Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1890-04-15
REGISTRATION.
How the Bill was Passed and Who
Did it.
Some Names to be Remembered.

of the hottest fights seen at Frankfor
this year. Eleven O'Clock was thu
hour for it to be taken up, but at tha
time Mr.. Richardson had up mo
ton to adjourn Apr. 25 and in ordel
to get that disposed of tried to post
pone the special order. His motion
to that effect was voted down by ~
to 2s, and the registration bill wa'
taken up.
Mr.. HI. B. Clark moved to recon-
NIT the bill and proceeded to make &
speech against the measure. He op
posed it in very vigorous style anc
his effort was a most creditable one
although he failed to defeat the bill
He then asked that the bill be report
ed, but afterthe reading had gone Oh
for some time withdrew his demand
1t was then fully discussed by
Messrs. w. NJ. Smith, G. W. Duvall
Claude NJ. Thomas, Arthur Wallace
and others. The speech of the day
was made by Mr.. Smith, who made a
strong plea for the passage of the
bill, and his presentation of the state
of affairs in Christian county
brought the Democrats into line and
many who had been wavering on the
score of courtesy to the local member
changed over and began working for
the bill. Mr.. Clark made speech af-
ter speech and appealed to the House
to defeat the bill, which he denounced
as expensive, troublesome and alto
gether unnecessary. His arguments
lost their weight when Mr.. Smith re-
piled with a statement that there
were 400 white and $500 colored
voters in the county and that the 2,SOO
negroes, aided by 700 white Repub-
licans, were in the habit of carrying
the county by from 500 to l,2O0 ma
jority and that the present nominee
for county assessor was negro.
This last statement was not believed
until Mr.. CLARK himself was forced to
admit it. Then Mr.. Thomas took the
floor and made speech in favor of
the. bill that carried conviction in
every sentence. He declared that
the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon
race must be held paramount to any
questions of courtesy and that the
people of Christian county must be
given chance to protect themselves
from floaters, repeaters and imported
negroes from other counties ard
states.
The fourteen Republicans, led by
Mr.. Langley, saw that the only chance
to defeat the bill was to fillibuster,
and began to kill time until the hour
the for orders of the day should arrive
at u o'clock. The orders of the day
cannot be dispensed with except by
two-thirds vote and a failure to dis
pose of the bill by that time would
let it drop into that graveyard of bills,
the orders of the day. Mr.. Able
moved to dispense with the orders of
the day and the motion carried by
scratch, so to "A, the Republican vote
being swelled by ten Democrats who
had measures in the orders of the
day.
The fillibusters then undertook to
prevent action before the adjournment
hour at 1;30 and piled in all sorts of
amendments and dilatory motions
and called the ayes and nays on all
of thsm that came to vote.
Mr. Clark moved to strike out "Chri T.
tian" and insert "Graves" county. Re
jected-yeas 15, nays, 81.
Mr.. Bentley moved to amend by
striking out the words christian
county" wherever they occur in the
bill and insert in lieu thereof, the
words "each county of this Common
wealth." Rejected.
Mr., Langley moved to strike out |
the enacting clause. Rejected-yeas,
IL, nays, 50.
A motion to reconsider was laid on
the table.
Mr.. Welch, at l2:45 p. m, demand
ed the main question, which was or
dered. Yeas, 64, nays, u.
Mr.. Langley moved to reconsider
the vote by which the main question
was ordered.
Mr.. w. NJ. Smith moved to lay the
motion to reconsider on the table. So
ordered-yeas, 81, nays, IA.
Mr.. Langley got the floor shortly |
after 10 o'clock and made motion to
adjourn, till ! o'clock Wednesday.
The Republicans then sent up half
dozen amendments putting the time
at 1905, 1923, 1915, HOO, etc, with
the intention of calling the ayes and
noes on each and consuming the time
till the arrival of l:30 o'clock would
drop the bill into the orders of the
day and stop its consideration. viii
Smith, Cox and Wallace passed
the word aronnd and when tho roll
was called the Democrats took the
wind out of the Rep ublican sails by
the amendment fixing the
time furthest off, which Speak,
Myers ruled should have precedence.
Mr.. Settle then moved to extend the
session until the matter was disposed
of, which was done, and the fillibust-
Prs were given another black eye. /