OUR NEW CITIZENS. |
The adoption of the Amendments by the voters of
Iowa has made a few thousand new citizens out of beings who have
hitherto been considered mere "brutes." The number of negroes in the
State of Iowa, however, is not enormous and the additional voters made
by the Amendments will not be as large in numbers as many supposed. In
this county there are about fifty colored voters. A majority of these
are able to read and write and are not such ignorant creatures as the
democracy would have us believe. To these colored men we have a few
words to say. Now that the Republicans of Iowa have conferred upon you
the right which you have so long coveted and which you would never have
received from any other source, it behooves you to prove yourselves
worthy of the great boon with which you have been intrusted. The great
objection which has been urged against you has been that you are
ignorant and not qualified to exercise the elective franchise.- We grant
that many of you are ignorant, but you have had but little opportunity
in the past to acquire knowledge and this is ample excuse for your
ignorance. But there is now no longer any excuse for your remaining in
ignorance, and our advice to you all, both old and young, is to lose no
time in acquiring all the knowledge you can. If you cannot read and
write, learn it at once. Spend the long winter evenings before you in
studying.- We know that you are capable of learning, and we desire to
see you press forward as rapidly as possible. If you educate yourselves,
you can not only use the right of suffrage more understandingly, but you
can perform all other duties which may fall upon you in a better manner.
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NOTE: Resource provided by Henry County Heritage Trust; transcription done by Hayley A. Hopper, University of Northern Iowa Public History Field Experience Class, Spring 2022. Contributed to Henry County IAGenWeb, March 2022. |
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