The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-02-11

Mr. Gambler Not both Senators at
once When the two Senators have ex-
| planned the pitifully small vote in their
| two State ] viii examine the returns
| from Massachusetts and see why
| Mr. Money. Please do not leave
| Mr.. Chandler i am simply going to
| get vote to confute the Senator.
| Mr. Money. Do not leave, please. do
not want you to get the book right now.
| You have enough. The Senator, as |
/ said the other day was talking TO some
| body else and not listening to me. / was
meeting the argument of the Senator
| from North Carolina. You We're not pay
| ng attention to me.
Mr. Chandler ! have got the book.
| Now 20 ahead.
Mr.. Money All right. | was endeavor-
inc to answer the argument of the Sen
ator from North Carolina that because of
the small vote in Mississippi and South
Carolina and other States necessarily
those who did not were prevented from
voting. | denied that proposition.
cave the reason why the vote was small.
Jhep. said. take the State of Massa-
chusptts. which in 1890, polled 2S5,000
votes and vet had G65.o00 voters. ! have
not called upon the Senator or anybody
else To explain why there were not more.
If is their own affair No law can COM
me-, man TO vote He can go fishing
if he wants to or do anything else that
pleases him on that day; hut if Massa-
chusctts dropped 100000 votes in one
election why should not Mississippi drop
hundred thousand! Why should 1t
not be done iii the good old State OF Con-
uecticit: see my friend, the distinguish
| d Senator here present. In 1890 Connec-
| ticut voted 125,000, and yet had "a wv
voters. Now, no one questions or should
question the right of those people to stay
away from the polls.
! Mr. platt of Connecticut. In what year
was that!
Mr.. Money. In 1890. Those voters had
| 4 right to stay away. They have q right
| 20 vote as they please and no man has
right to question them, and no man has
right to impeach the State where such
things have obtained. 1t is simply the
| ;nvlividual prefolring TO do one thing to
another thing.
But / want 70 say il there had been
| in the state Of Massachusetts or in the
State of Connecticut or i nthe State or
South Carolina or in the State OF Miss
issippi a question that would be vital to
The interests of the people of that country
and parties were close You would have
seen the whole vote polled just. as in
1896. | believe, when one vote was cast
for every two and Il half inhabitants III
he State Of Ohio But it is the question.
The race, the contest that brings out the
vote: and there is no necessity for every
body going to the polls when nothing is
up
| have some other lists here on some
other points. hut these are simply taken
5 samples. 1t certainly does away with
he argument Of the Senator from Nortn
Carolina and all other that because peo-
BE do not vote they are prevented from
voting. ! know there never was any at
tempt to prevent anybody from voting in
ny State since 1876, that | ever heard OF.
As for the question of illiteracy ! can
sneak Of that State. having traversed
llmost the whole State in 1890. | think
made about eighty speeches and | travel
ID from March until November. made
il point to inquire in every county
visited of the circuit clerk, who was the
kerIqpr of the book of registration. in
1uired whether anybody had ever been
pbiected to because he could not read the
Constitution or could not understand it
or interpret it when read to him. and
N every case he answered that no man
had been rejected, and that the exclusion
If those who attempted to register was
IN account of the nonpayment of their
axes. Now that is the fact. was my
self opposed individually to inserting any
hing of the sort in the Constitution,
nut | was rot member of the Constitu-
tional convention.
Mr.. President. have detained the SEN
tie very much longer than | intended.
md on account of my inability to see the
itations which have brought here with
ne l have not made the legal points as
BROADLY as ] wished; hut / have read
rom the standard authority upon consti-
utional limitations and from the deci-
ions of the court. which that author lit
rally quotes. to show, in the first place.
hat these constitutional amendments are
lot contrary to the fourteenth and tif-
zenith amendments to the Constitution,
md. second. that if one falls the whole
cheme falls together, for it is insepara-
Ky connected in representing the legisla-
i've intent.