THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION.

ELECTIVE FRANCHISE AGITATION IN ITHACA.

:—In accordance with
the desire of the Elective Franchise Club of
Ithaca, I send you the subjoined report for
publication:

On Monday evening, August 13th, agree
able to a published call, the colored citizens
of Ithaca met at Stannard Hall for the pur
pose of organizing an Elective Franchise
Club. Rev. Basil Mackall was called to the
Chair, and Geo. A. Johnson was chosen Sec
retary. Mr. Henry Moore then briefly stated
that the object of the meeting was to organ
ize a club of , who would
leave no stone unturned in their efforts to se
cure for their brethren the right of suf
frage. Geo. A. Johnson then followed in a
short speech, in which he portrayed the injus
tice of the Property Qualification restriction
upon the colored man, and urged every color
ed man to use all justifiable means to free
their brethren from this grievous wrong. On
motion, Messrs. Henry Moore, Geo. A. John
son, Henry Jackson, Levi Smith and Zach
ariah Tyler, were appointed a committee to
draft resolutions for the meeting. They re
tired, whereupon Mr. James Collins addressed
the meeting upon the suffrage question. The
committee returned and reported the follow
ing resolutions, which were adopted unanimously:

Whereas, The time is now near at hand when
the people of the State of New York are to
decide at the ballot box whether her colored
citizens shall be wholly freemen, with the
right of franchise, as others are of whatever
class or clime: or nominal freemen with
meagre political privileges, in which their
manhood is entirely ignored, in the presump
tion that a certain quantity of dirt is neces
sary to constitute them MEN and VOTERS;—
therefore,

Resolved, That we the colored citizens of
Ithaca, do most earnestly call on the citizens
of Tompkins County, and the State, irrespec
tive of party, to award to us the privilege of
Free Suffrage, which is our rightful heritage, in
view of the heroic efforts made by our fore
fathers to secure the independence of this coun
try, and free her people from the galling yoke of
British tyranny—as shown in the person of
Crispus Attucks, the first patriot martyr of the
Revolution, and in the heroic conduct of hun
dreds of other colored Americans, on 'ship and

shore,' both in the first and in the struggle of
America with the mother country.

Resolved, That the Property Qualification
clause of the State Constitution is monstrous
and atrocious, and is full of wrong and injus
tice, denying to us, natives of the soil, privi
leges that it gives to foreigners, even those who
fought against the liberties of the American
people; and in view of these facts, we ask the
people of the Empire State, who believe with
Jefferson that 'all men are created and
equal, and are endowed with certain inalien
able rights,' to strike from the statute this glar
ing outrage upon the rights of active citizens
which now dishonors it.

Resolved, That the law as it now exists is a
blot upon the escutcheon of the State and is
disgraceful alike to those who devised, and to
those who sustain it, and is unfair, humiliating
and degrading to the class of whom it applies,
by drawing an unjust line of distinction be
tween the fortunate and the unfortunate, by
throwing aside intelligence and moral worth as
qualities of no value, and by making the com
plexion God has given us a plea for injustice
and oppression.

After the resolutions were adopted the club
books were opened for membership, and twenty-five enrolled their names. The following gentlemen were chosen to act as the officers
of the 'Ithaca Elective Franchise Club;'

President—Rev. Basil Mackall.
Vice-President—G. A. Hayborn.
Secretary—Geo. A. Johnson.
Treasurer—Henry Moore.

GEO. A. JOHNSON, .