The Portland daily press., 1867-11-13
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND
Wednesday Morning, November l2, 1867.
The Alabama Convention.

The Alabama Convention.
The Alabama Constitutional Convention
now in session at Montgomery, is composed
OF ninety-seven delegates, of whom only
nineteen are blacks. The work which, under
the Reconstruction acts, these delegates are
to do Is, in the language of the law, to form a
constitution OF government in conformity
with the Constitution of the United States
in all respects" and containing provision
that "the elective franchise shall be enioyed
BY all such persons as have the qualifications
prescribed for electors Of delegates to the
Convention" The qualifications of electors
of delegates to the Convention are found in
the same section OF the act, and they admit
to the franchise all "male citizens of the
State, twenty-one years old and upward. of
whatever race, color, or previous condition
except such as may be distranchised for par
ticipation in the rebellion or for felony at
common law" 1t seems, then, that the Ala
bama Convention is not bound to make the
qualifications of voters under the new State
government the same as those already pre-
scribed for electors of-delegates to the Con-
ventiOn, except in one particular. It is re-
strained under penalty of having its consti-
tuition annulled by Congress, from excluding
any male citizen OF the proper age from the
polls on account OF race, color or previous
condition, but it is not precluded from en-
braciDg in the classes excluded from the
| franchise by acts of Congress fer participa-
tion in rebellion a large additional number
of citizens. Under these acts the participS-
franchisement is restricted to cases where the
citizen has held Office under the State or the
United States and afterwards engaged in the
Confederate cause. Congress regarded the
exclusion of the leading rebels from the
body polite, coupled with the admission of
freedmen to the same, as a sufficient guaranty
for the adoption of republican form of gov
ernment. Its only object being to secure
such government and the maintenance of
equal rights while the South was in transi-
tien state, it stopped here, leaving the con-
vention for which it had provided free either
" lCototC oil iCuCfS " tHc TlHutS VI cftlZeIl-
ship or to exclude every man who had been
connected in any way whatever with the
Confederaey.
As it has fallen to the lot of Alabama to
take the initiative at this stage Of reconstruc-
tion, it was hoped that moderate and gener-
GUS counsels would prevail and that the dele
gates would at least stop the work ofproscrip-
tion where national legislation had left it.
As the case stands, assuming that the number
of the disfranchised in Alabama bears the
same ratio to the whole population that it
does in Virginia, not more than three thous-
and whites are deprived of the ballot, the
number having been ascertained in the latter
Srate to be only about five thousand five
hundred. But there are indications that the
Alabama Convention will not be content W ith
this. A no-prescription resolution has been
voted down by decisive majority. The lat
est intelligence at the time of this writing is
to the effect that a majority OF the elective
franchise committee have reported in favor
of DISTINGUISHING all who do not vote for or
against the constitution when it is submitted
to the people. 1t is also said that the report
is otherwise proscriptive." So far as the
first of these propositions is concerned, it
plainly has reference to the 9TH section of the
supplementary Reconstruction act of March
Sd, 1867, which recognizes the validity of no
constitution that, upon its submission to the
people does not call out either for or against it,
the ballots of a majority of the registered vot-
ers. But the phrase, "otherwise proscriptIve,
is somewhat suggestive OF the sweeping,
Brownlow way ofreconstructing, according to
government disfranchises the individual, il he
has not so much as spoken word in its IA
vor.
The course pursued by the Alabama Con
vention is not, in this respect, just what mod
crate Republicans may desire. But let it b'
remembered that these delegates are eithe
freedmen or elected largely by freedmen
votes, and that they are, we may say, tn
freedmen's agents. They have convened OF
the very spot where six years ago govern
ment was established having corner ston'
which was deliberately avowed TO be the con
Sl8IllIleut Ol Tue DidChS anu tlciE Cnuufcu iol
ever to condition of bondage. 1t is the ver.
spot. too, where since the close of the war /
white legislature refused to ratify an amend
ment to the Constitution of the United State:
which gave to the blacks merely cioi
rights Let it be remembered that in Ohio
| in Connecticut and in Wisconsin, the white:
refuse to repeal their proscriptive enactment:
against the whole negro race-a race from
whom they have received no injury and hav,
nothing to fear. Taking all these things into
consideration in connection with the compar
ative advantages enjoyed by the two races fol
growth in wisdom and virtue, and the wan
of magnanimity on the part of the blacks viii
| no longer seem to be in striking contrast will
| the generosity of their white fellow citizens