they nor the families to which they
belong shall be counted, if you deny
them the right TO vote, whether be-
cause of their particular color or be-
cause they do not own a certain amount
of property, or because they cannot
read and write. An abridgement oil
the suffrage on any of these grounds
entails a corresponding reduction in
counting the people for representation
in Congress.


Universal suffrage and universal rep.
resentation, or limited suffrage and
tpartial representation in proportion,
ljust as each State, from Maine to Tex.
as, may for itself elect, is the condition
of this constitutional amendment
South Carolina, for instance, has 6
population of 0,000-of which 300,
600 are whites and 100000 are blacks
: Taking 100000 as the number required
for each member of Congress, she viii
have seven members if she grants uni
versal suffrage; but if she cuts off all
her blacks she loses four members, and
propOrtionately as the suffrage is re-
stricted by a qualification of color,
property or education to whites OF
blacks. This may seem pretty severe
upon the South, but it applies also,
more or less, to every Northern State,
including New York, which has a ne.
gro property qualification ($25O), and
M Massachusetts,, where they have 6
reading and writing qualification. AL
the States will have to modify theil
laws to universal suffrage under this
constitutional amendment, or be cut
down to greater or less extent in
their numerations for Congress.


The amendment is going through.
| There is no other settlement for the
South. The Governors of the South
ern States ought, therefore, to call their
Legislatures together at once and rati-
fly this amendment, so that with the
meeting of Congress in December they
may be all restored to both Houses
In this way they can at once secure
the balance of power in Congress and
put an end to any further attempt of
the Radicals to apply new restrictions
of State restoration. The Southern
States, too, will thus be put in a posi-
ton to take their ground and shape
their course to some purpose in view
ofthe Presidential election. What has
been done in the case of Tennessee
amounts to the adoption of a rule of
admission. The way is plain, the
door is open, and in this simple act of
ratification the South will be restored
to its balance of power. 1t is the ulti-
matum of the victorious North, and
the South will lose much and gain
nothing by delay in its adoption.