The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-01-30
MISSISSIPPI MATTERS.
Resolutions Praying for the Annull-
ment OF the Fifteenth Amendment.

Resolutions Praying for the Annals
ment Of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Following is verbatim report of the
memorial submitted to the House of Repre-
sentatives by Gen. A. NJ. West, Of Marshall
county:
Memorial to the Congress Of the United States
by the Legislature of the State of Missis-
sippi upon the Fifteenth Amendment of
the Federal Constitution.
Twenty years have elapsed since the ne
gro was enfranchised. The fact was viewed
aud will ever stand one Of the most nota-
BILE and profound in the history of the Gov
ernment, without precedent or parallel.
The end sought first required that a recog-
nized jurisdiction of the States, that a suf-
frage should be appropriated by the Fed
eral power, which end. was so revolution
airy and far-reaching that it was regarded
with doubt so grave that it would not have
been attempted except at the time imme-
diately succeeding a great civil war. 1t
could not have been accomplished by any
usual and ordinary course of legislation.
1t was in direct opposition to the united
white sentiment of the Southern States,
and, it is believed, contrary to the judg-
ment of the philosophic craftsmanship
North. Originating in such circumstances
and with such attendants, the eresults Of the
act would be most worthy of consideration
and declaration after fair test, even were
these ordinary. But the conditions pro-
duced, the future impending, the discussion
evoked, imperatively demand expression
from those entrusted with the public good.
The discussion of the negro in politics has
so absorbed and enlightened the public
minds Of the whole country that detailed
statement is unnecessary. 1t is only in
cumbent upon US to sum up the conclu-
sions fairly and justly derivable from the
lessons of the past. Upon these, all agree
that negro suffrage has failed in the theory
and practice; that the effort to correlate the
races as equals in citizenship is utterly
vain and mischevous to the last degree.
II has been attended all along its whole
course with strife, blood and manifold ills,
both materially and morally. So far from
endowing the weaker race with protection
against the stronger the ballot has pro-
voked discord and conflict in which he is
ever the sufferer. Estranging the races, it
has taken from the blacks something strong
and certain on which to lean and depend /;
it has hardened and turned away the
whites from protecting the blacks from
wrong and rendered Intellectual appeals to
their manhood which in the olden time
were never disregarded savein exceptional
cases. In all his history the negro has
never shown moral progress except by
kindly associations with the whites. This
DESTROYED, and his retrogression, involving
ruin to the country, is most probable. 1t has
kept alive and intensified sectional i'll will,
which saps patriotism, fosters corruption,
makes easy the sway of oppression and
wrong. 1t is working to a state of demor-
alization, and has produced methods OF
political practices which will surely de-
ceive and keep good men out of the South
and prevent the free and unrestrained in
tercourse which should ever exist between
brethren of one common country and ma
tional destiny. Weighed against these
effects and fearful portents is the single
consideration to the South of certain in
crease of Federal and national representa-
ton. This is of absolutely no comparative
consequence, and is freely offered in sur
render AS enfranchisement of the negro
has proved the main cause of race discord,
we may reasonably expect its abrogatisn
to lead to at least partial restoration of
the old-time race concord Therefore be it
Resolved, by the Legislature of the State
of Mississippi, That it is the deliberate
opinion of the said Legislature that the
fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of
the United States should be annulled, and
the said Legislature doth hereby petition
Congress to take the necessary steps to that
end. Be it further
Resolved, That our Senators In Congress
be, and they are hereby instructed, and
our Representatives in Congress be, and
they are hereby requested, to present this
application and petition to their respective
bodies for their consideration and action.
Be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of State
forward certified copies of the above
preamble and resolutions to each of our
Senators and Representatives in the Con-
gress of the United States, and certified
COPY to the Governor of each State in the
Union, with q request to have them read
In their respective Legislatures.