New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-19
No. 50


Proposing TO amend the Constitution OF the
State.
SECTION ]. BE it resolved by the Senate
and House Of Representatives in General
Assembly convened, That at the general
election next ensuing the passage of this
resolution, the folio wing article shall be
proposed TO the qualified electors of the
State as an amendment to the constitution
of the State, which. when approved and
ratified by q majority of the voters at
said election, shall become part of the
constitution, in the place of the article
numbered nine-nine.
SEC. 2. Be it further resolved, ETC.. That
said article shall be il words and terms as
follows, to wit:
No person shall hold any Office. or shall
be permitted to vote at any election, or to
act as a juror, who shall in the due course
Of law have been convicted of treason, per-
jury, forgery. bribery, or other crime pun
isbable by imprisonment in the Peniten-
tiary, or who shall be under Introduction.
SEC. 3. Be it further resolved, etc, That
the tickets OF ail persons voting upon this
proposed amendment shall have written or
printed thereon the words, For the amend
ment Of the niGet y-ninth article of the con-
stitutiOr;' or, against the amendment of
the ninety-n ninth article of the constitu
tiOn:" and the returning officers shall make
manner as is prescribed by law for returns
of electiOn, and the Secretary of State shall
promulgate the result by publication three
several times in the official journal.
ia majority ofthe votes cast at said cleo
ton shall be, For the amendment of the
ninety ninth article of the constitution
then the article numbered ninety-nine, and
reading as follows:
"ARTICLE 80. The following persons shall
q fpi
Office: All persons who shall have been
convicted Of treason, perjury, forgery,
bribery, or other crime punishable in the
Penitentiary, and persons under interdic-
ton. All persons who are estopped
from claiming the right of suffrage,
by ahjnring their allegiance to the
United States Government, or by VIGOROUSLY
levying war against it, or adhering to its
enemies, giving them aid or comfort, but
who have not expatriated themselves, nor
have been convicted of any of the crimes
mentioned in the first paragraph of this
article, are hereby restored to the said right,
except the following: Those who held Office,
civil or military, for one year or more, under
the organization styled 1.-THE Confederate
States OF America" those who registered
themselves as enemies of the United States;
those who acted as leaders of guerrilla
bands during the late rebellion; those who,
in the advocacy of treason, wrote or pub
lished newspaper articles or preached SER
mons during the late rebellion; and those
who voted for and signed an ordinance of
secession in any State. No person included
in these exceptions shall either vote or hold
office until he shall have relieved himself
by voluntarily writing and signing certi-
ficate setting forth that he Acknowledges the
late rebellion to have been morally and poll
tically wrong, and that he regrets any aid
and comfort be may have given it; and he
shall file the certificate in the Office of the
Secretary of State, and it shall be published
in the official journal. Provided That no
person who, prior to the first of January,
eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, favored
the execution of the laws of the United
States, popularity known as the reconstruc
tion acts of Congress, and openly and ac
lively assisted the loyal men of the State in
their efforts to restore Louisiana to her
position in the Union, shall be held to be
included among those herein excepted.
Registrars OF voters shall take the oath Of
any such person as prinla .fdcie evidence of
the fact that be is entitled to the benefit of
this proviso, shall be stricken from the CON-
stitution, and be null and void, and the
article herein above set forth and proposed
as an amendment, shall be part Of the con-
stitution, and shall be published in all off,