The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-29
Iississlppl EIection Aaws valid.


The Supreme Court of the United States
has affirmed the validity of the election
laws of Mississippi under the new consti-
tuition of that state. 1t will Toe remem-
bered that the constitutional convention
went 70 work boldly 70 frame such provis-
ions as would prevent the state from fall
ing into the hands of the ignorant, cor
rupt and vicious as a result of the cleo
tons; in other words, to eliminate the
black voter as a source of public danger
A very diffcult task was before the consti-
luton makers, but it appears from the
successful test before the highest court
of the country of the statutes carrying
the purpose of the constitution into effect
that the problem was successfully solved
The matter came before the Supreme
Court in the case of Henry Williams VS.
the state of Mississippi The plaintiff, a
colored man, had been indicted for murder
by a jury composed entirely of white men,
He asked that the indictment
be quashed upon the ground
that the laws under which the jury
was selected were unconstitutional
and repugnant to the spirit and letter of
the Fourteenth amendment. The laws of
the state require that the juror must be
an elector, and the plaintiff claimed that
the Discrimination against colored voters
carried on under the constitution of the
state necessarily prevented The selection
of any Of his own race as members of
the jury, thus depriving him of the equal
protection of the laws of the state.
The opinion was written by Justice Nc
Kenna, He holds that neither the consti-
tuition nor the laws enacted under il dis
eliminate directly against the negro race
He quotes the Supreme Court of Missssip
pi showing that the constitutional conven-
ton, restrained by the federal constitu-
ton from discriminating against the race
Disseminated against the characteristics of
the race and those offenses to which its
criminal members are prone. Besides
says Justice McI<enna "the operations of
The constitution and laws are not limited
by their language or effects to one race
They reach weak and vicious white men
as well as weak and vicious black men,
and whatever is sinister in their intention
if anything, can be prevented by both
races by the exertion of that duty which
voluntarily pays taxes and refrains from
crime. These laws do not on
their face, discriminate between the races
and it has not been shown that their adj
min.straton was evil, only that evil was
possible under them"
This decision is of interest to all of the
Southern states which are face to face
with the race problem in politics. 1t
shows that in order to purify the ballot
il is not necessary to discriminate against
the black race in the laws or their admin
istration, but against the ignorance, weak
nesses and and vices which
make men unfit to have
voice in the management of the
affairs Of the commonwealth. Those blacks
who measure up to the standard of intel
hgence, honesty and public duty are not
prohibited from voting in Mississippi, and
by e,evaung themselves to the require
ments of that standard all the blacks may
become voters, without objection on the
part of the whites.
The friends of ballot reform in the South
win find much encouragement in this de-
cision of the Supreme Court, since it in
dicates how fair, open and honest elections
may be mad in which intelligence shall
dominate the decision at the polls
----s--a-s-