The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-09
CONSTITUTIONALITY
OF AMENDMENT
Continued From First Page.)


constitution is constitutional for the sew
eral reasons, that it does not deprive any
man of the right of suffrage; that it
confers privilege which will extend
to some negroes, and that there is a
very large body of white men upon
whom the privilege is not conferred
Thus, / mention that l. the president
of the convention, could not register I'M
der section s. because my father was an
alien.
The substance of all that precedes is,
1 take it, that the question before us is
really concrete and not an abstract one.
i concede that it may be possible to
really conceal a deprivation of the right
of suffrage, on account of race color or
previous condition of servitule, under an
apparent preservation of pre-existing
right of suffrage to all white men. Thus
if State should provide that no man
should be deprived of the right of suf-
frage whose hair was straight, this would
be equivalent to saying that no white men
should be deprived of the right, and, in
directly, would be the same as prov-
sion depriving all negroes of the right.
IT, however, the State should choose to
construct a roll Of honor, or a privileged
should not be taken whilst the large mass
OF the community should be required to
have certain qualifications, 1 do not be-
lieve that such a provision would violate
the 18th amendment. Among the provi-
sions suggested to the Louisiana Conven-
ton, to exclude negroes and admit white
men, was one providing that a conviction
of petty larceny or wife beating should
hn oh of cuff he
theory that these were crimes to which
the negroes were specially addicted
Another provision suggested was that no
person not born in lawful wedlock, should
be allowed to vote. Whilst these
schemes may seem very fanciful, still
never doubted their validity on the
ground of any supposed violation of the
18th amendment.
THE clause in the Louisiana Consttu
tion which has been so much criticised,
and which was the subject of so much dis
cussion, is section of article 1877 1t
reads
No male person who was on jan
uary LIST, 1867, or at any date prior
thereto, entitled to vote under the
Constitution or statutes of any State
of the United States wherein he then
such person not less than twenty-one
years of age at the date of the adopt
ion of this constitution - shall
be denied the right to register and
vote in this State by reason of his
failure to possess the educational or
property qualifications prescribed by
this Constitution; provided he shall
have resided in this State for five
hp dat ar Wh no
shall apply for registration, and shall
have registered in accordance with the
terms of this article prior to Septem-
Der 1st, 1898, and no person shall be
entitled to register under this section
after said date
81 would however, call your attention
to the fact that the Convention endeavor
ed as far as possible, to guard against
any judicial attacks upon it work. | felt
convinced, and l believe that every man
in the Convention felt convinced that
there was not a corporals guard of white
men in this State-Republicans or Demo
crats-who were disposed to attack any
scheme framed by the Convention and in
tended merely to get rid of the negro,
provided the scheme were free from
fraud, and provided it offered reasona-
would be fair. 1t, therefore, seemed to us
that if scheme could be adopted which
would avoid the danger of judicial attack
within a few months, that we would be
able to save the rights of illiterate
whites in this State, and at the same time
avoid recourse to the South Carolina and
Mississippi plans, which are, certainly,
not satisfactory. We trusted that the
7 of
the right of suffrage tangled up with the
jury system so as to enable negro to
raise the same point which was raised in
q Mississippi case, of Wilson VS., the
State, to-wit that the exclusion of ne
groes from the voting list would exclude
them from jury service, and thereby de-
prive negro of due process of law when
tried for crime. 1t has never been Gus
tomary in this State, at least in my day,
to provide that a man must be voter
in order to serve upon a jury. If no leg
islation be adopted, containing such
provision, it seems to me clear that there
is no danger of jeopardizing the admins
tration of the criminal laws of the State,
or of getting the whole scheme of the
Constitution before Criminal court. In
the effort to obtain clean elections in
tnlS STATE IL was distinctly PROVIDED by
article 201, that the courts should have
jurisdiction, both to place man upon
registration lists, AMI to take him off,
provided he possessed the qualifications
prescribed by sections and of article
1877 Note that section was not includ-
ed in this article. Hence the Jurisdiction
of the courts was limited to the general
scheme of suffrage and did not apply to
the right to register under section 5.
You will note that it was also provided
that any, person desiring to retain his
right of suffrage, without complying with
the property or educational provisions of
the Constitution, must register before
September 1st. 1898, or, in other words,
within about 80 days after the adjourn
ment of the Convention. The list of
voters who registered up to September
1st is carefully preserved, and the sole
jurisdiction of the courts as to those per-
sons, is to remove from the list registered
prior to September LIST, 1898, the name
of any person who may have obtained
registration upon that list by false state
ment of fact, or through fraud Note
that the Constitution further provides that
all persons who do not, by personal appli-