New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-09-15
THE CONSTITUTION or GEORGIA.

prevent the polling of even one illegal vote.
THE CONSTITUTION or GEORGIA..
On examination of the Constitution of the State
of Georgia, we find the legal aspects OF the ques-
ton whether colored men have the right to hold
Office under that Constitution to be as follows
The present Constitution contains no clause
expressly defining who shall or who shall not
hold office, except provisions that persons con-
yicted of treason, ENLIGHTENMENT of public funds,
malfeasance in Office or bribery, and felons,
idiots and insane persons, aud persons
guilty of dueling, shall not hold Office.
| IL these clauses stood alone any fair
court wonld be compelled to infer from
! the careful exclusion of 80 many classes
from holding Office and from the fail
ure 10 include colored men in the excluded
class, that cOlored men had the right to hold
Office. The Constitution contains the usual
clause that leach House shall be the judge OF
the elections, returns, and qualifications of its
| " own members" Its clause relative to fran
! elise and elections makes every male adult
person born in the United States, or natural
| lied, or who has declared his intention to be-
come n citizen, an elector, subject to certain
qualifications of residence and oaths.
The clause, however, under which all the
| Democratic and few of the Republican mem
hers have united in declaring blacks Ineligible
to office, and in cccting the twenty-five colored
members from the State Legislature, is the
following:
ARTICLE XT.-Tng LAWS or GENERAL OPERATION IN
| FORCE TINS STATE ARB: 80 -. .
l. Az The supreme Law: The Constitution OF the United
States. the laws " the United states 10 pursuance tto
and all treaties made under the authority OF the Uhteu
/ States. . ,,-.,
Ill In differentiation 10 The foregoing: Al acts passed
BY any legislative budy sitting In I'M, state ~ Sn,h
Of laws known as the Code NJ Georgia and the>act1
nmendatoy iherro, as pas'rd -Ines th he Inr
book known irwin. Cnlo aud also 50 much ~ me cam
md statute iacs of England ana ~ NE sa'ns drs o
sctmLcr 1900 gre superseded by said code, though
statutes code nnd avs ~ may be Inconsistent win the
Supreme law herein recognized "r may have been passed
IN aid Of the late Rebellion against the United STATES or
dy be obsolete may refer "a persons held IN Slavery
J which excepted laws are imperative ard void.
According to the above, the old Constitution
and laws of Georgia in force prior To the Sc
cession of the State, and even the Rebel Con-
stitution and laws in force during the
Rebellion, are still in force, except SO far ms
they conflict with the Constitution of the
| United States, or with the new Constitution of
! Georgia or with the laws of Congress. We
! have examined carefully the Constitution
of Georgia adopted in 1893 and in force down
to the year 1862 and it makes no distinction
of color, either as respects holding Office OF
voting Voting is founded on citizenship only
We have not at hand the Twins Code referred
TO in the above clause, but our correspondents
state unqualihedly that 1t contains no such
clause. 1t is most improbable that any provs-
ion excluding negroes from holding Office
! should have been adopted during the Rebellion,
when none such had existed from 110S down
10 1860, and when the Rebellion was founded
| on Slavery and excluded the negro even from
tho citizenship. 1t seems to be plain, there
fore. that the Democratic party in Georgia
have inferred that negroes were constitution
ally excluded from holding Office prior to and
during the Rebellion on account OF their color
| This inference is wholly unfounded. They
were excluded only because they were not
citizens. They have now become citizens. Nc
Constitution of the State ever excluded them
on account of color. Therefore the only ex-
cluson under which they ever rested has been
removed, and the vote of expulsion is clearly
rs wrong in law as it is unjust politically. As
this is question not merely of the qualfCa-
tons of certain members of the Legislature,
but of the eligibility Of all persons of certain
race to hold office, the decision of the Legsla-
turo of Georgia is subject to be overruled by
the Courts, and the question will doubtless be
brought in some form before the Supreme
| Court OF the United States. AS the logical re-
suit of the exclusion of q race from holding
Office would be their future exclusion from the
right of suffrage, the effect of the action of
Georgia will be to impress Congress more fully
with the necessity of passing uniform Suffrage
act for all the States.
Some Democratic journals have hastily as
sumed that, because of the passage of the act
for the admission Of Georgia into the Union,
Congress has no further power over the ques-
tions involved in the expulsion of these men,
bers. This presumption is clearly unwarranted.
The act readmitting Georgia to the Union
takes effect only on tho ratification by the
Legislature of Georgia Of the XVIII Amend
ment. No vote had been taken on the Amend
ment in the Georgia Legislature Mt the time
the Proclamatons of tho President and OF Mr..
Seward, declaring its ratification, were issued.
Georgia is not named in these procamations
as one of the States by whose votes the
Amendment was ratified.
subsequently vote was taken by the Legis-
lature of Georgia, and it was declared ratified
by majority, according to McPherson's Man
ual, Of 10 in tho Senate and "a Others say l0)