The President still
ill, and the visit to the Pawnee further postponed. No Cabinet-meeting. The
President is feeling the effects of intense application to his duties, and
over-pressure from the crowd.
A great party demonstration
is being made for negro suffrage. It is claimed the negro is not liberated
unless he is also a voter, and, to make him a voter, those who urge this
doctrine would subvert the Constitution, and usurp or assume authority not
granted to the Federal government. While I am not inclined to throw impediments
in the way of the universal, intelligent enfranchisement of all men, I cannot
lend myself to break down constitutional barriers, or to violate the reserved
and undoubted rights of the States. In the discussion of this question, it is
evident that intense partisanship instead of philanthropy is the root of the
movement. When pressed by arguments which they cannot refute, they turn and say
if the negro is not allowed to vote, the Democrats will get control of the
government in each of the seceding or rebellious States, and in conjunction
with the Democrats of the Free States they will get the ascendency in our
political affairs. As there must and will be parties, they may as well form on
this question, perhaps, as any other. It is centralization and State rights. It
is curious to witness the bitterness and intolerance of the philanthropists in
this matter. In their zeal for the negro they lose sight of the fundamental law
of all constitutional rights and safeguards, and of the civil regulations and
organization of the government.
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