1 66 Musings by Camp-Fire and Wayside 



best element in the country, and this in violation of 

 the constitution and laws of the United States, it 

 would be very foolish in a Southern politician to 

 imagine that the Northern voter will long submit. 

 The forty-eight congressmen who are there in vio- 

 lation of the equal rights of the Northern voter will 

 be compelled to retire, unless there is a change. 

 This is not the negro's question, it is the white 

 man's question, and he is no friend of the Southern 

 white voter who leads him to suppose that the white 

 man can thus be half disfranchised from his share 

 in the control of the government of the United 

 States, and this disability be maintained. We put 

 it to the intelligent Southern voter himself. Would 

 you stand it? Not if you had the power to right it. 

 If the negro is not fit to vote, he is not fit to be 

 voted. But if it be made apparent that the dis- 

 franchisement of the negro is not for partisan 

 political purposes, that it is solely for the protec- 

 tion of good government — and this undoubtedly is 

 the reason for the assent of enlightened and patri- 

 otic Southern citizens to present restrictions — that 

 fact can be demonstrated by giving equal political 

 rights to negroes who are fit to exercise the fran- 

 chise intelligently. This would go far toward the 

 reconciliation of the Northern voter to the existing 

 basis of representation. 



