Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1870 — Negroes at the Polis. [ARTICLE]

Negroes at the Polis.

On Monday, the newly-made citizens of African birth, exercised, for the first time, their right to vote. They voted in all the city elections in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and lowa. The god of day, after shining upon this exhibition of " negro equalitywent down asusual, and neither earthquakes nor tornadoes followed. > We have heard of nobody being “degraded” by the voting of negroes, nor does the telegraph tell us of any mar riage engagements between whites and blacks as a consequence of negroes visiting the polls The Democracy do not appear to have absented themselves from the ballot-box because of the necessary association with the negro; on the con trary, in many places they were assiduous in their attentions te them, and in one or two places divided the African vote with the Republicans. The colored voters seem to have made an intelligent and discriminating use of their newly acquired privilege. They were neither boisterous nor extravagant; they made no ostentatious exhibition of their power, but voted quietly, conscientiously, and with judgment, just as if they had been voters ail their lives. To their cerdit be it said, they voted independently. They voted as citizens, and not as a class or a race. They voted, each man for himself, and net under the direction or management of any guardian. It matters not bow they voted, whether for one party or the other, so they voted their own opinions, both of men and measures. As a natural remembrance of the long and bitter past, the great majority of them voted the Republican ticket, but there were some exceptions These men are now citizens, and n ost of them are dependent upon their dai'y earnings. Having common interests with their fel-low-citizens ot all parties, they will naturally be guided by the best lights they c in obtain, and will vote like other people for those measures which theydeem best calctflat edtoadvancetheinwrnfntcrest s. The grand event has taken place, in anticipation of which our Democratic friends have shed bo many unavailing tears, and uttered so many direful predictions. The negro has actually voted at the same polls with the white man, and there has been no convulsion of nature, no riot at thepolls. no war, no pestilence, and no famine. —Chicago Tribune, April 6.