The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-28
AMENDMENT WILL STAND
AND LEGAL TESTS NEED NOT
BE FEARED.
NOT IN CONFLICT WITH CONSTITUTION
No Abridgment of Suffrage on Account Of
Rae or Color. Long Experience With
Negro Voters Points Out the Neces-
sity For the Change.
washington Post.)


the firm stand you took in 1898 in behalf
OF good government in North Carolina.
and regret that we do not have your hear
II approval Of the means devised by
wisdom and patriotism to prevent a re-
turn to the conditions then existing.
Those conditions damaged industry dis
tracted public attention, excited fear,
prejudice, and violence, endangered the
peace OF men and the safety of women,
and rendered necessary, in the opinion OF
our legislature, important changes in our
qualifications for suffrage. They arose
from q mass of voters who, after thirty
years experience, were too ignorant to
understand the issues, too irresponsible
to consider them. Such a mass is a
constant menace to good government.
You crtticise the amendment upon
which our people will vote next August
because 1t does not disqualify the great
mass of unlettered white men; its Oppon-
ents in North Carolina say this makes
1t unconstitutional We think a full
knowledge of North Carolina conditions
and q thorough comprehension of the
amendment will convince the impartial
critic Of its necessity, fairness, and con-
gtitutionality. AS a North Carolinian,
desire to submit to your readers some
NlcNB vi IL OhAcI CCNtlOnS vi Vic
meat prescribe qualifications pertaining
to sex, age, citizenship, residence, regis
tration, and freedom from conviction or
confession OF felony. The fourth and
fifth sections are as follows:
MUST BE ABLE TO READ AND
WRITE.
Rec. 4. Every person presenting himeslf
FOR registration shall be able to read and
write any section OF the Constitution in
the English language and before he shall
be entitled to vote he shall have paid, on
or before the LIST day of March of the
year in which he proposes to vote, his
poll tax, as prescribed by law, for the
previous year. Poll taxes shall be a lien
only on assessed property, and no process
shall issue to enforce the collection of the
same, except against assessed property.
Sec. B. No male person who was on
January l, 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 person. shall be denied the
right 70 register and vote at any election
IN This State by reason of his failure to
possess the educational qualification pre-
scrihed in section 4 of this article: Pro-
v1Q2U. lie H1d1l udVe Registered III dCtOIu-
ance with the terms of this section prior
to December /, 1908. The general a.
sernlbly shall provide FOR a permanent
record of all persons who register under
this section on or be ore N0yelrDer i,
1908. and such persons shall be entitled
to register and vote in all elections ny the
people of this State, unless disqualified
under section Of this arti lie: Provided
such person shall have paid their roll
tax, as required by law.
Its purpose is not to injure, humiliate.
or impede any class Of our citizens. 1t
will stimulate education, insure peace.
and remove many distractions from dis
crissions of economic questions. We seek
not strife and oppression, but safety and
good government. The equal protection
of our laws will continue to bless those
who do not vote as well as those who do
ALLOWS NEGROES TO VOTE.
Many Populists and Republicans will
support the amendment. Under it, thou
sands of negroes will vote, some of them
among the best and most influential of
their race. Some will register under sec
ton 5, as, in most of the thirteen original
States, free negroes could once vote.
They voted in North Carolina prior to
States in 1866. Some foreign-born white
men, unlettered. will not be benefited by
section 5. Unlettered whfte men, with
these exceptions, can vote under the
amendment, provided they comply with
the first three sections, are guiltless of
felony, and pay their poll tax. The
right of suffrage is limited to those who
can read and write, and yet is not on that
account denied to those, if otherwise
qualified, who represent generations OF
electors, and on whom is the imprint of
centuries of heroic and patriotic perform
ance in public affairs.
Every citizen of every race, who has
the reasonable qualifications required.
will be a voter. The fifth section denies
the right of NO one to vote, and does no
wrong in extending suffrage. Those who
may register under it are conclusively
presumed to have that sufficient intelli-
gence which in others must be shown
by ability to read and write. Common
sense and observation teach that those
whose ancestors have taken part in gov
eminent, and who have from their faith
ers and grandfathers learned the rights
and glories of free institutions, receiving
by tradition and inheritance capacity
and aptitude for independent thought
and conduct, are. though unlettered as
intelligent-and frequently more intelli-
gent-than educated persons who have
not inherited that capacity. and who have
had the advantage of no such traditions.
Political motives. when the best men
of the South were not heard in undertake
ing to elevate the negro to the political
position to which white men had strug
gled through ages. did not insure his right
10 vote. but merely enacted that it should
not be denied on account of three parti-
cular things. The fifteenth amendment
to the Constitution of the United States
sa-s:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be de-