Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-20
APPROXIMATION FEARED.
MISSISSIPPI ALARMED AT THE INCREASE
OF THE NEGRO POPULATION.

Methods Suggested Of Centering Power In
the Hands of the whites-A Republican
Plan for the Qualification of Voters Pre-
scented.
JACKSON, MISS, August 19.-The usual
batch of amendments regulating suffrage was
submitted to the Constitutional Convention
to-day, but no new features were presented,
except in the resolutions offered by Delegate
Paxton, of Washington, and Delegate
Thompson. of Lincoln. Paxton's resolution
reads as follows: -------,
Resolved. First-That the rapid increase of
negro popuIarlon in the Yazoo delta threatens
Africanization of the State of Mississippi
Second-That the threatened danger will be
most safely met by apportionment OF represents
tiou as VIII vest the power OF tne Stabe IN "nite
Third-Assuming that the membership of the
House of Representatives is reduced to 100,
resolved to MAINTAIN white supremacy and con-
se0uent good government in the State of Mis-
sissipp il is essential that the several counties
in the Yazoo delta be limited to one member in
the House of Representatives.
Fourth-That to permanently maintain good
local government in said counties it is essen
tial that all county offices be filled by Execn-
tive appointment, as the Governor may be ad-
vised by primary nominating conventions regu-
lated by law.
As Delegate Paxton is a representative OF
one of the counties where the negro largely
outnumbers the whites his resolution is re-
parded as indicative of a willingness on the
part of the people he represents to make po-
Iitical sacrifices in order to avert negro
supremacy.
Delegate Thompson's proposition is that
the State be divided into IL grand political
divisions, composed of six or seven counties
each, which divisions shall eacn elect ten
representatives and two Senators to serve in
the State Legislature; that all State officers
shall be elected by IL State electors ap-
pointed by the aforesaid IL grand political
divisions.
Delegate McLaurin, of Rankin, raised
laugh by offering an amendment providing
that no person convicted of wife beating
shall hereafter be qualified elector. This
resolution is based on the theory that many
negroes are wife beaters.
The views of the Republican members Of
the convention are probably indicated by
the plan OF suffrage submitted to-day by
Judge Simrall, of Vicksburg, who was
Chief Justice of Mississippi under Republi-
can rule. Judge Simrall's plan provides as
qualification for voters a residence of two
years in the State, one year in the county
and the payment of poll tax. It also pre-
scribes the Australian system as the method
under which all elections shall be held.
The most important business vet transacted
by the convention was the passage of
resolution providing that the judiciary COM
mittee be requested to make special report
to this convention at as early day as pos
sible, upon the effect of the act of Congress
readmitting Mississippi into the Union,
limiting the right of Mississippi to impose
certain restrictions upon the right of fran
chise, and otherwise prohibiting the State
from changing the constitution of the State
of Mississippi adopted in 1889, SO far as the
said act shall affect the work Of the conven-
ton,