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

Inns.
If he is still slleptical, would like TO
ask him to give us an explanation of the
curious fact that there are so many
kinds of governments in the world, why
all people do not prefer free and enlght-
ened government, and why so many
PEOPLE, like the South Americans, are UNI
able after repeated efforts, to under
stand much less to maintain and enjoy
a real democracy.
That this capacity is transmiSsible by
inheritance aud tradition is the primer
pie upon which this exception Is founded;
and | insist that it is reasonable and
more than fair to the negro. because III
admits Il large number of them to the
privilege of suffrage. when they and their
ancestors have had slight opportunity
f0r. the acquisition of the art of self
government aS compared to the centuries
during which our ancestors have been
slowly developing it.
IL am asked why we do NOT apply the
principle to all those who have been
voting since 1867, | reply: because it is
plainly inapIdicable.
Everyone knows that since that time
There has been a perfect flood of immi
grants pouring into this country from all
the nations of the earth, immigrants I'M
ACQUAINTED with the spirit of our inStitu-
tions and utterly unfit to participate
without some preparation, in the affairs
of government: everyone also knows that
since that time the elective franchise
has been conferred upon vast horde
of ignorant negroes hopelesSly unfit for
it's proper exercise, and the result has
been what might have been expected.
Neither of these classes or people have
had the time, and, i'm the case of the
negroes. the favorable conditions, for
developing the habit, aptitude, or instinct
for public affairs.
Scientists tell us that it takes time,
much time. for the evolution of apti-
Itudes. and this neither the recent immi-
grant nor the negro has had. Surely
Ethi1ty-two years are not more than sufti-
Gent
In all human probability this excep-
tion Will exclude some who are in fact
capable of voting wisely, and it will in
cuae some who are not.
This is a defect, much to be regretted,
inherent in all human laws-they never
have been and they never Will be perfect
but your committee thinks that in the
main it will admit those, white or black,
who ought to be admitted, even though
they can not read, and it viii exclude
only those who are unfit and who ought
Ito be excluded
1T can not be necessary, / think, Mr..
Speaker. for ME to say to you, and to
other members Of the legal profession in
this assembly, that such cases as 1ick
Wo VS.. Hopkins, 11S Z. c., can have no
application to a law like this. They APP
ply only to cases where the law is fair ON
its face, burt is arbitrarily and unfairly
administered; and the great merit of this
measure is. as / have previously said,
that it is carefully drawn so as to pre-
vent all unfair and discriminating adj
ministration--that it must stand or fall
as it is written
lit has also been said that this bill
is opposed to the conditions upon which
Congress readmtted the State of North
Carolina into the Union, and is there
fore invalid The act of Congress is:
BE it enacted. that the State OF
North Carolina, etc. be admitted to rep
resentation in Congress as States of the
Union uIon the following fundamental
conditions That the Constitution or
neither of said States shall ever be So
amended or changed as to deprive any
citizen or class of citizens of the United
States of the right to vote in said States
who are entitled to vote by the Consti
tuition thereof herein recognized. except
as punishment of the convection for
such crimes as are now felonies ut COM
mon law, which law shall be applicable
Ito all the citizens of the State alike"
No such suggestion as this could posi-
bly, come from a lawyer or any one else
having the slightest acquaintance with
the decisions of the Supreme Court of the
United States The point has been ex-
pressly ruled the other way more than
once.
In Escanaha Co. VS.. Chicago, 101 u.
s., CTS, 6SS, an act of the State of lii
nois was challenged upon the ground
that it was repugnant to the ordinance
of 1877 for the government of the terri
tory of the United States northwest of
the Ohio River. In disposip- "f this con-
tention the Court say:
."Whatever the limitation upon her
powers as government whilst in a ter
ritorial condition, whether from the or
dinance of 1857 or the legislation Of Con
gress, it ceased to have any operative
force except as voluntarily adopted by
her after she became a State of the I'M
ion. On her admission she at once be-
came entitled to and possessed of all the
rights of dominion and sovereignty which
belonged to the original States. She was
admitted, and could be admitted, only ON
the same footing with them.
Equality of constitutional right and pow
er is the condition of all the States of
the Union old and new"
See also Hrise VS.. Glover, 119 u. s.,
546
The same act of Congress applies to the
State of Mississippi, and yet the point
apparently was not even made when the
validity of the Constitution of Mississ-
ippi was discussed in the Supreme Court.
The validity of this Amendment de
ponds solely upon its repugnance to the
Fifteenth Amendment, and I confidently
believe that we need give ourselves lit
tie concern as to its constitutionality. 1t
is not only sustained by reason, but
precedent.
As | have said it is drawn upon the
model of the suffrage provision of the
recent Constitution of Louisiana, which
is said to be the work of thar MOST EN-