The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1898-03-12
TIE .SUEERAGE.

mittee, was explained TO you fully by the
chairman in his opening remarks on Friday.
last, but would state that in the first sec
ton it provides that the voter shall have
been actual bona tide resident of this
state at least two years, and of the parish
one year, and Of the ward precinct in
which he offers to vote six months next pre-
ceding the election. We all know that un-
der the old requirement. where it was only
necessary for voter to have been resident
of the ward thirty DAYS preceding election,
it was absolute impossibility to prevent
the placing of fraudulent names on the rolls,
while six months limitation enables Peo-
pie to become acquainted with their neigh
boss and to know who is and who is not en-
titled to exercise the right to vote.
The next requirement is that man at
legally enrolled Il registered voter on his
personal application, in form which has
been provided, and which requires the pos
session Of sufficient amount OF intellectual
capacity to justify the exercise of the right
of suffrage. Mind you, it does not me'eiy
require that he shall he able to scrawl his
name, but it requires that man should be
able to exhibit a fair degree Of capacity to
read, to write and to think intellgently. In
other words, he is to take blank form
given to him by the rcgi st-ar Of voters, and
before he can make use thereof he must
have the ability to read fairly well. He
must be able to write out similar form, and
to fill in the blanks in his own handwriting.
He must have a certain amount of gene raj
Intelligence or he cannot furnish the irfor-
nation called for as to where he was born,
as to the time when he came to the State, as
to his age and the various other particulars
contained in the blank.
Il shall not go great deal into detail on
these matters, because they were all dwelt
upon by the chairman of the committee, and
are thoroughly familiar to the members of
the convention, and nobody objects to them.
The nest section is No. 4, and would
state in the FIRST place that if we were look
ing to the future alone, and if this act were
to be pat in force only rc, years hence,
after the State of Louisiana should u.der
the organic law which we are about to
frame, have given TO her children the cdu-
cational opportunities which we hope that
she will hereafter give to them, mil ht
stop right here for these provisions would be
sufficient. But in view of the fact that we
have SO many people in tn: State of Louisi-
ana who have never had the opportunity at
fordcd them of acquiring All education tnat
would fit them for the higher duties OF cit!-
zenship, we believe that ;hos., people who
have passed the age when men cav usually
obtain education should be allowed to
vote under some other qualification. There
fore. the committee has provided in the al
tentative, that any who holds property
y f,a al
for the current year, or i'll case those assess
mcnt rolls be not complete, that any man
who was ase5sscl at $500 on the assessment
rolls of tn last past year, Shall have the
right TO vote, and 1t cxtcnll t.: l,-iviiess.
to any man wi, ,sc wife or wilui.. c,iil p -
sesses property assessed at Ike ti,nrc. I
can see nothing a,l>srd, I Cln see nothing
repre.,ensinlc in that provision, because,
under it, arc preserving the right Of suf
feragc to these people, who by reason of the
care which men naturally cHtcrd TO the
property of their wife, or OF their chil:l1en,
will exercise the right of suffrage with the
same amount Of discretion which they would
III alitest in the care Of their own interests
.'rhc next section, No. 5, provides that
no person who was on Jan. I, 1868, ct
any date prior thereto, entitled to vote u:,-
der the laws Of Louisiana, of any other
State Of the United States wherein they
then resided, shall be denied the right to
vote in Louisiana by reason OF h%; failure TO
possess the educational or property qua li!ica-
tons prescribed by this Constit ution, pro
vided that they have lived in the State Of
l Louisiana for five years before they apply
to register. Now, up to this point have
heard no objection to the provision. 1t is
conceded that that clause will bring in
large number of white men. l think the
number is exaggerated, bat it wiz bring in
a number of tn: veterans OF the late war,
who Tough, one side the other, and
have heard not 4 whisper of objection to the
clause in that torn. This clause also gives
the right to vote to the descendants of these
men, provided they have reached the age of
twenty-onc at the time of the adoption of
this Constitution. 1t is true, gentlemen,
that there may be some white men who will
be excluded from the right of voting, not
withstanding this clause, bat upon them we