St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-11-13
A Qualified Suffrage.

Yesterday we received the following
communication from a prominent Cltl-
zen of North Louisiana:
Believing as you do that suffrage is entirely
too cheap. and that nearly all of our misgov-
eminent flows from it, would suggest that the
next Legislature pass registration law requr-
ing the assessors to assess by voting precincts,
Keeping due record of the legal voters, which
shall be the registration. The tax receipt full
paid. ten days at least before election shall be
the registration papers to vote on. This regis
tration will be regular and certain, and will
cost the State nothing, ana any lrregularty
will have ample time for correction before the
election. F.
The plan suggested is open to very
serious objection. The qualification
under such system would be matter
of dollars and cents, wholly ignoring
educational fitness for suffrage. There
are many wage-earDers who, though
not assessed for one dollar of property,
are yet much more competent to exer-
else the right of voting than some
illiterate creature that has fortuitously
gotten possession OF a mule or COW.
A property qualifications alone will not
suffice. There must be combination
of educational and property qualifica-
tions, or the independent recognition of
the possession of each as prerequisite
to the exercise of suffrage. But that
some qualification of the right to vote
must come, is as clear as the MONDAY
sun, if this government is to be perpet-
mated. 1t is not very popular idea,
bnt is very practical one, and the logic
of events is bringing it more and more
to the front.
The North freed the negro, and forth
with conferred upon the race the right
to vote. There is not true man and
patriot in the United States to-day that
does not know that a grievous error was
here committed. The negro was not
qualified to exercise intelligeptly the
rights of citizenship, and for ten or fif-
teen years the section in which the
blacks lived endured a government
compared with which Russian auto
crazy would have been blessing. To-
day the power of the negro is crushed,
and good government has returned.
1t was the idea of the founders of this
union that it's wisest aud best should
rule. The electoral college is based
distinctly upon this conception. Yet
we now find the very foundations of
our government shaken by the actIons
of that great mass which has learned to
cast aside the wisest and best, and
thrust to the front those who have too
much shrewdness and too little charac-
ter to tell their people the truth. Not
all of those who now exercise the right
to vote are qualified to do so. Their
mistakes are proving costly ones, and
before very many years thinking people
of character and honesty will frankly
tell the masses SO.
The above is from the Shreveport
Times. The constitution gives every
male citizen over twenty-one years of
age, the right tovote, whether he pays
any poll tax or not. The constitution
would have to be changed, in order to
impose poll tax, or an educational
qualification. However, the govern
ment does scruple to violate the consti-
tuition when it suits its purposes. The
act of the legislature, which the Gov
ernor approved, which DISTINGUISHES
every voter who does not buy piece of
paper from the State government and
have his ticket printed on it, is viola
tive of the constitution. This act
restricts suffrage to the individuals who
qualify themselves by buying the paper,
and having it printed. According to
the constitution every voter has The
right to select his own paper, and write
or print his ticket as he may please; but
the government threatens to disfran-
chise him with this act, if he asserts his
constitutional rights. The passage of
this act was never intended for any
good; and its existence on the statute
book Of the present State government,
is enough to condemn that government
in the minds Of all right-thinking peo-
pie.