The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-21
The Mississippi Plan of Re-
stricting Suffrage.

Washington, ID. c.. Dec 20.-(Edito-
rial Correspondence Mississipp was
the pioneer Southern State to restrict
suffrage. After the war, it was the
only State in which the negroes had un-
restrained power. They elected the only
negro ever chosen to the United States
Senate The conditions in State affairs
were so deplorable that the alternative
was presented to the white men of the
State of leaving it or turning the negro
out of power. Senator George was the
Moses who led the people into the prom
ised land of government by white men.
Mississippi under his leadership threw
off the yoke and other Southern States
followed. The negroes in some counties
had a numerical majority of ten to one,
but as Henry Grady truly said:
1.-THE negro vote can never control in
the South. have seen the white peo-
pie of a State set about by black hosts
until their fate seemed sealed. But some
brave man, banding them together.
would rise, as Elisha rose in beleaguered
Samaria, and touching their eyes with
fifth, bid them look abroad to see the
very air filled with chariots of Israel
and the horsemen thereof If there is
any human force that cannot be with
stood, it is the power of the banded in
teligence and responsibility of a free
community. Against it. numbers and
corruption cannot prevail. 1t is the
inalienable right of every community
the just and righteous safeguard against
an ignorant or corrupt suffrage"
After years of white rule. secured by
rigid registration and the suppression of
the negro majority by various means,
again under the leadership of the la
mented Senator George the people of
Mississippi decided to restrict suffrage
by a Constitutional enactment rather
than by the measures hitherto employed.
John Allen says that prior to the adop-
tion of the new Constitution, it was the
custom of the Democrats every election
morning to fire off cannon to let the
people know that they were going to
have q fair election. This was said in
joke, but there were occasions when
blood-shed followed upon the bitter con-
tests that waged between the white
mans party and the negro party.
Senator George was~a statesman who
knew that the long continued friction
| between the races ought to be averted
and he came to the conclusion that it
could be effectively done only by a Con-
| stitutional provision eliminating the mass
| of ignorant negro voters in the State.
| For Senator George to think that a
| thing ought to be done was TO do it. He
| was more like Vance than any man |
| have known. He always struck from
| the shoulder and went to work in a
| straightforward manner to secure what
| ever measures he thought necessary to
Mississippi's welfare. When he became
convinced that Constitutional measure
restricting suffrage was necessary he
| came out and declared in favor of it.
| Ex-Governor Sims, of Mississippi,
| speaking to me once about the faith of
| the people in Senator George said that
| "they voted for convention solely be-
cause George said they ought to have
| it. | asked George what could be done
| limiting suffrage, and he replied that he
| hardly knew, but there must be remedy
| for the Ills and that the convention would
| find it. Upon this faith in him, we all
/ advocated u convention, and when its
work was finished, our faith was justi-
J fled in the wisdom of its action
! Mississippi is not only the first State
| that restricted suffrage by Constitutional
regulation. 1t is the only Southern State
which has eliminated the ignorant negro
where the Supreme Court has declared