The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1895-10-17

report, GnaG even removes tllS pdIoob-
ing power two years hence, and re-
quires O. strict educational and prop
erty qualification to become voter.
Read it carefully, and then tell me
now this comedies with the pledge that
B. r. Tillman made the people, that
If they would call constitutional con-
ventiOn and trust him that no white
man should be disfranchiZed
Amy person who shall apply for
registration after January 1st, 1898, If
otherwise qualified, may be register
Cd Provided, That he Can both read
and write any section of this constitu-
tion, or can show that he owns and has
paid taxes during the previous year on
property in this State assessed at $500
or more.
managers of election shall require
OF every elector Offering to vote at
any election, before allowing him to
vote, proof OF the payment of all taxes,
including poll tax assessed against him
for the previous year.
Let the convention adopt this report,
and after Janua'y 1st, 1893, only two
years hence, q voter must both read
and write any section Of the constitu-
tiOn, or show that he owns and pays
taxes on $500 worth of property. Ever
the right to pardon in this section is
denied. The blackest convict in our
penitentiary can have his disabilities
removed by tho Governor, but the
honest, but poor and illiterate white
voter must remain disfranchiZed.
Now, let me ask what will become Of
those thousands of poor white boys, IS
years of age, now living in our State,
and whose purenGs are too poor to give
them an education, or endOw them
with $500 worth of property. They
are already enlisted on the side of the
Refol IN move ment, and while too
young to vote have thrown up their
hands and cheered and worked for the
election, success of Tillman, myself
and other Reform candidates. These
youths are the coming voters who
must uphold our Reform principles,
and continue our party in power. But
they are struck down to q man with
the most ignorant class of negroes,
and their right to Il voice in the gov
ernment Of their native State taken
from them.
" Let this law pass, giving educated
and property owing negroes the right
to vote, but denying the poor unletter-
cd white man that high privilege, and
you Will see our ballot boxes saturated
VIII blood. In two years time you
can, educate every white youth in
oouJn Ca"ollua both to read and write,
Tor the impoverished condition of
thousands of poor white farmers and
laborers will not permit them to spare
the time of their sons to go to school,
And then, what is the result? Their
oallot Is taken away from them, and
they Will have no more voice in the
government of this State than the
nit4llle that they plow or dumb cattle
that tread"pur. highways. They must
stand off and look >on, while the edu-
Gated or property-OwnTNg negroes, liv-
ing in our towns and cities, are help.
ing to rule and govern our State, and
are making laws for those poor white
mon to live under.
I'm lS61-'65, when those poor white
men were being urged to the front, the
question was never asked, could vol
unteer read or write? or did he own
$500 worth Of property? Neither were
those conundrums eXpounded in 1876,
when those poor and unlettered Demo
cratic voters donncd the red shirt and
rescued the government Of our State
from the negro and Republican. And
IN 1890, when Tillman was preaching
political equality before the pcoplc,
pleading with those poor uneducated
white men for their votes, he did not
then ask did they have $500 worth of
property, or could they read the con-
stitution of their State understanding
ly? But now that neither his life
blood nor his vote is needed. he must
be struck down-thrown aside like a
sucked lemon, or passed through u
political inquisition.
"I dcnounce that report Of tho
Right of Suffrage Committee, of
which Senator Tillman is chairman.
monstrous and for our Reformers in
tho convention to pass any such law
would he the basest treachery and the
dcepest-dyed ingratitude. When that
report is brought before the c0nven-
tlon | shall fight it to the bitter end.
l don't believe it will pass-.I know
that it should never pass. I pledged
the poor and uncducated white meI
OF South Carolina that would protect
them in their right TO vote, and pro.
tect them / will, or [ will go down in
defeat and humiliation with them.
The right Of suffrage is the high
est privilege accorded free-bOrn
American citzen, and no degrading
conditions should bo coupled with this
right.
Bnt it Ia claimed that such provis-
ions are necessary topreserve white su-
prcmacy in South Carolina. Now,
will prove to you, and to every intolli-
gent and thinking man, that so far
from the adoption OF Senator Tillman's
report by the convention preserving
white supremacy that it will have q
directly opposite effect, and make Of
the negro a political arbiter in our
State, and vest in his hands the
balance OF power. With fresh right
OF franchise the negro leaders will go
70 work and marshal at least fifty
tboI.sund legal voters. They claim
that there are 72,000 blacks in South
Carolina who can read and write, but
there are undoubtedly fifty thousand
negroes who san vote under this pro-
posed provisionH> The Conservatives
now have bctw6cli'>, thirty-iiye and
forty thousand voters, Az OF whom Will
be qualified for Suffrage, j. vile ~ T Cne
| Reform vote number $4,000. ~ our or
| Reform ranks there are at least 15,6VVo
men who can not read or write. De-
| prive them Of their suffrage, and the
| two factions are then nearly equal,
| with the negro vote larger than either
one. This would give the electoral
vote OF South Carolina, divided as our
whites are, to the Rcoublicun candi.