The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1890-03-22
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
GLADSTONE, Miss, March s.
,IFOR RoTTVAR REVIEW

esteem, nave asked Tor my views upon
issues likely to come before the Con-
stiiuiional Convention. So long out
Of the run of your public affairs, my
lot is that of veritable Rip Van
Wihkle, only fate has dealt more gently
with me than with the historic old
knickerbocker
| awake to my old haunts with feel
ings only of delight and highest hope,
for there stretches out TO my vision
the boundless promise of a future
never dreamt of IN the days of old
Bolivar.
However, am not lost in the amaze
ment. | recall glimpses had of such
things from the prophetic forecasting
of your peerless Percy-whose social
character was the very poetry ofhuman
nature and craftsmanship, a constant
equation of the political forces. And
when look around me, his absence
casts gloom and would almost alone
reconcile me to the interruption of my
citizenship in the Delta. But | see
brave hearts and able hands taking up
his work and the possibilities in reach
Danish serious apprehension for wise
solution of the problems which con-
front an irresistible destiny. First,
the public mind seems to give primacy
to the suffrage question, and the
danger may be in the desire for too
radical remedy. But one of your most
prominent citizens, in New York
Herald interview the other day, stated
a momentous fact when he said "You
need not send the negroes to the
Congo. Let them come as they are
coming. to us; we will give them good
homes and educational facilities all to
hand and make them contented and
prosperous This is Il condition no
other country in the known world can
guarantee TO thriftless impecunlous
race, and speaks volumes for the final
adjustment of what is called the race
probem-in which the principal ele-
ment of difficulty is pestiferous inter-
meddling from those not in contact
with II.
The suggestions already made in the
press of longer county aud precinct
residence with poll tax receipt of the
year previous to voting as prerequi-
sites for the exercise of the franchise,
seem TO my mind TO be eminently
wise. 1t is but right the ballot box
should be rescued from the debauchery
consequent upon unqualified negro
suffrage. Nor can there be an reason
able objection, for the exercise of the
Americans prondest privilege, to at
least sufficient period of residence to
establish the identity of the voter.
Besides such policy will tend TO give
stability and local interest to the
industrial classes OF course, the bulk
of the negro vote will remain un-
touched; but the standard of the
franchise will be raised with its accom-
panylng responsibility of citizenship.
A moderate educational qualification,
too, would promote the same end. II
the State mdcrgoes the expense of
establishing schools for the education
of all her children, 1t is but right she
should expect some compensatory re-
turn in the increased safety of the
public welfare, or at least from those
who claim to share in its control.
Connected with this question, is also
the better security for an honest, un-
biastd ballot by the adoption of the
australian or secret official ballot
! system, which is in the line, likewise,
of an educational qualification. But
this latter appendix is a matter to be
carefully weighed and decided upon by
the assembled wisdom of the conven-
tion, or best, TO be 50 left that then II
can be relegated to the Legislature
and would not note il down as
automatic to be adopted under all
circumstances and conditions. The
State of Mississippi Is more peculiarly
conditioned in its social and political
needs than almost any State In the
Union, by reason of its territorial con
formation and wide difference in the
conditions of its industrial pursuits.
Next comes-also already suggested
in the press--some higher standard
for the administration of legal justice
The need of the betterment of oul
magistracy is too obvious for discus.
sion. 1t has heretofore been toe
much used as a leverage of compro
mise with ignorance and crime. Then
comes up the higher judiciary ques
ton, which will depend, TO a grea
extent, upon measures adopted fol
purifying the suffrage; and must de-
maud thorough interchange of th,
views of the assembled representative
of the whole State.
The public is already sufficiently
, alive to the Importance of having the
very best material In the Convention
and | think no citizen has the right tC
sink his patriotism, in this suprem,
emergency, for any consideration oi
private interest alone.
have only one other suggestion tc
make-there should be able represen.
tatives of those interests which are
most depressed | mean the farming
interests. While wealth is being piled
up in our country, as TO be the marve
of all other countries-from Maine tC
Texas, California TO Florida there il
the same unrest among the farming
classes. The new Constitution SHOULD
be rock-ribbed against the formation
Of large trusts aud combinations O
wealth for control of the manufactures
transportation of the prime necessariei
of life, whereby the buying and selling
pricess in the markets for the massel
are arbitrarily fixed. Recent legisla
tion in other States are driving th,
trusts into the form of corporations
Such corporations should be prohibi
ted or controlled at the very source o
their origin. Carved out ofthe States
sovereignty or dependant upon such a
are, they seem ever grasping after ex
emptions and special privileges, and t
regard it their mission to prey upoi
the more modest industries Of thi
land.
But this communication is alread,
growing too long to be read, and il
conclusion, with word of good chez
10 my old friends--to the young, up OF
whom rests the moral responsibility tl