Year: 1870

started IN Chicago, the subscription price
of which is 81 per year, ami S1-5O to clubs
of twenty or more.


Those persons, Hanging upon the verge
of the democratic party, who are making
effsrts to propitiate the negro element en-
franchised by the Fifteenth amendment, are
making sacrifices sofself-respectand dignity,
which can scarcely fail to disgust the ele-
ncent which they are seeking to court, with
out securing the gratitude or respect Of the
party which they are protesting to serve


The history of the democratic party ON the
question of negro suffrage, shows it to have
/ been united and persistent in its opposition
to negro suffrage, in every shape in which
1t was presented. This history the demo-
cratic party can neither conceal or reverse.
and we very much mistake the sentiment
of the party, if there is any general desire
to conceal or reverse it. Candor requires
the further statement, that the democratic
party has not only opposed negro suffrage
IN the past, but, if it were possible to 90
back one year or ten and have this contro-
versy over again, the democratic party,
with ali the experience of to-day before its
eyes, would again oppose, and exert all its
influence to prevent, q consummation
which all true democrats and a large num-
Der of republicans abhor. For the demo-
cratic party to make any oYerIures to theme
grovote under snch circumstances, would re-
quire o most shameful confession of insin-
eerity and cowardiee in the past, which but
few individuals in the democratic party are
prepared to make


The democratic party opposed negro sut-
rage, simply because it believed the negro,
as class, did not possess either the in
telhgence or the experience to WELD the
ballot, because it believed that placing the
ballot in his hands was q measure detri-
mental to the interests of the country, in
consequence of the ease with which de-
signing men might make use of him,-and
because negro suffrage might be fraught
with consequences OF a very dangerous
character, the extent of which could not
be ioreseen. The Fifteenth amendment
did not increase the capacity of the negro
in the slightest degree, or add anything
TO his intelligence or experience. What
the negro was the day that amendment
was proposed, he remained the day
after it was claimed to have been ratified.
The fifteenth amendment. so far from re-
moving the objections of the democratic
party to negro suffrage, simply gives these
objections additional force, by opening the
door to the evil consequences of negro
suffrage which the democratic party has al
ways foreseen and predicted. One of the
principal objections of the democratic par
ty to negro suffrage has been, that the
small average capacity of the negro would
enable designing men to control and use
him, and that, if enfranchised, dis
honest and incapable men might
be able, through the agency of the
negro vote, to retain themselves in
power to the great detriment of the coun-'
try. The negro in the southern states has
enjoyed the elective franchise almost since
the close of the war, and the manner in
which he has exercised it shows that the
fears of the democratic pay that be would
prove a mere blind instrumentin the hands
of men of a higher grade of intelligence
(but, perhaps, of. q lower grade of integri-
/ ty), were well founded. Without going
into any discussion as to the merits of the
/ policies which have received the support of
the negro vote of the south, the predie-
| tions of the democratic party have been
verified by the fact that few adventurers
from the north, men without means and
Will out character, strangers to the
country and its inhabitants, and ignornant
of and indifferent to the necessities
and interests of the southern people were
able to migrate to the southern states, and
so far, secure the control of the negro vote,
as to place themselves in possession of all
the state governments getting themselves
elected governors and members of the leg
islature or selected to represent the south
ern states in the federal congress, and ex-
cIuding representative members OF the
bona fde white residents of the states from
all official positions. The fact
that the negro is as likely to
be Influenced by good counsels as he is by
bad and that ne may in year or two more,
desert his present radical friends and be
controlled altogether by the democratic
party of the states in which he resides, does
not alter the case in the least. For, if the
negro of the south concludes to vote the
democratic ticket, which is not at all un-
likely, it will not be because he has any
conception of democratic principles, but
simply because of his intense SUSCEPTIBLE
| ty to the influence of others, and nscessi-
| ty of his nature, which he feels and COM
prehends fully, to have some one on whom
he can rely Tor direction


With the division of sentiment and con-
hictiug interests prevailing among the
whites, the negro vote is sufficiently large to
control and shape the policy and destiny of
the whole country. And just as the demo-
cratic party predicted, this element has
shown itself, in the sections where it had
been tried, so destitute of the capacity for
Independent thought and action, that il is
necessarily mere putty in the hands of some
6Odg. And it has been through the votes of
members of Congress selected by this pliable
and unthinking element, that the country
has been cursed by many of the Oppres-
sive and unwise laws that now find place
upon the statute books. And q large
measure of the corruption and extraYagance
which prevails in all departments Of the
government can be properly imputed to
the same element


! Experience having so far justified the
wisdom and patriotism of the democratic
pasty in opposing negro suffrage in the
past we fail to see how any true democrat
| can urge that the democratic party shall
| ignore its history and traditions, and hum-
bic itself at the feet of the negro, with a
| confession of it's errors and am expression
of its contrition.


While the adoption OF the Fifteenth
amendment has added nCIE.i to the
capacity of the negro. or changed his ma
| ture in the least, it has added no new
principle to the democratic faith, or created
o necessity for the abandonment or mOdif-
cation OF ~ principles we have advocated
in the past. The opposition of the demo-
cratic party to negro suffrage, was notan Op-
position to continue until the ratification of
Fifteenth amendment, but snopposition to
continue until the negro had demonstrated
the possession of sufficient virtue and ca
paCity to entitle him TO the elective fran
chise When he demonstrates the possess
sion of these qualities, it will be time
enough to consider the prOpriety of the
democratic party eOnfessing negro suffrage
to be safe and desirable. The democratic
party will never admit that The ratification
of the Fifteenth amendment was secured
in fair and constitutional manner; il will
never withdraw its declarations, that the
coercion Of the Southern States into the
ratification of this amendment, was an act
of usurpatiOn, outrage and revolution;
and it will never admit, that an amend
ment to the constitution secured by
coercion, duress or intimidation, has any
further legal force and effect than the e.r-
cumstanees of each particular case may
prOmptit to eOncede. Still, the democratic
party Is, in no sense, a reactionary party,
and the negroes h wing been generally nd


mitied to the exercise of the right Of suf-


frage under this so called amendment to


the constitution, and the democratic party


in no sense made responsible for any of the


evil consequences which may ensue, there
is general willingness, upon the part o.


the dsmoeratie party, to let matters take


their course, and see what the results viii
be. And in contemplation of the negro as
n