Year: 1866

"SnaII INC DtMOGfd Dhe or HIlyeeD


The following is the article published in the
Chicago Times of the 18th, the appearance of
which has caused no little commotion in the
Democratic camp. A dispatch from Chicago
to the New York Tribune says this attempt of
the Times to commit the Democracy OF the
Northwest OF which it has hitherto been the
organ, to negro suffrage, is meeting with strong
resistance by the rank and file, although the
leaders sustain the paper in its course. The
agitation promises to be one of the most bitter
ever known in Democratic history:


The present is a crisis in the Democratic
party which has no precedent in its history, as
it is crisis in the progress of the country
which is also without precedent. Never before
has the Democratic party encountered events
SO seriously affecting its future vitality as now
Not that it bebolds itself diminished in the
magnitude OF Its numbers--for it is numerical
~ stronger than it has ever been before-but
that having been beaten On great national is
sue, as to which it believed itself to be wholly
right and the opposition wholly wrong, and
still SO believes, it must nevertheless abandon
that issue--for the decision Of it is final-and
either sit down in helpless and decaying mac
tivity, OF strike boldly out upon new line Sc
lected with peculiar reference, not to things as
we would have them but to things as they ac-
tually are, and in pursuing which lire it shall
IL
and become what it was in its palmy DAYS,
progressive and aggressive party. These are
the alternatives.


1t vii not sit down in helpless and decaying
inactivity.


What, then, shall the new line be? In the
first place, must zoe not cut loose from the Id
naiglistrdti0n Of Andre9D johnson, and ledUe that
hybrid concern to float on the sea of public
contempt into achich ii some time since entered,
and from aohach no pooCer can rescue itS Is not
ln&l
Administration than to all other causes COM
bined? What is there in its composition to
command popular confidence? Who, belong
ing to it, is entitled, by reason of his antece-
dents or OF his statesmanship, to the confidence
or the respect of the Democratic party? Ger
tainly not Andrew johnson, nor VIM. H.
Seward, nor Edwin M. Stanton. True, this
Administration had a right policy, and the
Democratic party, in overlooking the chief
men comprising it, and thinking only of the
rightfulness of the policy, displayed patriot
ism whose purity was never excelled; but the
policy having faled--and having failed too,
through the feebleness and folly and offenses
against public propriety of the Administra-
tion,S0hy should not the Democratic party
dbandon the dead body, longer adherence to
1ehieh is death also to itseJ?


What next? Can the Democratic party sue
coed until the Negro question can be gotten
out of the way? 1t cannot What next? Is
not Negro suffrage iaeyita6le, and Is not the





acdy to at once concede The suffrage making issue
only on the degree to 1ohicb it shall be conceded
We know that many Democrats have not
reached this advanced view of the case, and
that such still feel greatly inclined to revolt at
the proposition of Negro suffrage in any de-
gree; but let us tell them that it is always wise
to accept the inevitable when the inevitable
comes. Negro suffrage, we say, is inevitable,
and whether it shall be qualified or universal
depends upon the prOmptness or otherwise
with which the Democratic party shall move
with reference to it. The South, will speedily
yield qualified, negro suffrage upon the motion
OF the Democratic party; because, il for no
other reason, she will soon See if she does not
already see that if she does not yield it, she
will ultimately be compelled to accept univer-
sal negro suffrage. \"


Qualified negro suffrage yielded by the South
and by this we mean IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE,
or suffrage dependent upon the intelligence
Of the man, irrespective of color as is noao the
rue an NdSsdchusefts-THE NEGRO QUESTION
WILL HAVE BEEN DISPOSED Of AND THE oc-
CUPATIoN oE THE NORTHERN RADICAL PARTY
WILL BE GONE FOREVER Not one inch of
ground will it have to stand upon; and the
country can once more turn to those material
questions of public policy, the right DISPOSE
ton of which is so essential to the public pros
perty. 1t will be upon these questions that
the Democratic party will triumph and it will
be by this triumph that Constitutional Gov
ernment and our Federal system will be pre-
served.


If the South be wise, it will not wait, on this
suffrage question, even for the motion OF the
Hesaoeratic party. If it be wise, it will lose no
time in putting in motion tire -aeooasa,.v ma
chinery by which il will at the same time save
itself from humiliation, preserve its own self
respect, rid the country of the most vexatious
question that ever distracted any country, kill
the worst political party that ever existed on
the globe, and put the Union in the way of
speedy restoration. This machinery consists,
OF course, IN conventions to revise the State
constitutions -4f