mortality of the coloured population, greater than the mortality of the whites before the war, has now become so markedly greater, that nearly two coloured die for every one white person out of equal numbers of each. To those accustomed to think of slavery only as prolific of every form of evil, this increased mortality of the negroes under emancipation may appear sur prising. 14. CONSIDERATION OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE A Former Slaveholder's View of Negro Suffrage Whitelaw Reid, After the War, p. 288. [1865] A BROTHER of General Wade Hampton, the South Carolina Hotspur, was on board. He saw no great objection to negro suffrage, so far as the whites were concerned; and for himself, South Carolinian and Secessionist though he was, he was quite willing to accept it. He only dreaded its effect on the blacks themselves. Hitherto they had, in the main, been modest and respectful, and mere freedom was not likely to spoil them. But the deference to them likely to be shown by partisans eager for their votes would have a tendency to uplift and unbalance them. Beyond this, no harm would be done the South by negro suffrage. The old owners would cast the votes of their people almost as absolutely and securely as they cast their own. If Northern men expected in this way to build up a Northern party in the South, they were gravely mistaken. They would only be multiplying the power of the old and natural leaders of Southern politics by giving every vote to a former slave. Heretofore such men had served their masters only in the fields; now they would do no less faithful service at the polls. If the North could stand it, the South could. For himself, he should make no special objection to negro suffrage as one of the terms of reorganization, and if it came, he did not think the South would have much cause to regret it. The Ballot Necessary for the Negro Senate Ex. Doc. no 2, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 42. Carl Schurz to President Johnson. [1865] THE interference of the national authority in the home concerns of the southern States would be rendered less necessary, and the whole problem of political and social reconstruction be much simplified, if, while the masses lately arrayed against the government are permitted to vote, the large majority of those who were always loyal were not excluded from all influence upon legislation. In all questions concerning the Union, the national debt, and the future social organization of the south, the feelings of the colored man are naturally in sympathy with the views and aims of the national government. While the southern whites fought against the Union, the negro did Xall he could to aid it; while the southern white sees in the national government his conqueror, the negro sees in it his protector; while the white owes to the national debt his defeat, the negro owes to it his deliverance; while the white considers himself robbed and ruined by the emancipation of the slaves, the negro finds in it the assurance of future prosperity and happiness. In all the important issues the negro would be led by natural impulse to forward the ends of the government, and by making his influence, as part of the voting body, tell upon the legislation of the States, render the interference of the national authority unnecessary. As the most difficult of the pending questions are intimately connected with the status of the negro in southern society, it is obvious that a correct solution can be more easily obtained if he has a voice in the matter. In the right to vote we would find the best permanent protection against oppressive class-legislation, as well as against individual persecution. . . It is a notorious fact that the rights of a man of some political power are far less exposed to violation than those of one who is, in matter of public interest, completely subject to the will of others. A voter is a man of influence; small as that influence may be in the single individual, it becomes larger when the individual belongs to a numerous class of voters. . . Such an individual is an object of interest to the political parties that desire to have the benefit of his ballot. . . The first trials ought certainly to be made while the national power is still there to prevent or repress disturbances; but the practice once successfully inaugurated under the protection of that power, it would probably be more apt than anything else to obliterate old antagonisms. The effect of the extension of the franchise to the colored. people upon the development of free labor and upon the security of human rights in the south being the principal object /The It has been asserted that the negro would be a voting machine in the hand of his employer. . . I have heard it said in the south that the freedmen are more likely to be influenced by their schoolmasters and preachers. But even if we suppose the employer to control to a certain extent the negro laborer's vote, two things are to be taken into consideration: I. The class of employers, of landed proprieties, will in a few years be very different from what it was heretofore in consequence of the general breaking up, a great many of the old slaveholders will be obliged to give up their lands and new men will step into their places; and 2. The employer will hardly control the vote of the negro laborer so far as to make him vote against his own liberty. The beneficial effect of an extension of suffrage does not always depend upon the intelligence with which the newly admitted voters exercise their right. . . The circumstances in which the freedmen of the south are placed are such that, when they only vote for their own liberty and rights, they vote for the rights of free labor, for the success of an immediate important reform, for the prosperity of the country, and for the general interests of mankind. If, therefore, in order to control the colored vote, the employer. . is first obliged to concede to the freedman the great point of his own rights as a man and a free laborer, the great social reform is completed, the most difficult problem is solved. . . I deem it proper, however, to offer a few remarks on the assertion frequently put forth, that the franchise is likely to be extended to the colored man by the voluntary action of the southern whites themselves. My observation leads me to a contrary opinion. Aside from a very few enlightened men, I found but one class of people in favor of the enfranchisement of the blacks: it was the class of Unionists who found them selves politically ostracised and looked upon the enfranchisement of the loyal negroes as the salvation of the whole loyal element... The masses are strongly opposed to colored suffrage, and anybody that dares to advocate it is stigmatized as a dangerous fanatic. . . The only manner in which, in my opinion, the southern people can be induced to grant to the freedmen some measure of self-protecting power in the form of suffrage, is to make it a condition precedent to "readmission." Negro Suffrage Will Come Senate Ex. Doc. no. 43, 39 Cong., 1 Sess. Report of B. C. Truman to the President. [April 9, 1866] So general and so bitter is the opposition of the whites to this measure, that I am fully persuaded that to confer suffrage forcibly, by national enactment, upon the blacks at this time, would result to their serious detriment. I do not believe it would beget a war of races, but, from the manner in which negro schools and other similar institutions have been treated in some sections by ignorant and malicious persons, I am constrained to believe that the negro would be the recipient of more wrongs and injuries than he now is if he was found at the polls voting. It is the truth of history that, when classes of population are opposed in feeling and unequal in power and influence, the dominating class is oppressive and intolerant toward the inferior in reverse proportion as it is elevated above it. The southern poor whites, conscious as they are of only a slight superiority over the negro, and knowing that the suffrage and a few minor factitious distinctions are the chief points of their superiority, are jealous over them accordingly. It is they that will resist most stubbornly the negroes' enfranchisement, as it will remove the most marked of the few slight barriers that separate them from the blacks, and it is they that will hail his advent to the polls with the most unrelenting and senseless abuse. The proper avenues of approach to these unreasoning minds is through the wealthy and powerful landowners of the south |