The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1900-07-24
TUESDAY......JULY "a, 1900

THE campaign in North Carolina
over the constitutional amendment lie
already, as politicians would say, red
hot. The issue that is furnishing sll
the feeling and excitement is 8 con-
stitutional amendment on the ques'
ton of suffrage. 1t is true, there is
to be an election of State officers, and
the Congressman are to be voted for,
and the presidential campaign is to
be conducted, with all the questions
that can be brought into such sn
issue, this fall, yet none of these cut
the figure that the amendment does.
North Carolina, Of late years, has
been sn uncertain State as to politics.
Some times it went Democratic and
some times Republican. The Demo
Gratis are row in control, having re-
Gently wrested the State from the Re
publicsns and Populists, and they de-
clare that it shall remain Democratic.
In order to make this declaration
good, and keep the State in the Dem
oeratic column, it is said that about
seventy.Rve thousand negroes must
be disfranchised. 1t would appear to
be rather a big slice to cut off from
the voting population Of the old
State, but it is said the white people
are bold enough to say it must be
done, and so it will be. Nothing is
talked of but the amendment, and
every man is called upon to show his
colors on the issue. 1t he is in favor
of the amendment he is put down as
q white man, but if he is opposed to
the amendment he is placed among
the negroes so 1t is said that the
white people mostly will vote for the
amendment, which will certainly be
adopted. The election for this issue
comes of on the second Of August,
and the change will go into effect next
year.
1t is claimed that the provisions Of
the amendment will stand the test Of
the courts, as they were taken from
the Louisiana law, which has stood
the test of the Federal courts, includ
ing the Supreme Court of the United
States. The fat has gone forth that
ignorance can no longer rule in the
old North State.
The section proposed that will
sweep aside the ignorance complained
Of, which is doomed as voting pow
or, provides that every person pre-
-senting himself for registration shall
be able to read andwrite any section
of the Constitution in the English
language, and before he shall be en-
titled to vote he shall have paid bis
cspitation tax for the previous year"
And in order to save the illiterate
white man the amendment says :
"But no male person who WAS on
January LIST, 1867, or at any time
prior thereto, entitled to vote under
the laws of any State in the United
States wherein he then resided, and
no lineal descendant of any such per-
SON shall be denied the right to regis
ter and vote at any election in this
Stste by reason of his failure to pos
sess the educational qualification
herein described" provided he shall
register within the next eight years.
A correspondent writes the situa'
ton down in these few words: 1.-THE
fact is q crisis has come in North
Carolina. There are one hundred and
seventy-fye thousand Democratic
voters, ali white, and they simply do
not propose to let the negroes control
any where in county, town or State.
They say there is determination to
carry the amendment, and there is
world of meaning in the words"