The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-09
Made Powerful Argument Yesterday For
the Constitutional Amendment.
DEMOCRATIC ALWA WHITE MANS PARTY
The Appeal of North Carolina for the Peaceful Allowance
of the Restoration of Her People to Their Former
Rights of Controlling Their Affairs Without
Negro Interference, Will Soon be An
nounced = Her People"

Washington, Jan. SIN the Senate to-
day the resolution heretofore offered by
Mr.. Pritchard, On. C), concerning racial
restrictions on suffrage was modified by
him so as to provide that any State en-
actment comforting the right to vote of
those descendant from certain persons
or classes of persons is violation of the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to-
the Constitution and repugnant to Repub
hcan institutions.
SENATOR MORGAN'S SPEECH.
Mr.. Morgan ,(Ala.), spoke against the
resolution. His speech in full is as fol
lows:
Mr.. President, the resolution read at
the desk reveals the fact that We have
danger point in the history of the Re
public which we can not avoid or neg
lect.
Tt has not been suddenly or designedly
sprung upon the country by any recent
event or by any recent political move
ment.
The immediate cause of this dangerous
condition originated more than a third of
century ago, a time that antedates the
birth of this generation of Americans.
The trouble has fingered like a smolder-
ing fire, burning into the yitals of the
country and creating discOrd and irrita-
ton, political and social, and now 1t
has reached the open and demands our
best efforts to control it.
The Senator from North Carolina (Alr.
pritchard) has wisely discerned that this
serious and unavoidable question Is now
before the country for solution by popu-
lar suffrage. With equal forecast, and,
doubtless, a desire for the peace of the
country ne asks for its consideration be-
fore the great event of a Presidential
election. the first in the new century, has
resulted in a vote of the electors for
President and Vice-President and before
February, 1901, when the election will be
ascertained and declared in the two
houses of Congress. In view of that
certain event, it is not possible that this
question can be repressed or eyaded,
either in the Presidential election or IN
the elections for all the members of the
House of Representatives and one-thlrd
of the Senate in this year of 1900.
The next apportionment of representa-
tisn in the House enjOined by the Con-
stitution must be made by this or the
Fifty-seventh Congress, and the princl-
Dles on which that apporionment will be
made viii be a question of the gravest
Importance in the elections that must be
held in November of the present year.
To refuse now to consider this question,
i'm advance of these elections. is to draw
the country into the vortex of angry and
dangerous excitement such as seriously
threatened the safety of the Republic in
1876 and 1877.
Whichever of the great national parties
i successful i'm the November elections.
4his question will be raised iii the~eount
of the votes for President and wee
President =
1t is a very high and solemn duty that
should be performed before the elections
are held and at time when the decision
will not be so likely TO refer to the sue
cess of either party in that event Whlch
determines the succession to the Presl-
dency and is the most momentous poh-
tical contest that occurs in any NATION
Of the world.
In the light of our experience IN lS1I,
which created a feeling of unrest that
has not vet ceased. we can not afford TO
hermit an unsettled question tnat we
know can not be avoided to en-
gender another controversy such as arose
i'm the Hayes-Tilden election. The peo-
pie should decide it in the election of n.
d. 1900 upon propositions submitted TO
them in some form, either affirming or
setting aside such action as Congress
shall first declare should be taken upon
the resolution now before the Senate.
I am convinced that no other tribunal
except the people voting in the elections
has the right or the power to finally
settle this question here presented in the
resolution offered by the Senator from
North Carolina, and / will endeavor TO
sustain this view of the matter i'll my
further remarks to the Senate.
\ DODGE FOR NOTORIETY.
The resolution as amended and also i'll
its original form is not intended to have
the force of law, as it should have. if the
Senator from North Carolina really de
Sires such action as will settle the ques-
ton he forces upon the attention of the
country. 1T is only an expression as to
what he thinks the law ought to be.
Tt is not an enactment. but is the eX-
preston of a view or opinion. If such a
resolution is not obeyed, there are no pen
alties for its violation, either by individu-
als or by the State. No results follow
its violation in any legal sense. A de-
parture from the principle stated in the
resolution as correct principle of gov
ernment involves only a difference of
opinion between those who adhere to it
and those who choose TO reject 1t.
The resolution. in its original form and
as it us modified, if it is adopted, would
not control this or a subsequent congress