Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-01
PROBLEMATICAL.

A Word 20 E'robe,, 10 COnstitu-
tIOnaI Lawyers and to ssTOuns
Men.''
To the Editors Of the Union and American:
Since you have permitted the inquisitive
Probe" PenfaRt terrible, to ruffle the
smooth surface of events, l am embOld-
ened to trespass on your attention, briefly
as l can.
Possibly Probe" does not appreciate
the legal grounds ON which the COnven-
ton disposed of "the vital question. :"
These grounds, | conceive to be most sue
cinctly stated in the following extract
from the speech of an able constitutional
lawyer:
eve cannot shut our eyes to the fact
that the yoke was removed from our necks
by The decision of the Supreme Court
which declared that the right to vote was
property right, and that registers
certificate made it res .jIdicdtd, not af-
forwards to be inquired into. When we
look, then, at the first section of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the COnstitu-
ton of the United States, we see that we
strike the ground from under our own
feet, when we deny that every negro who
has ever had a certificate to vote is pro-
tected in that right forever by the Consti-
tuition of the United States.
The argument seems to be, that every
negro who has voted in Tennessee has be
come, ipSO fdctO, a citizen of the United
States, the abridging of whose privileges
and immunities, or whose deprivation of
life, liberty or property, without due
process of law, Is forbidden by the first
section of Amendment XIV. And, fur
ther, that the recent decision of the Ten
nessee Supreme Court makes the right to
vote property right.
Without questioning the collective wis
dom of the Convention in their disposition
of the suffrage question, l must challenge
the seundness of the Supreme Court de-
cisiOn, as / lack the legal dexterity OF
recOnciling it with Article ", section 3,
of the present Constitution, which reads
Claws may be passed excluding from
the right of suffrage persons who may be
convicted of infamous crimes"
Does a man forfeit property rights by
Crimel Does not section II of our Bill
of Rights protect personal estate as well
as real, from forfeiture through convic-
tionl Is this newly found property right
in suffrage tertiID1 qttid-a third neu-
trail, neither realty nor persOnalty2 And,
under the Fourteenth Amendment, what
process of law could apply to the case of
criminals that might not be applied to any
other prescribed class Possibly, these
sections are reConcilable with the Supreme
Court decision. submit It to our cOnsti-
tutional lawyers, and, like ''Probe," |
want light.
COgnate to this is the ineligibility to the
General Assembly of ministers and priests
"a subject which afforded vent for some
witty sallies in the Convention few days
since. Compare Article TX, section l.,
with the terrible Fourteenth Amendment,
or even with section of our own Bill of
Rights, and solve this conundrum: Does
not the phrase privileges or immunities"
cover the right of native Tennesseesn,
twenty -one years of age, to aspire to the
Legislature1 And if, at the age OF twenty
two, he becomes minister, by what
hocus-pOcus has he been deprived of that
| right
But this is a matter of small impOr-
lance, las the minister will never knock
at the door unless the people send him
there, and Pm depressing, while I've a
few mOrds more to say before your pa
| tience be exhausted.
The proposed Fifteenth Amendment
hangs fire in the Senate; but l do moi
speak of the Senate. would merely
whisper to the "young men" that there
be old politicians, not over piOus in their
youth, who pray nightly on Bonded knees
for the speedy ratification of the afore-
said amendment. Good souls they pray
thus, for the final paciicatiOno of the cOun
tryl And, mayhap, down deep in theiI
| disinterested hearts, there turks, almost
| unknown to themselves, another motive,
to wit? Records laboriously constructed
wouldn't be worth continental curse il
that amendment fell through. They have
been looking for the future of universal
brotherhood, and have shaped their COuTs'
accordingly. Forty thousand are only {
| fifth of the voters; but a fifth is a nOta
| BILE fraction to throw upon the trembling
scales-nOt to be sneezed at, in fact, if II
| does disturb the OlfactOries. Do you SCI
it, young men? Can you profit by The
| hint2 OS.
The GUIzAIBo, Jan. 81.
A YOUTH giving the somewhat romantic
name of Oleander Hanson has appeared
at q Chicago station-house with thil
/ touching narrative 81 am a month from
the Hub Boston, and was employed
there by & firm known as NOyes & HaD
son, No. IS Shswmut avenue. l stol'
$3.50 from them, and came west with {
gal We managed to go through thu
money pretty quick. lam dead broke.
She has left me. So here / be.
Life in Texas makes a man suspicious
A gentleman struck q match in hote
room the other night, and his brothe
Immediately fired at the sound, supposinl
i - 20 bo 4ba cooking of o DistOl and shO