The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-07-28
GIVE US A REIGN OF LAW

had a truer friend than the lat'
Senator George. His life, and
far more than ordinarily active
one it was, was spent in the service
of its people,-''my people, al
he loved to call them.-to q tal
greater extent than has fallen u
the lot of most of our post bellln
public men.
An active participant in the sur
ring events Of the reconstruc'lol
era, as chairman of the Democrat
ic Executive Committee (how Ia
the cry from that committee u
thisl how great the descent iron
the chairman then to the chair
man nowD which directed th'
forces of decent and honest gov
eminent in the battle which mark
ed the beginning of the long per
rod of white supremacy 10 thu
state, he, possibly more than any
other one individual, was potent IL
evolving order from anarchy and
law from chaos. Approaching as
he did the overshaeiowing and
vital importance to our society
our institutions, our very exls'
tence as a free people, OF reign
of law, as typifed in the rule OF
the intelligence and means OF the
state, as opposed to o government
of ignorance and vic'ousheSs
which was the inevitable con
comitant of control of affairs by
q mere brute majoity, generated
as was the debauchable horde
which then confronted him,
man who helped to win that vic
tory had a keener OR more depress-
ing realization of the eventuali-
ties to the victor inevitably con-
sequent upon perpetuation of
the then sole means of making the
victory secure. If ever in the po-
litical history of any people the
end justified the means most sure.
ly it did with us, yet General
George knew that the maxim Of
fered no guarantee against the
corruptlng of the political moral
ity of our people, sure to follow
in time upon the continuation Of
methods to justify which an APP
peal to the truth of the saying
was an ever present necessity.
The enforcement of intelll-
gence through constitutional
means was the object to the at
tainment of which he bent the en-
ergies of his latter years, and
he never ceased his efforts until
the Constitutional Convention of
1890 became an accomplished
fact.
1t is no disparagement to the
membership of one of the ablest
bodies ever assembled in America
to say that to his knowledge of
constitutional law, and his famil-
iarity with constitutional prece-
dents, particularly those of New
England and Republican states,
more than to any other one factor
in the framing of our constitution,
is due the credit for the promul-
cation of an organic law which has
passed successfully the ordeal of
a trial before the last tribunal of
the land.
For him who listened with the
determination to profit thereby,
the debates over the adoption of
the franchise clause of our consti-
tuition were filed with words of
wisdom. We shall never forget
one made by Gen. George. View
ed in the light of recent happen
ings, his words. addressed ten
years ago to that convention, seem
almost to have been spoken to this
day and to those men who are now
seeking selfish political ends
though unconstitutional methods,
and whose blind craftsmanship has
overrldden precedent, decency
and law.
He told his associates of his
great desire to see the people of
his state blessed with the certain
ty of an intelligent ballot through
methods beyond the reach of criti-
cism, and warned them against
the day, when,-throngh fail
ure TO adopt such measures as
we're then under discussion, the
public conscience would become
so scared and the public sense Of