The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-14
SPEECH or HON. GEORGE R0UN7REE
Delivered in the House Of Representatives on the Subject
of the Constitutional Amendment

lanolla him to cast an intelligent vote.
The will cast that vote. and he ought 10
cast it. And whenever and wherever ne
has not such education, he ought NOT TO
vote and in the long run he will NOT
vote. Mississippi and South Caroilha
have mt themselves upon solid ground
lin saving that education must be a CON
dition of suffrage 1t is no new doctrine
In the North there is more Than ONE
state in which such has been the law
for nearly half a -cemtury.
Eour wears ago there were many. OF
whom | blush to say ! was one, VINO
Thought that there was NO longer dan-
Ger TO the public veal from Il confolna-
tion of a comparatively small number OF
whites with the great mass or negroes
Idbat they would not dare attempt TO re-
enact the scenes of '6S-' 12-but we We're
mistaken.
They had learned nothing. The lgnor-
lant debased negro, in power, is tine
same arrogant and insolent animal ne
was i'm the reconstruction period.
know there have been feeble attempts
Inv high-placed individuals Great
lures of the llnhcly combinatlon--to SHOW
ltbat there was no such thing as negro
ILLUMINATION in North Carolina during the
Hast few years. If the cities and towns
tof the eastern part of the State were not
subject to negro domination in most
|odious form. may merciful heaven spare
Them from such fate! But such denials
are so disingenuo,is as to deserve much
|harsher epithet.
| You all know the conditions under
which we suffered--they have been de-
scribed by the newspapers Of this ana
other States and pictured in eloquent
words by many speakers-they were told
lin the resolutions of the Chamber of
Commerce of Wilmington and III the
letter OF Mr. W. III. Chadbourn, the
POSTMASTER at Wilmington, a lifelong
Republican and one OF the best educated
linen of that party in the South.
They were simply intolerable, and their
contemplation ought to convince any
reasonable and patriotic man that some
thing must be done to limit the right of
Isuffrage. unless we are ready to give over
1.-THE fairest portion of our State prach-
lcally to barbarism
| While your committee had this Amend
tnrent, along with certain propositions
Hooking towards Il change in the distrl-
button of the school funds between the
IchiIdren of the white and colored races.
under consideration, a number of the
Heading negroes Of the State, preachers
and teachers. came before us and asked
aeave ito address the committee, which
was gladly granted. and during a most
Interesting discussion which followed,
member of the committee asked if it
were not true that the great mass OF
negroes voted solidly under the thctation
of some party boss and without the
Islightest exercise Of individual Judgment,
lif in the black districts those negroes
twho desired to vote differently We're not
|ostracised and otherwise coerced into
Submission, and if the conditions in this
respect were not as unfortunate now as
lfhey were in the beginning, of the exper-
Iiment? This was freely admitted by the
speakers. and as an excuse, at was urged
that they were but few years out Of
savagery and fewer stiil out Of slavery;
that the habits and traditions of that
ldehased state still clung to them. Tn
Idoubtetily they assigned the true cause.
That the mass Of negroes are utterly
unfit to exercise the elective franchise
is shown by the testimony of his Excel
I1ency the Governor highest possible
authority--as he knows whereof he
Ispeaks In an open letter to J. G. L.
Harris, in the year 1883, he said:
'srhe negroes of the South are large
Ily savages. We. with Northern aid and
sanction. Kidnapped them, enslayed them,
and by most monstrous wrong degraded
them so that they. are no more lit 10
govern than are their brethren in Afri-
can swamps or so many Mongollans
dumped down from pagan Asia.
| We must then, as an act OF simple
self preservation, limit the right to vote.
How to do this i'm an honest, just and
legal way is no easy task.
In attempting to solve the problem VIC
are confronted, on the one hand, with
THE limitations imposed by the Fifteenth
Amendment of the Federal Constitution,
and, on the other, by the fact that there
are in this State a large number of llllt-
crate white voters, the descendants OF
the men who founded the State, who
have inherited the race-instinct for self
government and have learned its prin-
ciples at the fireside and at public speak
ings, who are, indeed among the best
citizens of the State. and are as qualified
by intelligence to cast their ballots, Mr..
Speaker. as you or !, and whom it would
he as impossible as it is undesirable to
disfranchise.
I'm looking for a precedent-a model
Ito guide us i'm this difficult undertaking
we have examined the work of the Con-
stitutionaf Conventions of Mississippi,
South Carolina and Louisiana. After
careful. even painful, consideration. your
committees selected as model the Con-
stitution of Louisiana, BECAUSE IN
THEIR OPINION IT Is SELF-EXE-
. lCUIING, II is WHAT ON IT'S FACE
lit pRETENDS TO BE, AND
LEAVES NOTHING TO THE JUG
lGLING MANIPULATION OF ELEC-
lTlON OFFICERS.
In order to understand adequately the
work of your committee, | desire to re-
, call few elementary principles of con-
stitntional law. The right to vote is
mot. as some seem to think, natural
right. nor even right of citizenship
protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Minor " Happersett. u Wallace, 1872.
Speaking on this subject, Judge Cooley
i'm his W TX on the Principles of Consti-
tutional saw. page 249, says: