Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-06-14
. THURSDAY, JUNE, IA, 1900.
WALKING INTO A TRAP.

WALKING INTO A TRAP.
1t is no longer denied by the Southern
Democrats that it is their purpose to vio-
late or nullify the fifteenth amendment to
the Constitution of the United States.
Their purpose, they declare, is to disfran'
chise the negro voters and eliminate the
race question from politics. This may be
the purpose, but there is a strong and
well grounded suspicion that the object is
not go much to get rid of the race question
as it is to keep the South solidly Democrat
ic. The constant breaking away of white
voters from allegiance to the Democratic
party has caused much anxiety among the
leaders, who have become apprehensive
that strong white Republican vote with
portion of the negro vote would, before
many years, give the Republicans control
of several Southern States, perhaps nearly
all of them. This apprehension has been
strikinely manifested by recent events in
Virginia, the Democracy of this State sud-
denly awakening to the necessity of hav-
ing new constitution and for the declared
purpose of restricting suffrage in the inter-
est of their party.
In Louisiana, Mississippi and South
Carolina the work has already been done;
North Carolina and Alabama have taken
preliminary steps looking to the same end;
and Virginia is well on the road. There
is no denial OH the part of such men as
Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, and
Senator McEnery, of Louisiana, that in
their respective States the fifteenth amend
ment has been pulliied by State constitu-
tional enactment. The same admission
has been made as to Mississippi, and in
North Carolina, Alabama and Virginia the
constant avowal of the Democratic press
and leaders is that the negro must be dis
franchised.
Many persons are foolish enough TO
think that the means which have been
employed in framing the constitutional
provisions for DISTINGUISHING negroes, and
not whites, are of such nature as to make
an application of the penalty arising under
the fourteenth Amendment, because of Il
violation of the fifteenth amendment, i'm
possible. The "grandfathers" clause in
the Louisiana constitution is considered a
shrewd and clever piece OF work that will
stand the test in the Federal courts. 1t is
stated that the constitutionality of that
clause has been passed upon by the Su-
preme Court of the United States and sus-
tanned by that court. This, We think, is
mistake. The two Senators from Louisiana,
both Democrats, Caferey end McEnery,
have expressed the opinion that the
''grandfathers" clause will not stand the
test, and that the DISTINGUISHING clauses of
the State constitution are in conflict with
the fifteenth amendment.
1t looks very much like the Republican
leaders at the North are letting the South
ern Democrats walk into trap. The lat
ter will go on with their work of disfran-
chising the negro by State constitutional
enactment, and at the proper time Con-
grass will step in and infict the penalty
for violating the fifteenth amendment, by
applying the provision of the fourteenth
amendment for the reduction of the rep
resentation of certain Southern States in
Congress and in the Electoral College.
"Will you walk into my parlor?
Said the spider to the fly"
And the silly fly just walked in.