The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-30
A Constitutional Question.

A Constitutional Question.
Demonstration of theUnitedStates pro-
vides, in the fourteenth amendment, that
when the right to vote is denied to any
male inhabitant of state, or is in any way
/ abridged except for crime, the basis OF rep
resentation in that state shall be reduced
to the proportion which the number of
such male citizens shall bear TO the whole
number of male citizens over twenty-one
years of age.
The question is being agitated whether
this does not apply to the case of Missis-
sippi, which has provided in a recent
amen dment to its constitution new
qualification for the exercise OF the cleo
tive franchise. Some Republican papers
take the ground that it does, legally and
equitably, but that it is not likely Con-
gress will act on the matter, and also that
the national constitution provides no
method or machinery for the enforcement
of the fourteenth amendment. But it is
claimed that by this abridgment of the
right of suffrage to large number Of
male citizens, the Congre ssionai repre-
sentation OF Mississippi should be re-
duced by at least four members.
1t seems to THE HERALD that this is a
mistaken view of the matter. If the pro-
vision in the Mississippi constitution ap
plies to all the male citizens as qualif-
cation for the suffrage, there is nothing
in the national constitution which
clashes with it. viii it be pretended
that state has no power to change it's
qualifications for voters? Is it not one of
the undisputed rights of the respective
states to prescribe such qualifications as
they each consider proper? If property
qualification exists in Rhode Island, may
not an educational qualification be estab-
lished in Mississippi?
If the fourteenth amendment is in
tended to give every male citizen in all
the states the right to vote, irrespective
of any state regulation or qualification,
it is time it should be so understood. We
do not think any competent court has
ruled to that effect or would SO decide if
appealed to.
The fourteenth amendment was de-
signed to protect the colored citizen in
his franchise, no doubt. But his qualifi-
cations must be the same under the law
as those of the white citizen. If he does
not possess them that is not the fault
of the law. That state legislatures may
change those qualifications subject, OF
course to the state constitution, we believe
has been iudicially determined by the
court of last resort. And that the people
of state may change the constitutional
qualifications for voting of their own
state, under prescribed regulations for
making the change, we presume not even
the most radical Republican paper of any
standing will deny. That being so, Mis-
sissippi has not overstepped the bounds
of its rights, and the colored people must
either come up to the common standard
or be rejected as voters.
1t is considered by good many
thoughtful people that an educational
qualification should be imposed on voters
IN every state of the Union. But if this
was done it ought to be the work. of the
several states acting in harmony but also
acting individually. The less the general
I government interferes with this right OF
the respective states the better it will be
for all concerned. Mississippi has done
nothing, SO far as we can see, to cause
any deprivation OF her constitutional
light to representatives apportioned to
the whole number of her inhabitants.