Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-12-22
AN ASPECT OF The
RACE PROBLEM.
Judge A. L. Morrison Discusses the Dis
reimbursement of the Oolored Voter in
the Southern States.
BOYCOTTING OF NEGRO LABORERS.

bVIUVIllNu VI NEuhV LADUHEhO.
Time, the great healer; more general
intercourse, and the influence of pa
triotism, are doing much to restore the
old-time feelings of fraternity which
prevailed between the north and south
in ante-bellum times. The late Spanish
war, during which southern and north
ern soldiers marched under the same
glorious flag, beneath whose folds Their
fathers marched at Yorktown, New Or
leans and Cerro Gordo, did more to
Danish the heart burnings of the civil
war than a century of peaceful years.
If his was all that was necessary TO
restore peace and harmony between the
late belligerents we might be prepar-
ing to hail the dawn of the morning
when We could truthfully say "'the war
is over at last" But there is another
question which hangs like a thunder
cloud owe the country. This is the race
issue. The solution of this problem Qf
it can be solved) will take the patience
of Washington, the craftsmanship o.
Webster, and the gentle loving patriot
ism of Lincoln. 1t will not do to ignore
it, hoping that time will provide a REM
edy. 1t will not. We have tried that
policy for a generation, and are no
nearer a solution than we were in the
reconstruction days. Methods have
been changed, but the same conditions
remain. The Philippine difficulty, an"
noying as it is, is so far away from US
that it's influences but slightly our po-
litical and social life. 1t may be posi-
poned almost indefinitely, or until tie
supreme court defines their relations to
us, but the negro question is right here
in u midst, and must be settled soo1-
er or later, and the sooner the better
for us. There are about 10000, 900 of that
race in the Union, mainly in the south.
1t is 10Th abnormal and unconstitution-
al to insist that this great mass of peo-
pie las numerous as the populations of
Holland and Belgium combined) must
remain in perpetual vassalage, without
a ray of hope to brighten the darkness
of their future. RI
How long would that number of wh'te
men submit to such a degrading conui-
ton? 1t will not do to say that the ne
groes are ar inferior race. The recent
amendments to the constitution have
settled that question for all time. Sec.
ton l, article IA, says: "All persons
born or naturalized in the United States
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof
are citizens of the United States and Of
the Nates wherein they reside. No state
shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immuni-
ties of citizens of the United States
etc. AS citizenship carries with it the
right of suffrage that amendment in
stantly raised the recent bondmen to
the same political equality as all other
citizens. This may not be pleasant to
some of u people, but it is a part of
the organic law of the land, binding
equally on black n white. Immedi-
ately after the civil war, when the
southern people were smarting under
their defeat, the most violent methods
We're adopted to keep the freedmen
from the polls. But when it became ev-
ident hat the northern people would
not long permit such o%utrages, the more
peaceful but quite as effective method
of the tissue ballot was adopted; but
that was such a transparent fraud that
it, too, was abandoned; then the negro
was permitted to vote, but his vote was
counted contrary to the expressed in
tention of the voter. This soon became
too absurd to be tolerated long. But as
the Democratic party, in consequence
of it's repeated crimes and treasOns to
the government, was fast losing the
confidence of patriotic Democrats in the
north, it's leaders in their desperation
resolved that the negro in the south
must be ~disfranchised altogether. But
in the presence of the said fourteenth
amendment it must be done in such g
way as to evade it. This has been done
in a tentative way in four southern
states, and as we write the following
appeared in the New Mexican:
Richmond, Va, December 5.-Mucl |
interest is shown in the negro disfran- !
chisement question, which is to come
up before the constitutional convention.
Senator Daniel is drafting a provision
which will exempt from the illiteracy
clause all persons from Virginia who
served in any war;"
In each of these states illiteracy is |
made the pretext. In view of the enor-
nous amount of ignorance which pre-.
walls north and south, and in conss-
quence of the momentous national
questions which are continually coming
some educational test seems desira-
BILE, but it must be reasonable and equi-
table, and must not be aimed at an
special class of men. In the south it Is
of these, and Is unquestiOnably |
aimed at the negroes and one other.
In North Carolina the law strikes at the
blacks, but excludes the illit-
crate whites by providing that any cit
izen who Cor whose ancestor was legal
ly entitled to vote in 1867 should be ex-
empt from the operation of the law. AL
though this is a plain violation of the
spirit of the constitution, it is claimed