Whatever power the national or any state government may have had in prescribing the qualification of electors prior to the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment it still has, save that it cannot legally and constitutionally make race or color a ground of disqualification.

In other words, whatever qualifications may be prescribed and fixed as a condition precedent to voting, must be applicable to white and colored alike.

A few States, under the false plea of political necessity, have resorted to certain schemes of doubtful constitutionality, for the sole purpose of evading this plain provision of the National Constitution.

They may stand for a while, but, even if they could stand indefinitely, that fact would furnish no excuse for the party,--a party that has stood so long, and fought so hard for liberty, justice, equal rights, and fair play,--to enter into a political alliance with any other party or faction which would involve a compromise or an abandonment of those grand and noble principles.

The Republican party is still in the prime and glory of its usefulness.