Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1890-12-22

plexion have We come 1t last. Have We
fallen on . condition in our country that
calls for preservation by Law Of the purity
Of the ballot at the North. but that We
must stop at Mason and Dixon's hae. be-
cause public opinion in the South 10 In
favor of dishonest ard fraudulent and vic-
lent suppression of the suffrage: cannot
believe IL
Spooner spoke for over nve hosrs, and
his speech vas listened to with marked
attention and interest on both sides of the
chamber.
George said he vas not in the chamber
while the
Constitution OF HIS Stats
had been under discussion, and could not
now reply to Spooner's remarks. But be
would do 20 in good time, and in . way
that would remove the iuputstions made
on the constitution by Spooner today and
BY Dolph some days ago. He would shov
ample p,eee5ents for ii in the constitu-
TORS al present-of other States.
Edmunds asksd George to name some
of the States now.
Gesfae-I3aho is one; Connecticut 10
one. and think Vermont is one.
Edmunds-Not at all.
Iugalls thought it important that some
light should be shed on the subject to which
George proposed to address himself, and he
would therefore read some extracts from
speeches of delegates to the Missippi con-
yentioD, and from editorials Of local papers,
on the subject of the qualifications ~ to the
ability to read or explain clauses of the
constitution. He sffirmed il As his under
siarding and belief, and as the conviction
of the great mass Of the people of the North,
that the constitutional convention of Mis-.
sissippi had been assembled for the avowed
purpose of disfrsnchisiug . majority Of its
citizens who were also citizens of the
United States. 1t had been assembled for
the express purposs Of nullifying and de.
fes,irg and overthrowing the amendments
to the constitution of the United States, by
agreeing to which the State of Mississippi
bad secured its readmission into the Union.
Addressing his remarks to Southern Sem
ators. Ingalls, said that their people had re-
tanned representation in the House of Rep
rssentatives and in the ELECTORAL college
while they had suppressed the colored vote
they had violated the contract. They had
retained the representation which had given
them for IA years supremacy in the House
of Representatives and had on two occa-
sions
Thwa warted the Will OF the People
BY placing on one of those occasions. in
the Presidential chair q man who had new
er been elected to the office in any fair and
Just sense any more than the Khan of Tar
tsry or the Car of Russia.
ingalls, thereupon read from the Jackson
Clarion Ledger report of some remarks
made by delegate at the convention on
the qualification clause, which clause he
understood to have been the invention Of
George himself, and which was not like
anything in the heavens above or 10 the
earth beneath, or in the waters under the
earth. He thought it subject to a patent
for novelty. He also read many extracts
from Vicksburg and other journals in con-
demnstion of the clause
Eimunds asked Ingalls, whether thst ia
nous convention had been called in &C.
cordance with ehe constitution of the State
of Mississippi, and whether the result of its
deliberstior had been submitted TO the peo-
pie.
Ingalls, replied that he knew nothing
about the way of its being called, but he
was advised, and he believed that, contrary
to the usual course pursued in such cases
in free communities, its results were not
submitted to the people to be voted upon
1t had been arranged, some way, to have il
declared the organic law of the State, with
out any action on the part of the voters. In
no other way could the adoption of such a
monstrous, tyrsnnical and despotic device
ever been imposed upon people claiming
to be free
Edmunds added that the convention came
into existence by methods entirely outside
of the constitution Of the state. which pro-
vded particular way for its own amend
ment
Higgins obtained the floor. The confer
ence report on the bill for the public build
ing at Kansas City, Mo-, was presented, and
agreed to.
The Senate went into executive session,
and then adjourned.