ons are those whose interests are
to be directly affected by any proposed law. In Massachusetts, for
instance, male persons are allowed to vote without regard to color,
provided they possess a certain degree of intelligence. In a population
in that State of 1,231,066 there were, by the census of 1860, only 9,602
persons of color, and of the males over 20 years of age there were
339,086 white to 2,602 colored. By the same official enumeration there
were in the District of Columbia 60,764 whites to 14,316 persons of the
colored race. Since then, however, the population of the District has
largely increased, and it is estimated that at the present time there
are nearly 100,000 whites to 30,000 negroes. The cause of the augmented
numbers of the latter class needs no explanation. Contiguous to Maryland
and Virginia, the District during the war became a place of refuge for
those who escaped from servitude, and it is yet the abiding place of a
considerable proportion of those who sought within its limits a shelter
from bondage. Until then held in slavery and denied all opportunities
for mental culture, their first knowledge of the Government was acquired
when, by conferring upon them freedom, it became the benefactor of their
race. The test of their capability for improvement began when for the
first time the career of free industry and the avenues to intelligence
were opened to them. Possessing these advantages but a limited time--the
greater number perhaps having entered the District of Columbia during
the later years of the war, or since its termination--we may well
pause to inquire whether, after so brief a probation, they are as a
class capable of an intelligent exercise of the right of suffrage and
qualified to discharge the duties of official position. The people
who are daily witnesses of their mode of living, and who have become
familiar with their habits of thought, have expressed the conviction
that they are not yet competent to serve as electors, and thus become
eligible for office in the local governments under which they live.
Clothed with the elective franchise, their numbers, already largely in
excess of the demand for labor, would be soon increased by an influx
from the adjoining States. Drawn from fields where employment is
abundant, they would in vain seek it here, and so add to the
embarrassments already experienced from the large class of idle persons
congregated in the District. Hardly yet capable of formin