The Springfield herald. (Springfield, Baca County, Colo.) 1887-1919, 1900-08-31
NORTH CAROLINA'S
NEW ELECTION LAW.

which was adopted in North Carolina
by bnlldozing methods, was borrowed
from louisiana and is to this effect:
Section 5-No male person, who
was, on January l, 1867. or at any
time prior thereto. entitled to vote. I'M
der the laws of any state In the United
States wherein he then resided, and no
limeal descendant OF any such person.
shall be denied the right TO register and
vote at any election in this state by
reason of his failure to possess the ed
ucational qualifications prescribed In
section 4 of this article"
or course, the purpose of this is OBJ
vious. 1t is to disfranchisc every Hit
crate negro citizen without disfran-
clIising Il single white illiterate. or, us
Senator Butler expressed 1t in speech
on the subject in the Senate last will
ter. the section is IAN arbitrary attempt
to create n special privileged ancestral
class Consequently ii 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
amy state on account of race, color, or
previous condition of scrvitude.
That such is the view of even the
,,t l,n
shown by this dispatch sent.by Senn-
tor McEncry of Louisiana to New
Orleans paper when this grandfather
clause" was under discussion In that
state:
washington. ID. c., March II, 1888.
"To the Times-DcmOcrat:
in answer say that section tthe
grandfather clause) is grossly uncon-
stitutional. 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. d. M'ENERY."
This grossly unconstitutional sec
ton, however. was adopted in Louis
lana, and Senator McEnery made n
speech in the Senate In defense of Its
constitutionality. When asked by Sen
ator Butler if he did not write the let
ter quoted, he responded thus:
Yes. sir. When the constitutional
convention was in session 1 was tel
egraphed to know what was my opin-
ion of this section s. ] replied to that
telegram that in my opinion it WIS I'M
constitutional / then received another
telegram, after it's adoption, to know
If. when 1t was attacked. l would de-
fend 1t in the Senate of the United
States. To that telegram replied that
would"
1t is this grossly unconstitutional
section, In the opinion of some of the
ablest Democrats in the Senate, who
are able constitutional lawyers" that
North Carolina adopted yesterday I'M
der the pressure of the Red Shirts
The reason why the grandfather
clause" of Louisiana is 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 constitu-
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 4O9,7O3 illiterates of ten
years of age and over. or these. TO-
GIL were native white males and 1OS.-
$50 negro males. Except for the
grandfather clause therefore, n
great body of white illitcrates would be
DISTINGUISHED 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 1t must lie 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
cracy.
When Abraham Lincoln Was an "Imperi-
alist.'
Under the above title the Chicago
Times Herald has a most interesting