The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1889-11-23
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How easy is bush supposed q bear"
EDITOR CI.ARIoN-LEDGKR
The writer Of the article signed
~Prudentia,s = in 3 recent issue of your
paper, certainly regards a Constitu-
tional Convention as bad medicine, If
not poison. While not welded to
such measure, l am not prepared TO
believe that 1t will be viewed as q case
OF treason, even by Republican sd-
ministrstion. Your correspondent
evidently does, and the dark shadows
he casts over the proposition can be
resolved into no other tangible shape
He presents Congress as q veritable
Msdusa, the Prince Of Darkness him.
self swinging over Mississippi ~the
scaly horrors Of his folded tail" He
seems in earnest, but when Prudentia
distorts the idea of State Convention
into the analogy of secession, one Is
disposed 10 advise him to look to his
liver. His vision SO distempered (in-
verting his own sneer and s;.nile) he
naturally ssees a wolf in every Sheep
1t is presumable that Prudentis's ap-
prehenson Is that Constitutional Con-
vention. or a consequent statute, win
incur the wrath he predicts, by impos-
ing an educational or a poll-tax quail
fication on suffrage. | am not aware
Of any other bold, bad deed suggested
in this connection. Isuppose such &C
ton would impinge upon the act ofre-
admission. That act in so far as II
seeks to impose unusual conditions
upon the State is broadly violative of
the fundamental principle of State CO.
equality, and the Supreme Court has
defined and affirmed this principle In
this language; Equality Of constitu-
tional right and power is the condition
of all the States In the Union, old. and
uew.' But anticipating such remin-
der, Prudential fortities his argument
by acute and elaborate demonstration
that Congress Is a Law unto itself, that
1t Is not amenablc to courts or constitu-
tion; that having once in the fierce pas
sion engendered by long and bloody
war and to surmount vast and vexed
political emergency broken the chain Of
logic and constitutional law, the "pre-
cedent embalms a principle of rigid
and continuous governance. Pruden-
tia shows in his writing the pos
session of legal lore and reasoning
acumen Of the highest order. but he
has certainly wasted little attention
upon current history or the nature and
characteristics of the Northern people,
when he credits them with readiness
to reopen reconstruction. SO far from
disvavoripg q suffrage restriction, by
force of law, or constituting It as war
rant for "forcible Intervention of Con-
gress, not confined to mere denial Of
representation" tho very highest au-
thorties and the most influential lead
ers of that party have approached
the South for not doing that very thing;
instead Of attaining Its end by plans
and methods Of suppression and nulli-
fcation OF the negro vote.
But conceding the theory that the
Constitution and the decisions of the
Supreme Court do not bind Congress,
and the belief that the law-making
body Is capable and willing to apply
the rules of setback euchre to federal
relations, can any one believe that q
Mississippi law In the exact phraseolo-
gy of the Massachusetts, or Connecticut
statutes, enacting an educational re-
quircment for voters; or that of Penn.
sylvanla requiring the payment Of a
tax (poll or other) would imperil
Statehood Before replying, bear in
mind that for years Virginia restricted
suffrage after the Bcnnsylvania plan
(disfranchising thereby majority Of
the negro voters) only repeating such
law in the evil days Of white division
and that for years, and now, no ont
can vote in South Carolina who can
not read,
The question now before the people
Of Mississippi, of a Constitutional Con
vention, Is grave and momentous one
which should be discussed aud consid
cred with candor and tolerance. l
should be weighed and tested In th,
scales of reason; In one, Its dltticultiei
serious and weighty without cxaggera
tion; in the other, the relief from III
and perils II doubtfully offers. Pru
dentia, am sorry to note, sees In tn
, proposition only an exercise of mel
tai dexterity, experimental statesman
, ship To repel such heresy bis way
to scare the people out Of their sevel
, senses. While prudence Is goo,
thing, II is not the sum Of all virtue
But gloomy comparisons Of disturb
ed imagination do not truly const
, tute prudence. There was an old Re
man who had fortitude indomitable,
serene courage that no calamity coul
shake, q readiness to grasp occasion
J which never failed. lie saved the Re
. public in the time of Its direst neec
/ and was called Prudential. His wa
J the true article.
FABIUs.