Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-02

democratic success. I am bound to say
 that restricting the primary to the white vote of Jefferson county is great mis- l take. There are some democratic rte-
 groes and against these the national and state democracy have drawn no color l line. Under our state and national laws
 there is no distinction. It is votes you
 want. Shall we rule out intelligent c6i- l ored teachers? As Bessemers represen- l tative you must not do this unless you wish to hand us over (Bessemer is a1z
 ready handed oveD to a party and prin-
 ciples opposed to us. It is not necessary to exclude the negro. I say do not rule | out anyone" | Prof. I. w. McAdory-We want to do | what is best. We want to unite all our 1 people; all our white people. I am cogni- 1 zant of the state of affairs existing in 1 this county. My experience with con- | trolling the negro vote is not happy. We have never gained anything in working | for the negro vote. Negroes as a race | go to the republican party. Negroes | whom we have supported in their old age | have gone to the polls in our beat No. i l and, over our entreaties killed our vote | with theirs. I don't know any demo- cratic negroes I know some who have | been paid to work for the party and have always doubted the advisability of | that action. I move the section be adopt l ed as it reads.
 $. D. Weakley-Mr. Chairman: I came here as a member of this committee to participate in quiet way in it's delbera- tions, not desiring or expecting that oc- casion would arise for any remarks from me as to the action that should be taken. The discussion which has arisen at this point suggests, however, that I may say something that will not be untimely- something that may shed light upon the question under consideration. The vital question second committees report consists in the use of the word white, the remainder of it being but reiteration of the qualifications adopted by the state executive commit tee for participants in our primaries. which qualifications the committee is powerles to change. The real question presented by the paragraph is whether we shall or shall. not exclude negroes from voting in our party election. Two years ago a member of this committee raised the point, which he asked us to decide, that under the language of the then call of the state committee negroes who had heretofore voted for certain democratic nominees would be entitled to vote in the beat meetings held to se- lect delegates to the county convention. The words used then were "all qualified voters' (which was certainly broad enough to include negroes), who had voted our ticket at the named elections; and from this he argued that there was no authority to exclude them. The sug- gestion was ridiculed by this committee. which put the proposition aside without any formal action upon the ground that it was unworthy of serious consideration. It was said by members here that in view of the history of our party in Ala bama--in view of our cardinal principle of Caucasian supremacy-the word white | could be easily supplied; that by necesT sary implication the call must be cohz strued as if it meant these, and it's omis- sion was said to be due to the fact that no one supposed any one would contest that 1t was designed to invite negroes into the primaries, particularly since they were not accustomed to take part | in making our nominations. The failure | to express this entirely was likened unto