The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-09-04
NORTH CAROlINA'S
NEW ELECTION LAW.

amendment of the state constitution
which was adopted in North Carolina
by bulldozing methods, was borrowed
from Louisiana, and is to this effect:
Section 5-No male person, who
WIS, ON january i, 1867, or at any
time prior thereto, entitled to vote, un-
der the laws of any state in the United
States wherein he then resided, and no
ineal descendant. of any such person
shall be denied the right to register and
reason of his failure to possess the ed
ucational qualifications prescribed in
section of this article"
OF course, the purpose of this is OBJ
vious. 1t is to disfranchise every Hit
crate negro citizen without disfran-
chising a single white iIliterate, or, as
Senator Butler expressed it in a speech
ON the subject in the Senate last win
ter, the section is ''an arbitrary attempt
to create a special privileged ancestral
class" Consequently it plainly does
violence to the fifteenth amendment to
the United States constitution, to this
effect:
THE right of citizens of the United
States to. vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by
any state. on account of race, color, or
previous condition If servitude-"
That such is the view of even the
iblest Democrats of the Senate is
shown by this dispatch sent by Sena-
tor McEnery of Louisiana to a New
Orleans paper when this grandfather
clause" was under discussion in that
state:
washington, d. c., March Il, 1898.
ITO the Times-Democrat:
I'm answer, i say that section 5 (the
grandfather clauseD is grossly uncon-
stitutional i have submitted the same
to some of the ablest Democrats of the
Senate, who are able constitutional
lawyers. They all concur in my opin-
ion. that IL adopted. the effect will be
to lose our representation in Congress
and in the electoral vote of the state.
IS. ID. M'ENERY."
This grossly unconstitutional sec
ton however was adopted in Louis
lana, and Senator McEnery made a
speech in the Senate in defense of Its
constitutionality When asked by Sen
ator Butler IL he did not write the let
ter quoted, he responded thus:
Yes, sir. When the constitutional
convention was in session l was tel
egraphed to know what was my opin-
jon of this section 5. / replied to that
telegram that in my opinion 1t was un-
constitutional. i then received another
telegram. after Its adoption, to know
If, when it was attacked. l would de-
fend it in the Senate of the United
States. To that telegram l replied that
| would
1t is this grossly unconstitutional
section, in the opinion OF some of the
abest Democrats in the Senate, who
are able constitutional lawyers that
North Carolina adopted yesterday un-
der the pressure of the Red Shirts"
The reason why the grandfather
clause" of Louisiana lis adopted is plain.
Section of the amendment requires
that every person presenting himself
for registration shall be able to read
and write any section of the consttu-
ton in the English language" Now,
the percentage of illiteracy in North
Carolina is remarkably great, not only
among negroes, but also among whites.
In 1890 the state contained the great
number of 4u9,703 illiterates of ten
years of age and over. OF these, 75,-
GIL were native white males and 1OS,-
$50 negro males Except for the
grandfather clause" therefore, a
great body of white illiterates would be
disfranchsed along with the colored.
That such discrimination against
the negroes in favor of the whites is
grossly unconstitutional was as appar-
ent to the able Democrats in the SEN
ate as it must be to every reasoning
man. The adoption of the amendment
casts an even more serious reflection
on the civilization of North Carolina
than does the great percentage of Hit
eracy.
When Abraham Lincoln Was an "Imperi-
alist."
Under the above title the Chicago