Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1881 — A “ VITAL QUESTION.” [ARTICLE]

A “ VITAL QUESTION.”

Concerning' II cm trie* I on# Upon tUe Suffrage* [From the Cincinnati Enquirer.} The latest issue of Harper* * Weekly, which certainly represents a large fraction of the Republican party, says that “except for one vital question, and fur the fact that the oivil service Is filled mainly by Republicans, the administration of Gen. Garfield, like that of John Quincy Adams, would probably see a reconstruction of parties.” This statement from a Republican stand-point is a complete admission that but two tilings hold the Republican party together. One Is the spoils; the other is that “ vital question.” It is a great Republican advocate that makes this admission. Certainly there is no indication on the Democratic side of Democratic dissolution, of the disbandment of the Democratic party, of the abandonment ot an organization old as the century. A high Republican authority, on the contrary, in speaking of the future, admits that the Republican organization rests only upon two things—on the fact that “ the civil service is filled mainly with Republicans," and a certain “ vital question.” What is that “vital question?” In the words of the authority we quote, it is the “ forcible suppression of the right of suffrage in a large part of the country.” The context indicates that “the large part of the country” to which the “Journal of Civilization” alludes is the southern portion of tho country. But suffrage, as we have recently taken occasion to say, is denied and abridged, or suppressed, in a portion of the country far larger than the South, not merely by individuals whose random efforts are of little consequence, but by entire States, by the fundamental laws of great commonwealths. We suggest that the cultured editor of Harper'B Weekly direct his indignation to the limitations upon suffrage in his own State ; in the State of Rhode Island, where, in Brown University, he received his early education : in Massachusetts, where he lingered among the delights of the Brook Farm community, and in the western portion of which State he still makes his summer home ; in Vermont, the home of Senator Edmunds, whom he admires ; and in various Northern and Republican States whose directions touching suffrage Lave evidently escaped his notice. If this question touching the hindrances upon suffrage is so “vital,” the constitutions and the laws of nearly every Republican State must be remodeled, for they all deny, or abridge, to citizens of the State and of the United States the right to vote. They do this not by scattering inconsequential individual interference, but by the solemn constitution and statutes of the State, behind which stand the jail and the penitentiary. The editor of Harper's Weekly graduated from a Rhode Island college. The State in which he received his early impulses denies to citizens of the State and of the United States the right to vote, unless they own a certain amount of real estate. This disfranchises a large portion of the citizens of the State otherwise qualified to vote. Massachusetts, the ideal State of this distinguished editor, disfranchises, it is alleged, more than 100,000 citizens of the State and of the United States who would be qualified to vote, and be permitted to vote under the laws of most of the Southern States. Massachusetts says that no man shall vote within her borders who has not some education. How would this qualification affect the negroes of the South? Massachusetts says that the citizen entitled to vote within her limits must' be able to read the constitution of the United States. About nine-tenths of the Republican voters of the South scarcely know the difference between the constitution of the United States and a Virginia fence. The editor of Harper's Weekly is not much of a believer in the Christian religion ; but some of his ideal Republican States exact a religious qualification for suffrage or office-holding.

In these allusions to the inhibitions placed upon suffrage in the States which are in political accord with this Republican critic, we say nothing of the notorious, scandalous and almost universal intimidation which banks, corporations, manufacturers and employers have outrageously applied therein to free suffrage. This intimidation is a more “vital question” to the welfare of the republic than anything in relation to negro suffrage in the South. We have only spoken of the suppression of suffrage by the Republican States, with courts and jails and penitentiaries at their command to emphasize their edicts of suppression of suffrage. We repeat the suggestion that the States of the South in their constitutions and laws copy the statutes and constitutions of these New England and Republican States concerning suffrage. Should they do this we will watch the result with interest. How many negroes of the South could vote under the laws of Massachusetts or Rhode Island or Vermont or Connecticut? To compel every negro in the South to own real estate, to pay a poll tax, to be able to read the constitution of the United States, to be able to write legibly—the religious qualifications would De no incumbrance, for the negro has plenty of religion—and to do other things that these enlightened States do, would leave how many of the citizen negroes of the South legal voters ?