Dear Brother: The
papers this morning announce your election by a strong vote, and settle that
question. I am of course very glad, for it demonstrates not only your strength
but that the people of Ohio approve your past. As to the future, of course in
all things political you have far more knowledge than I, but I do believe that
the extension of the election franchise is being pushed beyond the Rule of
Right. All beings are entitled to the protection of the law, even “infants not
born,” but because of such natural right it is not to be inferred they must
vote. To vote implies an understanding almost equivalent to the ability to make
laws. It is legislative — not natural Right. Instead of enlarging the
privilege, we must gradually curtail it, in order to have stability and
security. It was this popular clamor for supposed rights that carried the South
into rebellion. No people were ever more unanimous than they, and though now
they concede themselves vanquished, yet on this and kindred subjects they are
as unanimous as ever.
To place or attempt
to place the negro on a par with the whites will produce new convulsions. The
country is in no condition to go on with such contests. Better pacify or
acknowledge conditions than attempt new ones dangerous to the peace of the
whole country. It will take ten years for the South to regain full prosperity
with the negro free, and that should precede any new complication.
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