The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-08-31
THE MISSISSIPPI CONVENTION

There has rarely, if ever, assembled In the
South a deliberativc body that has dealt
with subjects of greater public importance
than the convention now in session at Jack
| son. Mississippi. Certainly, no convention
that has met in the Southern States since the
civil war has surpassed ii in the urgency
and weightiness of the issues under dis
tional conventions Of the reconstruction
age, for those hybrid assemblies performed
= work which, from the very nature of
things. was necessarily merely temporary.
1t was just as if they had come together to
proclaim as part of the organic law of the
Southern States that water should run in
opposition TO the attraction of gravtation,
or that intelligence and virtue should pa
tiently submit 10 the control of vice and ig-
nOrance.
The purposes Of this Mississippi cOnven-
ton are practicable and feasible, and not
visionary and Unstable. 1t is true that the
problem which it is called upon to solve is
an extremely difficult one to settle with an
equitable regard for every conflicting inter
est. 1t may be thought by many that the
greatest evils Of an enormous negro popula-
ton, like that which now overruns Missis-
sippi, will remain as long as that population
is to be found there, and that the curtall-
ment of the right of suffrage, 50
far as this population is concerned, is
a temporizing rather than a remedial
act. All this may be so, but it does not
lessen the wisdom embodied in the determi-
nation of the people Of Mississippi to sum
mon the convention TO alter the existing
condition Of affairs.
The Committee on the Elective Franchise
have Just agreed upon plan which they
propose at once to report to the Convention.
The main features of this plan are modi-
fed form of the Australian ballot law, a
residence of two years in the state and Of
one in the voting precinct, the prepayment
OF pOll-taX of two dollars, a qualified
woman suffrage, and an educational quail
iicatiOn. Whether the report of the Elective
Franchise Committee will be adopted III full
or in part remains to be seen. The prOba-
bilties are that it will be adopted in full,
which would seem to be the wisest course,
rs throwing the greatest number of barriers
around the ballot as protection against an
ignorant and vicious suffrage. The prop
erty qualification, which was under advise
ment by the committee was very properly
rejected as not being as eXpedent as the
educational qualification which has now
been recommended.
One of the most excellent features of the
plan of the committee is the requirement
that each voter shall have resided one year
in the precinct where he seeks to cast his
ballot. This alone would have a very i'm
portant effect in diminishing the number OF
cOlored voters on account of their we'll
known disposition to change their domiciles
very often. The provision for a prepayment
OF a poll tax will, if adopted, curtail the
volume of white suffrage, and the same thing
can be said of the educational qualification
There So however, no single method thai
cal - suggested that is not open to serious
objections, and on the whole, the combina-
ton Of provisions proposed by the Elective
Franchise Committee is much better adapt
cd to meet all the difficulties of the situa-
ton than any one provision advanced.