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

pie who lived in the State of Louisiana prior
to March I, 1898, who are OF foreign birth
and who failed to naturalize themselves, and
those persons born in the State of Louisiana
between the list of January, 1868. and the
first day Of January, 1876, of foreign par
| ents naturalized af,er JAM I, 1868. Those
people bern during those nine years
| and foreigners not naturalized on the list of
March, 1893, are the classes which are de-
f'rived of the benefits of this provision con-
| tanned in section Of the ordinance. said
the Ist of January, 1877, for this reason:
That no man, even the descendant of the
qualified voter of 1868, is entitled to regis
ter under the provisions contained in section
5, unless he be twenty one years of age ON
the Iss of January. 1898, and therefore he
| must have been born prior to the Ist of Jam
uary, 1877. Therefore I say that. the only
white people thus deprived those white
people of foreign parentage who were born
between Jan. I, 1868, and Jan. I. 1877, to-
gether with those foreigners who, living in
this State, failed to avail themselves of the
| naturalization laws prior to the list of jan
uary, 1898. I think the number of those
people would be very small, bat small as it
is, consider them element to be taken
into consideration in connection with the
entire clause.
.:Now, as to the negro, it might be said
that thus far no negroes are included in
this plan; that you have selected qual;h-
cation which takes is all white and ex
cludcs all negroes, but the answer to that
| is that we have pu, in qualification which
does exclude white men, and one
| which does exclude some negroes, and,
therefore, the discr naination is not on ac-
| count of race, color Or previous condition of
, scrvitude. l have examined the Constitr-
tons of every State Of the Union which
were in force on the Est of January, 1868;
| and find that the negro was allowed to vote
under the laws Of New Hampshire, New
| York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont,
Wisconsin,, Maine and Massachusetts.
| [ find that in one or two cases, as
| in New York and Tennessee, the quail
| tcations required of the negro order
| that h nigh, vote were different from those
required in the case Of a white man, but IN
| 1868 in eight States the negro had the right
| TO vote, and in all of them, except Tennee-
see and, think, New York, he lad the
| right to vote upon the same basis upon which
! the white man had the right 10 vote. Thus
it appears that any negro who was rcs;den:
of any CT those States on the LIST of January,
! 1856, and who was entitled to vote undo,
, their laws is included il, the exception q.
| How could any court could any Legislative
!! body coming to consider this question, UNI
| less SO blinded by rejuoice as to warp
| their Judgment, say that the negro was dis
I criui mated against by reason Of his race,
| color or previous condition OF servituds> un-
| der the constitutional provisions admitting 4
! certain, class of white citizens and exempt
| in. others, admitting a certain class of re
sroes and exemptin. others? I have al
| ready noted he fact that the day after the
| fifteenth amendment passed "c might
, have passed law prevailing ,>at all people
! should be able read and write in order tc,
exercise The RICH: % franchise, a:ri Is t!sa t
! vas possible ii would have cuclu:ic,! every
J negro in the State, except 4oo or 500.
'''ih.rcfo:e, say, gentlemen, that this;
provision canno, be objected to coas;itu-
| lional grounds, merely because it embraces
more white 1acn than negroes. Suppose
! that the rroviso exemption were uncor-
stituticnal. 1 "si, to call your attention to
! the fact that the committee has created a
plan reasonably satisfactory, an,! plan
which will include the bulk of the white
people Of thi, State. Even without this
mere proviso, were Unconstitutional ard
were cxpungci, the rest of the scheme
would stand. The constitution would sill
stand. Even If hostile court should think
that this prov;so should be annullc'l, such
| annul!ncnt would not destroy the integrity
of the plan, and l believe the plan to be as
| perfect and satisfactory any that can
be drafted and passed through this con-
| vcntion.
81 desire 10 direct your attention to
| that clause which says that no foreigner na,or-
allied before Jan. 1, 1885, shall be deprived
of the right to vote by reason of the nom
possession of property an educational
! qualification. l think from communications
| which 1 have received from different
sources, and from the amount of fcelin.
displayed abou, this clause, that it is misun-
! dcrstood. l believe that it was first at
acked when it was supposed to give rights
| Of suffrage to the many thousands of for