Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1877 — The Ballot [ARTICLE]

The Ballot

ZIMRI DWIGGINS.

Tn the use of the ballot lie* the controlling power drtltls great and noble Koverniueht of our*. This government was framed on the political basis of the consent of the governed. Ttie consent of the governed is the source of all power. When out forefathers framed this government they hail one great and grand principle In vjuw, and that was to give every citizen of the United States the right to use the ballot, regardless of sex or color, rich or poor, the known or the unknown; and it made no difference from what nation of tire world he might comp, whether he be an Africnu, an English lord, or a "heathen Chinee,” if he bebecame a citizen he should have the right louse the ballot and assist in controlling this government, Butthis government has failed to carry out the end for which it was founded; for, until 1868. we had over four millions of slaves in the land who were denied the right of suffrage. In 1803, our great and noble. Lincoln {would to God he was lining to-day) issued a proclamation declaring every slave free ami independent. The rebels Jield them in their lines and controlled them. But you, fellow-citizens, who had the right to vote, in 1864, by mid through the ballot-box, struck a blow at slavery which was more powerful and efiectlve than the blow that den. Grunt struck with the Union army ut Richmond at the close of the late war. You said through the ballot that those four million slaves should be lice. Congress, in February, 1804, proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to tlie Constitution .which declared tlmt every slave In this land should lie free. It was declared ratified by the requisite number of states- in -December, 1860, and there was not a bondman in all tliis fair land, But this was not enough. The citizens of this government who had the right of suffrage, on the second Tuesday of October. 1868, while at home went quietly to their voting precincts and there plaeed the ballot which had more }K>wer than the largest army that ever marched on American soil, and with a low but distinct voice, which echoed and resounded from Maine to California, said that those four million Black men who had been set free by the Fourteenth Amendment should have tile right to Use the ballot; and thev did have that right, tor Congress on the 27th day of February, LSli'J, passed the Fifteenth Amendment to tlm Constitution which was declared ratified oil tire SOtli day of March, 1870; and there was not a man in all this land who did not have the tight U> use it. I thank God that there is not a man in this government who bait not the right to vote, ami on election day can stand up and say: The proudest now is but my peer, Thu highest not more high; To-dav of all tho wenry year A king of men tun 1. In my opinion the time is not far distant when the ettizete* win* wow have the right of suffrage will ask Congress to propose a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution declaring that women who are citizens of the United States of America shall have tire right to use the ballot; and then, and nottiTl then, \VHI this government carry out the end for which it was founded.