Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-01-14

lector, or no other of Gods creatures
could prevent any man from exercising
the right of voting. He spoke of
several States where the tax qualifica-
tion is not necessary, and held up
Pennsylvania as horrible example OF
States where there is tax qualifica-
tion. He dwelt with emphasis on the
frauds at the recent shrievalty fight in
Philadelphia.
Mr.. Biggs called attention to the
provision that person shall be citi-
zen for three months, which is not in
| the present Constitution, and asked
Mr.. Spruance, as spokesman for the
committee, for what reason such pro-
vision was inserted.
| Mr.. Spruance said he would reply to
the question later. He continued on his
line Of argument in favor of the re-
port. He took up the registration
feature, and said that he had been ad-
vised by prominent Democratic law
yer, in view Of the completeness of the
registration, to advocate abolition of
the poll tax qualification. After quoting
from the Constitution Of the State OF
New York. the speaker asserted that
the essential features CT the New York
law had been incorporated in the pro-
posed amendment, including the
clause. "a citizen for three months, -
which had been spoken of by Mr. Biggs.
Mr.. Salisbury asked why change
from the present Constitution had
been suggested, to which Mr.. Spruance
replied, "Oh! don't care anything
about the old Constitution. We are
making a new Constitution. ~
| Mr.. Biggs could not understand why
A ...Az 4 x.,.I-. a
naturalized three months before an
election, even il a person had been a
resident for 40 years.
Mr.. Spruance replied that the reason
was the same reason for which the
| Castle county, to wit: That the
naturalization mills should not be
kept grinding up to the hour of voting.
He asserted that in the rush incident
| to the last hours there had been
| fraudulent registration, and the object
| was to prevent anything of the kind.
In regard to the proposition to re-
quire 3O.days' residence in an election
| district, Mr.. SpruanIe said that the
| idea was to prevent colonization for
| election purposes.
Mr.. Biggs said the matter had been
regulated by legislative enactment, to
| which Mr.. Spruance replied that he
was not sure that such Legislative
enactment was not unconstitutional,
| and ii was his desire to fix the matter
| SO that the Legislature would have
nothing to do with it; take it out of
the hands of the Legislature.
Mr.. Cooper defined the word "citi-
zen'' as used in the report, and con.
cluded by stating that "citizen of
the United States" is meant He
spoke of the vast difference in the
matter OF naturalization between New
York, where there are SO any migrants,
and Delaware where there is COM
pararively small number. He thought
it would be an unnecessary hardship
to impose the three months restriction
on people coming here from other
countries. He was favorable to Mr..
Sausbury's amendment. While he
would not insist on poll tax for vot.
ing, he was in favor of a uniform
personal tax, to be collected at the reg
istration. Mr.. Cooper suggested an
amendment making a requirement for
registration that person registering
must first have paid the entire amount
of tax due. He held that a person
who cannot read or write, or who only
pays a trifiing registration fee, as
some had proposed, has no earthly
connection with the government He
is simply a hvater.
Mr.. Salisbury formally withdrew his
first amendment and offered two others,
which on his motion, were consigned
to the table for further consideration.
The puprose of the amendments was
to change three months naturaliza-
tion to three weeks, and to insert,
after the residence qualification, the
words ''and who shall have complied
with the conditions hereinafter pre-
scribed."
Mr.. Gilchrist offered, as an amend.
ment, the following additional seution:
'tSection 3. From and after January
lst, 1900, no person shall have the right
to vote, or be eligible TO office under
the Constitution Of this State, who
shall not be able to read the Constitu-
tion in the English language, and write
his name; provided. however, that the
provisions of this section shall not
apply to any person prevented by a
physical disability from complying
with its requisitions, nor to any person
who now has the right to vote.
"The provisions of this section shall
hlhO Db dpplICuDib " all DGrSOub WHO
shall hereafter become citizens of this
State.
The amendment was referred to the
committee on elections, after type
written copies were ordered for the use
of mem bers of the convention.
Adjournment was made until .
o'clock.
j. Edward Addicks dropped in on
the convention at the afternoon session
There being no other business, thu
convention resolved itself into COM
mittee OF the whole forN the further
consideration Of the report of the com
mittee on elections, which was under
consideration at the morning session.
MIR. Moore was calleG to the chair.
Mr.. Bradford made q motion to sub
stitute the word estate" for "United
States" in the first line of the second
paragraph quoted above, acquiring
that in order to vote person must be |
Il citizen of the State.
MIR. Bradford explained that to be
citizen of a State must necessarily be
a citizen of the United States. He
quoted lthorities in substantiation OF |
his contention. A man to be citizen
of State, must. in addition to being !
a resident of State, have been born |
or naturalized In the United States.
He held that such substitution would |
not in any way affect persons who had |
been naturalized. He thought the |
change would make the matter per-
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