secure larger liberty for its whole
people. Rebellion in defense of justice, mercy, and the higher law is
always in order. Inasmuch as the rights of the individual are above
all constitutions, customs, creeds, and codes, it is the duty of the
general government to protect these rights against all intermediate
authorities.

4. While we have always demanded emancipation and enfranchisement for
the African race, we have no great enthusiasm for "negro suffrage" as
a party cry, because it is too narrow and partial for the hour. In
'56, Republicans asked aid and comfort of Abolitionists, because they
were opposed to the extension of slavery, but the Abolitionists, who
demanded "immediate emancipation," scouted the proposition;
non-extension, said they, is by no means grappling with the principle;
shutting up slavery where it is, is a step in the right direction, and
will eventually strangle the whole system, but to educate the people
into an idea we need the enthusiasm of a principle. When we say
"slavery is a sin," and therefore demand "immediate emancipation," we
end the evil and its extension in the same breath. So we say, to-day,
to the Abolitionists and Republicans, we can not accept your platform,
because it is not based on the idea that suffrage is a natural right,
we admit that "negro suffrage" is a step in the right direction, but
to educate the people to this partial demand even, we need the
enthusiasm of a principle, which you do not proclaim, so long as you
ask simply the extension of suffrage to two million men, instead of
its universal application to every citizen of the republic. As the
greater includes the less, when we say universal enfranchisement, we
claim all that the most radical Abolitionists and Republicans claim
and much more. Now, if the copperheads are educated up to this point,
we are happy to give them the right hand of fellowship, and shall hope
to be one of the delegates to the Tammany Hall Convention. We have
read their platform, as set forth in four mortal columns of the
_World_, and really do not see much to choose between it and the
Chicago platform. In fact, with the two Democratic candidates, Gen.
Grant and Chief-Justice Chase, and their twin platforms, stump orators
will have a hard task to prove why the people should prefer one
candidate or party to the other. The aristocratic principle--the
government of the many by the few--has been tried six thousand years
in every latitude and longit