(March 17, 1868)
Racial proscription during the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction was not limited to the Southern states, a fact emphasized by Southern and Northern critics of Radical Reconstruction. Repeatedly referendums in Northern states on enfranchising their relatively small African-American male populations failed to pass. In this letter to the editor of a Michigan newspaper, “Karinus” noted the hypocrisy of Northerners, especially Republicans, who riveted universal suffrage on the South but refused to accept black enfranchisement in their own states.
Occasionally we hear an avowed Republican proclaim his aversion to the clause in our new constitution granting the elective franchise to the colored freedmen of the State. Of these we would simply ask, are they Republicans from principle? Are they, in pursuance of that principle, supporters of the reconstruction policy of the Government? If they are supporters of the policies of the government, which is but the principle of justice, upon what principle do they justify their opposition to Equal Suffrage in Michigan? It is much more difficult for a professed Republican to assign a cogent reason for such a position than for the “Democracy. . . .” But because of the patriotic tendencies of the negro, in late years, the democracy regard him as a “degenerated son of noble ancestry,” and refuse him fraternal fellowship. None of these causes, however, should control the sentiment of Republicans. The Republican and the negro, when Democracy inaugurates treason and rebellion, fight a common battle for a common cause. . . . Shall Michigan, then, who has so nobly stood by the policies of the government, contradict and stultify herself by refusing to do in her own dominion what she has commanded Congress to do for the whole domain? Shall they contravene every vote given by our Senators and Representatives in Congress, who were elected by the same people to represent the same principle in Congress that they are called upon to enforce in their own State next Spring? . . . We are at a loss to account for this sudden retrogration from the magnanimous standard of the fathers of the republic, which is meant to be the rule and guide of modern Republicanism. All the State constitutions adopted after the declaration of Independence up to 1792, except South Carolina, extended the right of franchise to legal voters irrespective of color. None of the alarming consequences grew out of that prerogative in those days which are predicted as being the result of a like prerogative at this time. . . . In view of these antecedents it is very difficult to account for the seemingly unhappy instinct which move men of late to curse a nigger. Whatever may have been the modernly progressive tendency of things in reference to art and science, it seems to have been terribly retrogressive in regard to prejudices among races. . . . It is reduced simply to the fact that the negro, as a general thing, will vote the Republican ticket. Shall it be then, that for this offence the Democracy shall deprive the freedman of his vote, by the aid of renegade, unreliable Republicans? We shall see.