The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-08
REDUCTION OF CONGRESSIONAL REPRE-.
SENTATl0N.


ably submit to the voters Of our State
at next next regular election in 1900, {
proposition to amend our State Consti
tuition with view of restricting free
suffrage, it is interesting to inquire what
effect, if any, such amendment might
have in reducing our representation in
the lower House of Congress, and III
the Presidential electoral college. LIE,
us look at this subject apart from its
mere political effect within our own
State, and apart from its effect upon our
State and municipal governments.
The second section of the XIV Amend
ment to the United States Constitution,
which is amendatory of clause 8, Sec.
ton ., Article /, of that instrument, is
the only provision of law relating to this
subject, and that section of the NV
Amendment reads as follows:
Article XIV, Section .. Representa-
tives shall be apportioned among the
several States according to their respec-
Der of persons in each State, excluding
Indians not taxed. But when the RICH
to vote at any election for the choice
Of electors for President and Vice-Pres
ident of the United States, representa-
tives in Congress, the executive and jul
dicial officers of a State, or the mem
bers of the Legislature thereof. is denied
to any of the male inhabitants Of such
State, being twenty-one ears of age, and
citizens of the United States, or in any
way abridged, except for participation
in rebellion. or other crime, the basis Of
representation shall be reduced in the
proportion in which the number Of such
male citizens shall bear to the whole
number of male citizens twenty-one
years of age in such State"
Now the scope and purpose of this
provision is manifest, as follows:
/. Representation in Congress is as a
constitutional rule, based upon the Fede-
raj census enumeration Of population
Federal population as it used to be
called Article /. Section >. when three
fifths of the slave population was added
to the number of Free persons" in the
slave States.
.. When the exercise of the right Of
manhood suffrage is denied or
abridged" then, the basis of represep-
tation therein lin the State which does
it, shall be reduced III the proportion
which the number of such (disfran-
chiseD male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens twenty
one years of age in such State"
q ~ L.
shall propose bill to make such reduc-
ton in a given State, or States, on &c,
count of restricted suffrage, will be met
at the very threshold with the insuper
able difficulty of showing by actual
figures, land not by conjecture or guess.
work., the exact number of disfran-
chised citizens in such State, or States.
How can he get at the correct figures?
Remember he is TO hunt for disfran-
chised citizens-those whose right of suf-
frage has been denied or abridged"
against the will of the voters. Will the
tiers there are whose right of suffrage
has been "denied" or "abridged?" Ger
tainly not, for the registration books
only show the names and numbers of
those whose constitutional right of suf-
frage has not been denied or
abridged" And the same may be said
of the poll-books, and of the election
returns.
Nobody questions the right of a
State to provide a registration law for
it's voters, and every State in the Union.
| believe now does it: and nobody
preme Court decisions to the effect, that
no voter is a qualified voter" in the
sense of our State Constitution, until
he has voluntarily OH his own part COM
piled with the registration law and APP
piled to the registrars of voters, and
taken the prescribed oath, and asked
to be registered on the registration book.
Suppose however, registration is dc
MED" to the applicant, who is there to
istration? The State law, of course,
provides no such machinery, and there
is at present no United States law to
provide the machinery necessary to get
correct list of DISTINGUISHED voters in
State, whose right Of suffrage has
been, against their viii, denied" or
abridged
1t win be noted that this section of
the XIV Amendment is not self-execut-
ing, and while Congress is given the
power to enforce it by appropriate
legislation nobobdy has ever yet been
wise enough, even if he wished to do 50,
to devise plan by which this section
of the XIV Amendment can be EN-
forced" against one of more States,
without interference with our whole sys-
tenn of government, and taking out OF
the hands of all the States, the election
machinery for Presidential electors and
the members Of the House of Represen-
tot;vac in Con1raSS To saw nothing of