Right Of Suffrage

Pclittons are ín circulalion in different pnrts of tbjs State proying the Legislature to takc the requisite action for such an amendment oftho State Constilution as will remove ihe political disabililies of ihe coloree! freemen of this State. The Executive Committee ot the State Anti-S!a very Society are dcsirous that the subject should be rightly apprehended by those wiio ore to act upon it, nnd tliey have therefore fonvarded a copy of this po per to each member of (he Legislature, ar-d rcspectfiilly icquest tlicir atteniion to the following considerations: 1. The Constitution cxcltides persons who are not "whitb" from voting or holding any office. Under tiiis provisión, dcscendants of Africans, althongh nat ves of lliis republic, or even of this State, are excluded from all politica] power. 2. The right of svffirage. or, in otlier words, the right of having a voice in deterimning wJiat the laws shall he, and by mliom they sJiall be executed is a natural right, existing with each man, antecedent to all constitntions. We necd not argtie this point with the pre sent Logislature. We understond the principie advocated by the Democratie Party to be, that every man, of ful! age, unconvicted of crime, permanently a resident of the soil, and owing allegiance to no foreign power, onght to have equal politica 1 power with his feliow-citizens ín making nnd executing the laws. Th'sposiüon plainly embraces the case of the colored population of this State. We think it will ba conceled that their natural riglit to the elective franchise is not inferior to that of the several legislators to whose justice tliey appeal. 3. IL is a fundamental principal ofonrnational code, that all men are bom equal, and have, therefore equal politica! rlghta. In other naiions, the fact that a man is the son of a king, a lord, or a peasant makes a difièrence in liis political rights. These rights are made to depend on parenlage, thus creating a permanent and odious aristocracy, Our State ConsiiUition proceeds on the snme unjnst princiyle, when it excludes an entire clais from all political power simply becausc their ancestors, ai somo remote period, were bom in África. 4. The spirit of the age is fast doing away llie factitious distinctions of birth, und thus in all parts of ihe civiüzed world, extending and carrying out Ihe Democratie principie of man's eqiiality. In ihe Brilish West Indios, in Mexico, and the republican States of South America, where the pnpnlation is composed of three different races of men, uil polilical distinctions on account of original doscent have been abolished with the happiest effect, 5. The colored citizens of tliis State are taxed toithout their consent. They have no representation in the Lcgislalure. They n re required to pay state, county, township, highway and school taxes, from year to year, without having the least power in voting the amount to be raised, or determining the manner in wl.ich the jroceeds of their industry shull be appropriated. Our futhers considered such a provisión unjust. They resisted it. They contended that taxation and representation shouid accompany each other. Were the members of this piesen t Legislatura to be disfranchiscd, and placed in the politicalrelution of the coloree! populaiion, would thoy not complain of injustice, and resist t also? Should they not, tbcn, be as ready lo do justico to olhcrs, as tliey would be to ask t for J selves?C. That the extensión of tho right of suffrage to tho colorcd population would not be ultcnded with any injurious eflects, s evident from the prnclice of tbcse New England States wiiicli have adoptec1 it. In Massachuselts, the colored citizens have been yolers for fifty years; and in no instance lias any evil resulled frotn granting them their acknowledged rights. The adjoining State of Rliode Island Jias adopted tbe same liberal policy into its recent Constitution; and in theSiate of New York, colored freeholdere for some years have exercised the elective franchise, witli the most favorable resiilts. 7, While the claim of the colored population to the right of sufirage will be generally conceded as a matter of justice, objeciions will bc ra i sed by some tbattbey aro deslitule of ili.it jntelligence, cntcrpriza, and mora! I principio that evoiy voter shoulri poy.scs. - To tliiá ií is sufficientjto reply Euat our Consliiution ariil laws ma!;c no difïbrencc in th? poliiicnï riglits of toen on accoir.it of tlieir intellecuia! capacicy or moral cliaraqter, and the coloreó people sbpafd not bc subjected to a test vli ícli our wliite ciiizons cannot benr. The most ignora n', debased, and indolf::it white men exerc.ise at the polls as mnch poliiical power as the most intellectual and erevated. W'hUc, thorcfore, llie vilest of the wfiité populatiun are yóters, sliould all the colored pcopie be flisfraiichiset'? The members lof the Legislatura are well awarc of the projudice whicli prevaii.s in the commnijily ogaiusl thnt cla.sá oí' peoplc, by whicii they ave debarred fioin the learned piofessioi)?, fro'.n no.st mefehariicul tra3es, fresri all offices of profit or iionor, and in many of the free .State?, thcy are phmdered of tlieir property on mu'iy occasions, olmosl witho'it the possibility of feg'ajredress. Ofcouvse, it cannot be expectod that they should, as a cías?, be svealthy. The same prejudice alo cuts them off, to a great extení, f'rom the fucililies for educa'ion possessed by the whitcs. Yel in our acquaintance in the interior of the State, olmost every colored man can read and write. JMany of them aro landholdertf, and some of them subsfnnihl farmotF. A committee of the colored people of Detroit have latcly taken some statittics of thcir popuiation, by which it oppcars thatThe niimber of coloree! adiills in the city and vicinity, is 225 Nurnber of chilcivcn, 253 x Number who can read and write, 108 Pauper?, L Prisoner, (this porson is from Canada,) 1 Valuo of real and personal property. $!1G,000 Public property in the Methodist and and Baptist Societios, $750 The slatistics of the colorcd people thronghout the State wonlcl probably present tlicircircumstances in a mucli more favorable point of view. 8. Bul supposenn cxamination of tlieir present condition should shew the vvhole population to bc as degraded, vicioiis, nnd indolent ns their bitlerest enemy could wist, what eourse would a wise and jndicious statesmon take towards tliem? They are with us, and a portion of them will remaní with us, vhatcvr er may be our logislalion. This bcing the fnct, is it wise, is it judie ious to witlihold from them a right wliich is justly their due - one whifh every freeman prizes - md tima leseen their fcelings of respect, destroy all ambilion lo ntlain respectability in Sdcieiy, and thereby rendor them more degraded and corrupt from year to year, so that they. vi!l contaminate the moráis of all with whom they come in contact? Is it not true that a depri - vaíion of the ri p-ht of eufFrage operaíes pon a communily, and upon their own fcelings, üö i a brand of infaniy - a stigma of reproach?- ■ Wotjld not its removal have a benign and fa- vorable eliect upon their condition, and upon our wholc population, by identifying tb eir interests with our nistitutions ; - obliterating ti.e unwise prejudices which have tended to their degradation, and e.vciting in them a gencrous ambition to be viituous, intelligent and useful citizena? Lastly, it is hoped theLogilature will bear in mimi, that we m-:re!y ask the prilvicge of suhmitting the question dircctly to the people. No ameiu'ment can bc nwle lo the Constitution without tliR conenrrence of two successive legislatures. All we ask íf, that fllëy uill perroit us to bring tliis question before the people, as soon as may üe, for their definitc adíen upon it.