The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-21
UNDERSTANDING
IS THE TEST
Constitutional Amendment
Provides Two Ways Of
Showing it
NO RACE DISCRIMIN
If NEGROES CANNOT VOTE UN-
DER AMENDMENT IT. is Be
CAUSE THEY LACK UN-
DERSTANDING.
THE PRACTICAL OPERATION ILLUSTRATED
IF the Amendment was Proposed in New York
Nobody Would Suggest that it Violat.
ed The fifteenth Amend.
ment.

IIlcIlls
Hon. f. NJ. Simmons, Chairman of the
Democratic State Executive Committee
who has given much thought to the con
stitutionality and practical operations OF
the proposed amendment, gives his ma
tured views in the following:
MIR. SIMMONS ON THE AMEND
MENT.
1t has been suggested that the constitu-
tional amendment discriminates against
the negro. and is therefore violatiye OF
the Fifteenth amendment. Now, the
Fifteenth amendment nowhere uses the
word discriminate" it simply provides
that no State shall deny or abridge'
the right of Il citizen to vote, ION account
of race, color or previous condition OF
servitude." Subject to this limitation, 1t
is we'll settled, and admitted by every
one. that the. State can prescribe any
condition or qualification, however dis
criminative, to the suffrage it may see
tit to impose.
The Constitutional Amendment upon
which the people are to vote does not
i'm any legal sense, either deny or
abridge'' the right of the black man to
vote; it simply establishes a qualification
of suffrage This qualification is that
the voter shall have a DUE UNDER
STANDING OF THE NATURE OF
HIS ACT, and THE EFFECT
THEREOF upon HIMSELF and HIS
FELLOW MAN, and it prescribes TWO
WAYS in which the voter may SHOW
that he POSSESSES this REQUIRED
DEGREE of UNDERSTANDING.
First. If he can read and write, II
is conclusively presumed from that fact
that he possesses the required degree OF
understanding.
Second. Ii he or his ancestors began
to exercise the right of suffrage prior to
that fact, that he possesses the required
degree Of understanding.
rhe reasoning in the latter case being
that the voter having been thus long ac-
customed to exercise the function OF
suffrage. and to participate i'll the affairs
of Government, or having been III
parental relationship and associa'
ton with those who have thus
participated, has come, both ft
understand and appreciate the ful
significance and import of the suffrage
and that it is as safe to presume the
possession by the voter of the required
degree of understanding from the knoWl
edge and training thus acquired, as 1t j.
to presume it from a knowledge by HIN
of the art Of reading and writing. Ol
course. all qualifications predicated on tht
intelligence Of the voter must necessaril!
be based upon presumptions there beng
no scales in which you may weigh mind
and understanding.
This is the qualification, and the man
ner of proving the possession OF 1t, D!
the voter, and every negro VINO cal
show either in the ONE or the OIH Eli
of these TWO WAYS that he POS
SESSES it. is entitled to VOTE under
the AMENDMENT.
Certainly. there can be no successful
denial of the right of the State TO base
the right of suffrage upon the voters
ability to understand the nature and
effect of the exercise of the suffrage
This right of the State is equally as
clear as is its right to impose what 4
commonly known us an educatlona
qualification by requiring the voter to be
able to read and write, for this is itself
qualification. The object of requiring
the voter to show that he can read and
write is solely to prove his capacity To
understand, and certainly this may be
proved just well and just as salts
factorily in other ways.
The Mississippi Constitution, which
has recently been upheld by the SUI
preme court of the United States. not
only imposes an understanding qualities.
tion. but even goes to the extent of per.
hitting the registrar of elections to de-
eide arbitrarily whether the voter suffi
GENTLY understands.
If the negro. when he comes to vote
cannot qualify himself under tn. amend
ment by showing thar he is ahl,
to read and write, certainly no one
will contend for a moment that til,
Amendment in refusing his ballot fol
that reason. either denies or abridges'
his right of suffrage within the meanin:
of the Fifteenth Amendment. II failin.
to come up to this test, (reading AM
writing) he cannot qualify himself unde
the other test prescribed by the Amend
ment, to w.t. The test Of presume,
understanding from long participation il
government, or descent from and init