The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-14

direction compels one to appropriate a
personal benefit he might otherwise neg
Ileet. II denies to no man the suffrage,
but the privilege lis freely rendered to
| all. subject only to Il condition that is
beneficial In its performance, and light
| IN its BURDEN
But, as shown in the first citation from
Judge Cooley. suffrage is given not so
much for the benefit Of the individual as
for the benefit of the community Mt large,
aud. nationally, should he bestowed ON
those. and upon all OF those, who possess
The requisite qualifications, however OBJ
tanned.
Now 1t is fact. which every candid
and thoughtful man VIII admit, that the
faculty of -government--the capacity
| 10 participate imteFigently in the conduct
Of public affairs, is one that is capable
of being inherited, indeed. it may be said
| that it is the best, if not the only, meth
cd of acquiring it.
John Stuart Mill in his book on Rep
rcsentatiye Government makes his very
clear. He shows that whether people
are capable of sclf-government depends
almost entirely upon their traditions. hab-
its and customs, and ne observes that Il
free and enlightened government could
scarcely he imposed by force upon the
peoples Of the East, or upon many of the
peoples Of Europe, and that a despotlc
government could not possibly be imposed
lupon such n people as the descendants of
the founders Of the American States
| Edmund Burke insists that workable
constitutions are growths, the results or
evolution, not of manufacture; and his
chief criticism upon the work of the
Constituent Assembly was that 1T broke
entirely with the past-with the tradl-
tous of the French people; and the re-
suit seems to Justify his criticism The
so called republic of France, composing
the most intellectual people of Europe, Is
| even now demonstrating how little Its
citizens understand the first principles OF
| free institutions when the trial of an in
di,fdual produces such unseemiy com
motions and threatens to destroy the
very republic itself.
| And, Sir, have not each of us known
men, many men, unable to read and
write, who are as capable OF understand
| ing and discussing political questions as
we are? | certainly have.
| That the faculty of government Is
largely a matter of tradition and inherit
ance and asserted by philosophical writ
ers on government, but lit Is fully rec
ognized by the best and most thoughtful
writer's on constitutional law.
Judge Hare, in his work ON "Amerl-
can constitutional Law" page s. says:
The art Of self government can not
be taught by schooEmasters or learned
from books, but must be acquired
Al, ,Iot4a ryf
generations handed down tradltionaIlly.
Ii is to such Il cause, rather than 10 any
original superiority of the Anglo Saxon
people over the other -Germanic
tribes, that we may attribute the sue
cess Of free institutions in England and
the United States"
See also Ordronaux-4.
1t is a-well-known fact that up to
1861 the white people of North Caro-
lima were the most homogeneous, as they
were the most conservative, of all the
people of the United States-they pos
sessed in high degree the Anglo-Saxon
race instinct for self government.
THESE. Sir, are the reasons which
have induced us to so frame this Amend
nlent as to except from its requirement
of reading and writing the descendants
of the men who for over a hundred years
have helped to control this government,
understood its principles. worked anu
fought for its welfare, and have made it
what it Dis today.
But some opponent wall say the pro-
posed Amendments is contrary TO the
Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitu-
ton of the United States.
Let us see.
That Amendment is rs follows:
THE right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall NOT be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any
State oh account of race. color or pre-
violls condition of servitude."
The Supreme Court of California, in
Van Valllenberg VS. Brown, IS Am.
Rep, 142, in speaking of the limitations
imposed upon States by the recent
Amendments say:
1.-THE mere power of the State to de
termine the class of inhabitants who
may vote within her limits WIS not cur
tailed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Fifteenth Amendment took away
her authority to discriminate against citi-
zens of the United States on account of
either race, color or previous condition of
servitude, but the power of exclusion
upon all other grounds, including that of
sex, remains intact
This is the settled doctrine of the
courts.
Certainly the right of NO one to vote
is, in terms, denied or abridged on ac-
count of race. color or previous condition
of servitude i'm this bill. But lit win be
said that the purpose, the motive, is to
disfranchise the negroes as such.
This we deny. But if it were true, it
is beyond the province of courts to in
Quire into the motives of the Legislature;
their function is confined to ascertaining
the meaning and effect of any law drawn
lim question.
| Cooley Constitutional Limitations,
lpages 1876, 1871.
The failure to realize adequately this
doctrine of the courts sometimes causes
lawyers. and even judges, to fall into
error, but it is never, so far as L know.
|tlisregaried by the eminent men who
sit in Judgment upon the bench of the
Supreme Court of the United States.
Everyone knows that the purpose. of the
Constitution makers of Mississippi was
10, t,.i, far nc noSSihln the cleo