The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-08-08

vote secured to them by the amend
ments 10 the national Constitution adopt
ed after the suppression of the rebel
lion in the States of the South. Sub
joined is the section containing the
gist of the scheme which has been
adopted by South Carolina, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and now by North Caro-
lima, and is under consideration by
other States of the Old South:
Section 4. Every person presenting him
self for registration shall be able to read
and write any section of the Constitution in
the English language; and before he shall
be entitled to vote, he shall have paid on or
before the LIST day of May OF the year in
which he proposes to vote his poll tax for
the previous year, as prescribed by Article
| ", Section L. Of the Constitution. But no
male person who was on January 1, 1857
or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote
under the laws Of any State in the United
States wherein he then resided, and no
lineal descendant Of any such person, shall
be denied the right to register and vote at
| any election in this State by reason of his
failure to possess the educational qualifics-
ton herein prescribed, provided he shall
have registered in accordance with the
terms OF this section prior to December l,
1898. The General Assembly shall provide
| for registration of all persons entitled to
vote without the educational qualifications
herein prescribed, and shall, on or before
November 1, 1908, provide for the making of
| q rannrI nj auah rauiatratinn
and all persons so registered shall forever
thereafter have the right to vote in all cleo
tions by the people in this State, unless dis
qualified under Section 2 OF this article,
provided such person shall have paid his
poll tax, as above required
The clause of this section, declaring
that "no male person who was on JAN
uary l, 1867, or at any time prior there
to, entitled TO vote" etc., was borrowed
from Louisiana, in whose amended
Constitution it is Section s, and is COM
monty known as "the grandfather
clause" Its obvious purpose is to dis
franchise illiterate negro citizens with
out DISTINGUISHING illiterate white citi-
zens. Senator Butler of North Carolina
characterized this clause in the Senate
last winter as an ''arbitrary attempt to
create a special privileged ancestral
class" The Limitation it imposes on
the suffrage is regarded, even by men
of the South who have defended it, as
a direct violation of the fifteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States which reads as follows:
The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any State on &C
count Of race, color, or any previous condi-
ton of servitude.
The North Carolina amendment, Just
adopted, requires that "every person
presenting himself for registration shall
be able to read and write any section of
the Constitution in the English lam
guage." Prior to 1857 in few of the
northern States and in none of the
States of the South was negro allowed
to vote. This limitation as to time
draws the dividing line sharply between
white and black illiteracy. Under it,
white illiterates entitled to vote Jan. l,
1867, or at any time prior thereto, in
any State of the Union, and their lineal
descendants, shall be allowed to vote
the black illiterate shall not. The per-
centage of illiteracy is very great
among both blacks and whites. BY
reason, therefore, of the discrimination
this amendment creates large body
of white illiterates will escape the dis
reimbursement that is contrived for
their sable brothers.
Mr.. Bryan and his fellow Democrats
are greatly concerned about the VIC
lence done to the precepts of the De.
claration of Independence in the Phil.
ippines. In four of the States which
are reckoned to vote for him as surely
as the sun shall rise on the day of the
national election the right of self gov.
eminent, the consent of the governed,
has been taken away by constitutional
amendment from a large part of the
legal voters; in others it is denied
by law or withheld by violence or fear
Of violence. The foundations OF self
government are being laid by a Repub-
lican administration in Cuba, Porto
Rico and the Philippines, while the
suffrage has been taken away from cit
liens of the United States in several
States of the Union in which the Dem.
ocratic party holds the supreme polit-
ical power, and in other such States the
consent of the governed is abridged by
law or overborne by the shot gun.
becomes nauseating indeed.
In China,