The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1859-09-15

| ScltSs
1t was alleged about the time that Mas
sachusetts adopted the Two Years Amend
ment to her Constitution, that she had on.
ly copied from a Democratic precedent Sc,
by the State of South Carolina-that State
having, in the year 1856, effected change
in her Constitution by which the right Of
suffrage was restricted to native citizens OF
persons who had been naturalized t,co gears.
This fact was instantly denied by m ,jority
of the Democratic press in the North. In
order to set the question at rest, the editor of
the Gernnnia, a German pro-slavery sheet
Issued in Cleveland wrote to the Secretary
OF State in South Carolina inquiring wheth-
er any such modification of the elective
| franchise had been made in that common
wealth The flmctlonary, not being posted
on the fundamental law of which he was
the legal custodian, betook to "Mier's Com
! pilation'a of South Carolina Statues--a work
designed, we suppose, to assist the Carolina
Secretaries of State to become familiar with
the local law and Constitution. But it hap
pened that "Miller's Compilation" did not
come down to 1856; so the learned Secretary
wrote to the editor of the Gernanio that "a
foreigner under the present law, SO soon as
he has taken the oath of allegiance and re.
ceived his certificate under the seal of the
Clerk of the Court, is entitled to all the priv,
ileges of a native-born citizen" The letter
was at once published far and wide and the
grevious statement was characterized by all
good Democrats as Black Republican lie.
So far and wide was 1t publ he'd that it
finally fell under the notice Of the Southern
Guardjnn, of Columbia, s. O., which Jour
nal called the attention of the Secretary to
the fact that the Two Years Amendment acos
effected in the year 1855 and enforced IN the
local elections of 1857, himself to the contra
~ notwithstanding. Mr. Secretary thcreup-
on overhauled his documents again and fished
out the following curiosity from the legislative
proceedings of 1853: ias a1 Fa1E n3Eua gzf
''Be it enacted by the Senate and the
House Of Representatives, now met and sit
ting in General Assembly, and nv the author
ity of the Same, that the amendment of the
fourth section of the first article Of the Con-
stitution ofthis State; ratified on the nine
teenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and ten
be altered and amended to read as follows:
Every free white man of the age of twenty
one years, paupers and non-commissoned
officers and private soldiers of the army of
the United States excepted. who hath been
a citizen and resident in this State tsno gears
preoious to the day Of election and who
hath freehold of fifty acres of land or
town lot, of which he has been legally seized
and possessed at least six months before
such election, or not having such freehold
or town lot, hath been a resident in the cleo
ton district in which he offers to give his
vote ski months before the said election,
shall have right to vote for member or
members, to serve in either branch of the
Legislature or the election district in which
he holds such property, or is resident. #
The keeper of the South Carolina statutes
was thus forced to explain the error involved
in his letter to the Cleveland man, which he
did by casting the blame on'' Miller's Com,
plat m adding, as further explanation
that ''it is not incumbent on this Office to ex-
poud the law OF the tate,'-an announce
ment which must have been gratifying 70
that portion of the eonnunity which has
an interest in the laws r1ltiHah S5S .tat q. or
The Southera Gttar1itn, cpn,n antiag IN
on the amendment, says it must be evident
that no person can vote who has not been
invested with the ri yhts Of citiz ,ns'lip two
years 1t sums mp the civil privileges confer
red upon folreign-born citizens comprehen-
sivcly thus: Except as to rates and as to
being in the Legislative ami Ererutice de-
partmsnts and to seroiag asjM0rs, there
is not at presnt any determination between
native-born and natiralizaa citizens in
South Carolina "Ha as - AitE rsaitki g5aN
BY the steamship. Europa we have three
days later intelligence from Europe. The
representatives of France and Austria at Xu-