The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-08-22


have shaken or the incubus OF negro SUI
ifrage.
So far from being Infamous. . the re-
dcction is made an imperative obligation
by the Constitution OF tho United States.
After quoting the provision of the Con-
stitution referred to. the Sun adds:
The reduction OF the representation de-
nounced as Infamous by the Richmond
paper, besides being plain Constitutional
obligation is essential to justice and the
preservation of our political equilibrium.
II the Acknowledgement OF one class o.
citizens in one body OF States should not
be followed by the enforcement OF tais
Constitutional provision, the disfranchise-
ment of any other class and classes in
any other States would be encouraged
until our system Of popular representative
Government would be reduced to mere
fiction.
If the Constitution Is disobeyed by the
refusal of Congress to make the COM
manded reduction, injustice Is done 10
every State where there Is no such DIS
franchisement. The provision. too. eX-
tends to every State and not to the Sousn
alone. as also does the further provision
that the right to vote shall not be denied
or abridged on account of race, color or
previous condition of servitude. Both APP
ply to the whole Union and not merely to
the Southern States.
The ''infa-ny'' IS IN the malicious spirit
which prompted this provision to the Fed
eral Constitution. The Sun says that 1t
applies to all the States Of the Union, to
the Northern, States as well as the South
ern States. but the Sun knows that it was
aimed especially at Southern States and
was designed to discipline the States re
Gently in rebellion If the Sun has any
doubt on that score, let it refer to the
report Of the Committee ON Reconstruc-
ton, from which we quoted at length on
Sunday last. The Committee said that
In prosecuting their work it became I'M
portaut to inquire into what could be done
to secure the rights, civil and poiltical'
OF the freedmen. ct was evident to your
committee they went on. that adequate
security could only be found In appro-
pirate Constitutional provisions. BY an
original provision of the Constitution. rep
resentation is based on the whole num-
her of free persons in each State and
three-fifths of all other persons
Before the war, therefore, the South
ern States were allowed representation In
Congress for three-ffths of the negroes.
although the negroes had no right to vote.
But, the Committee said, when all became
free a representation for all necessarily
followed. and added: "As a consequence,
tho .n, yitable effect of the rebellion would
he to increase the political power of the
insurrectionary States, whenever they
should be allowed to resume their posi-
ton as States of the Union. AS repre-
sentation is by the Constitution based upon
population, your Committee did not thlhk
it advisable to recommend j change on
that basis. The increase Of representation
necessarily resulting from the abolition
of slavery was considered the most I'M
portant element in The questions arising
out of the changed condition OF al1alTS'
and the necessity for some fundamental
action in this regard seemed imperative
IS : Slavery, by building up d
ruling and dominant class, had produced
a spirit oe oligarchy adverse to republican
institutions, which finally inaugurated civil
war The tendency Of continuing the
domination of such class, by leaving 1t in
the exclusive possession of political
power would be to encourage the same
spirit and lead to a similar result.
1t is clear, We repeat, that the object OF
this measure was primarily to discipline
the white people of the South, and the in
fanny of the thing is further shown IN
this, that while care was taken to confer
the right of suffrage upon the great body
of negroes who had recently emerged from
slavery, the Committee recommended that
the white men who had taken part in the
war should be deparred from holding posi-
out representation. The whole wretched
business was infamous from beginning to
end. Negro suffrage was forced upon the
States and was backed up by Federal
bayonets It was, as the Sun knows,
a curse to the South, a curse to the
negro as well as to the white man, and
the cause of nine-tenths of the trouble
between the races in this section. Finally,
some Of the Southern States in the in
terest of peace, in the interest Of law and
order. in the interest Of the blacks as
well as of the whites. took steps to eilmi-
nate the negro vote as the disturbing
factor, and now the men at the North,
who put this outrage upon the South,
propose to punish those Southern States
which have gotten rid Of the negro vote
by reducing their representation in Con-
gress. We insist that this provision OF
the Federal Constitution, as clearly shown
in the report Of the Reconstruction Com
| mittee, was conceived in malice and was
designed as punitive measure. Hence
we say that it is Infamous. and that it
would be heaping infamy upon infamy to
enforce the punitive provision Of the law.