Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1900-10-29

What the Democrats have done to rob
the people of their right of franchise
is told as follows by Senator J. c.
pritchard of North Carolina:
The adoption of the amendment to
our State constitution which has for
its object the restriction of the right of
suffrage marks another step on the
part of the Democracy of the South
in its efforts to nullify the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments to the Con-
stitution Of the United States.
>Nh,, When the Southern
Law States were readmitte1
Demanded into the Union after the
late Civil War II was expressly provid-
ed as a fundamental condition prece-
dent to their right to representation in
Congress and in the electoral college,
that neither OF the said States should
ever amend its constitution so as TO
abridge the right Of any voter residing
therein. The act in question was pass
ed on the 2Sth day of July, 1865, ami
reads as follows:
THAT each OF the States of North
Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana,
Georgia. Alabama and Florida shall
be entitled and admitted to representa-
ton in Congress as a State of the Union
when the legislature Of such State shall
have duly ratified the amendment to
the Constitution OF the United States
proposed by the 39th Congress, known
as Article Il, upon the following funda-
mental conditions: That the constitu-
ton of neither or said States shall DO
so amended or changed as to deprive
any citizen or class of citizens OF the
United States of the right to vote in
said State. who are entitled to vote by
nized. except as a punishment for such
crimes as are now felonies at common
law. whereof they shall have been con-
victed under laws equally applicable to
the inhabitants Of all the States"
The foregoing leaves no doubt as to
the condition upon which the Southern
States were re-admitted to the Union.
While 1t is a contract that Is not bind
ing in strictly legal sense, in so far
as the States are concerned, at the same
time 1t is an agreement on the part
of the citizens of those States that they
will observe in good faih the princl-
Piles enunciated in the fifteenth amend
ment. 1t is an obligation which those
of us who live south Of Mason and
Dixons line cannot AFFORD to ignore:
What The ID moor attic
Democrats party of the Nation in
Promised 1872, after the amend
ment in question had been ratified, de
clared in their party platform that they
would oppose all efforts to re-oepn the
questions growing out of the adoption
of the thirteenth, fourteenth and IF.
teenth amendments. They declared as
follows:
Il. We recognize the equality Of all
men before the law, and hold that 1t IN
the duty Of the government in its deal
ings with the people to mete out equal
and exact Justice to all, of whatever
nativity, race, color, persuasion, reli-
gious or political.
"2. We pledge ourselves to maintain
the Union of these States, emancipa
ton and Acknowledgement, and to OPP
pose and reopening of the questions set
tied by the thirteenth, fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments to the ConstituI
ton"
In addition to making the foregoing
declaration they named Mr.. Greeley as
their standard bearer, and. in his let
ter of acceptance, among other things
he said:
"All the political rights which have
been acquired through our late bloody
convulsion must and shall be guaran-
teed. maintained, enjoyed, respected
forevermore."
What Since 1876 there has
Democrats been growing tendency
DID. on the part of many
of the Democratic leaders of the South
with the acquiescence Of their party
in the North, to disregard the provi-
sions of the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments. By one means or an
other, they have deprived thousands OF
white and colored Republicans of the
rights that are guaranteed them by the
constitution of the United States. The
process has been gradual, but at the
same time 1t has been certain and ef'
fectual At first their efforts were con.
fined to States like South Carolina and
Louisiana, but when they realized that
they could with impunity deprive the
people of their rights they became EN-,
boldened, and now the hydra-headet
monster Of violence and fraud is pro,
jecting itself into States wherein, here,
tofore, we have had reasonably fail
election laws. The last election, In 81
far as Eastern North Carolina is con
cerned was IT 'arihg farce" and NJ
Democrat cab be iGphi who mas thu
hardihood to say that II was fail
expression Of the will Of the majority o
the voters of North Carolina.