The Van Buren press., 1868-02-07
From Linle Rocf Daily Gazette.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
T,~,.,,,,. 90
Mr.. Bradley offered tho following.

clause in the Constitution. forbidding any Of
iicer either civil or Cclcsiastical. 10 solemn the
rites of matrimony between a white person
aud person Of African descent within the
limits Ofthis State.
Mr.. Hodges. Of Pulaski, could not see
the use Of inserting any such provision in
the Constitution. 1t was a matter OF taste
to people who they married. and he was
willing that everybody should be permitted
to indulge their peculiar tastes as to maj
riagc.
Gray (ncgro, of Phillips, said it was
seldom such outuges were committed at the
North. where there are no Constitutional
provisions of the kind proposed, He saw
no necessity of inserting any in the present
Constitution. As for his people, their
condition now would not permit any such
marriages. II it was proposed to insert a
provision of the kind, he would move to
amend by making it an offence punishable
with death for a white man to cohabit with
q negro woman.
Mr.. Mcclure moved to refer the matter TO
the committee on boundaries. Laughter.
Mr. Bradley said that he had not intro
duced the resolution for the purpose Of stir
ring up discussion, and he had not intended
to even make speech in advocacy oft. be-
lieving it carried its own arguments with
it, If the provision was not usual at the
North it was because negro suffrage had not
been enforced there and negroes made the
political equals of white men. He drew it
from declarations made on this floor that
the social equality Of the negro was in res
ervation for the people Of Arkansas, He
protested against this He was white
man, and did not want the pure blood of
the African, lauded so much here, ,adulterat-
cd with the blood of the white race. This
same question was stirring up the "ring
streaked and striped menageties' every
where in the South. The fear Of this mix
ing of the races accounted for the decora-
ton Of yonder hail new City Hall by the
ladies for the meeting of the Democratic
Convention. lie expected every negro to
vote for the resolution for protection to him
self. lie was no part of bleaching ma
chinery and was opposed to the bleaching
process. To say that miscegenation was
matter of taste merely bespeaks the taste of
the one who says so. We want to run a
line and say to the negro "thus far shalt
thou so and no farther and it was for the
negro's protection also. He wouldn't swal-
low the social equality Of the races sugar
coated, as it had been in Alabama, under
grant of "equal rights, privileges and i'm
munities for all classes" He wanted to
have a fair vote on the resolution itself, and
wanted every man to vote his own impulses.
Mr.. Bradley appealed to the Convention
to allow direct vote on the resolution but
the motion to refer was put and lost ; ayes
32, noes "a.
Mr. Montgomery offered the following
substitute for the resolution and amend
ment
Resolved. That the Committee on the Con-
stitution its arrangement and phraseology be,
and it is hereby instructed to insert clause
in the Constitution requiring the General As
semDly to enact laws to more effectively pre-
vent miscegenation, and thereby inaugurate
great reform in the State of Arkansas.
Mr.. Bradley could not see why we should
not &" face the music by a direct vote on
the merits Of the resolution. Let us show
the world where we stand He wanted to
break the ugar-coating oft pill and taste
its bitterness. IT, you dodge the question,
your Constitution is lost the people will
spurn it and trample it under their feet
Gray (negro, Of Phillips, said negroes
vote in Ohio and Massachusetts, and in the
latter State are elected to high office by rich
white men. He had found more prejudice
against his race among the Yankees and if
they did him kind act they did not seem
to do it with the generous spirit of South
ern men. He could get nearer the latter
he had been raised with them. He was the
sorrier on this account that they had refus-
ed him the rights which would make him
man, as the former were willing to do.
Mr.. Wilson had promised his colored
constituents to give them suffrage, but not
to give them his daughter He was filled
with supreme contempt for the man who
would say the iutcrmarrage Of races was a
matter of taste he should be ashamed to
think it, much less to speak it. People
turned up their noses at us on every corner
because they believed we favored miscegcna
ton and he did not want to be looked up
on in that light,
Mr.. Langley said this was an age of pro-
gress and we would be ashamed of our sc-
tior before posterAy. A free man has a
right to marry whom he peascs. There are
not five hundred full blood Africans in Ar
kansas. We might as well forbid English,
French or Germans to intcrmorry, 1t was
contrary to the Declaration Of Independence,
and was unconstitutional, because forbid by
the proposed Constitutional Amendment.
This provision would prevent our getting
back into the Union. We had no right to
assume to be judges in this matter, as there
was q difference Of opinion as to misccgcna-
ton People used to be as much opposed
to social equality with the Yankees and
Dutch as with the negroes now. 1t was all
a matter Of prejudice.
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