" If another complained of their venality, we
replied, "Disfranchise them or put them in jail." And, fi-
nally, to the men who feared demagogues and the natural
perversity of some human beings we insisted that time and
bitter experience would teach the most hardheaded. It was at
this time that the question of Negro suffrage in the South was
raised. Here was a defenceless people suddenly made free.
How were they to be protected from those who did not
believe in their freedom and were determined to thwart it?
Not by force, said the North; not by government guardian-
ship, said the South; then by the ballot, the sole and legiti-
mate defence of a free people, said the Common Sense of the
Nation. No one thought, at the time, that the ex-slaves could
use the ballot intelligently or very effectively; but they did
think that the possession of so great power by a great class in
the nation would compel their fellows to educate this class to
its intelligent use.
Meantime, new thoughts came to the nation: the inevitable
period of moral retrogression and political trickery that ever
follows in the wake of war overtook us.
Pages:
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235