y I have every reason to believe is the correct one, the
generally accepted one. The authority referred to is the late Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Mississippi, H.H. Chalmers,
who, in an article in the _North American Review_ about March, 1881,
explained and defined what is meant or understood by the term "Negro
Domination."

According to Judge Chalmers' definition, in order to constitute "Negro
Domination" it does not necessarily follow that negroes must be elected
to office, but that in all elections in which white men may be divided,
if the negro vote should be sufficiently decisive to be potential in
determining the result, the white man or men that would be elected
through the aid of negro votes would represent "Negro Domination." In
other words, we would have "Negro Domination" whenever the will of a
majority of the whites would be defeated through the votes of colored
men. If this is the correct definition of that term,--and it is, no
doubt, the generally accepted one,--then the friends and advocates of
manhood suffrage will not deny that we have had in the past "Negro
Domination," nationally as well as locally, and that we may have it in
the future.

If that is the correct definition then we are liable to have "Negro
Domination" not only in States, districts, and counties where the blacks
are in the majority, but in States, districts and counties where they
are few in numbers. If that is the correct definition of "Negro
Domination,"--to prevent which the negro vote should be
suppressed,--then the suppression of that vote is not only necessary in
States, districts, and counties in which the blacks are in the majority,
but in every State, district, and county in the Union; for it will not
be denied that the primary purpose of the ballot,--whether the voters be
white or colored, male or female,--is to make each vote decisive and
potential. If the vote of a colored man, or the vote of a white man,
determines the result of an election in which he participates, then the
very purpose for which he was given the right and privilege will have
been accomplished, whether the result, as we understand it, be wise or
unwise.

In this connection it cannot and will not be denied that the colored
vote has been decisive and potential in very many important National as
well as local and State elections. For instance, in the Presidential
election of 1868, General Grant, the Republican candidate, lost the