The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-26

ana d partisan vote was prepared for
 if in the twinkling of an eye. turned
 loose as an enraged mob upon the
 proud people of Alabama .who had
 made it's name the glorious thing 1t Is.
 Before the white man saw that his
 right was infringed upon. when ne saw the ballot appear in the hands Of his own blood. he loved and respected
 it above any power in the civic laws
 under God Aimighty's sun. Then 1t was kept pure. The negro did not vote.
 Nobody voted but the white man, and
 1t reminds me of that story of the ves- tai Virgins, and the temple there in
 Rome. where the vestal Virgins kept
 the sacred fires burning forever, and the Roman consuls would gather there and offer up their sacrifices and their prayers before entering upon the dis charge of their duties to their country,
 hut when the sacred fires went out. and
 profane fires burned upon the hearth stone, they felt that virtue had gone out of the temple. and they no longer
 worshiped there. and made tneir o1- ferings. They lost respect largely Tor tha sacred temple, and Mir. President.
 when the white people of Alabama
 marched out on the occasions fixed by law to settle the great questions at the
 ballot box, and walked up elbow to elbow with their own brethren. it may
 be they were arrayed on opposing sides,
 they deposited their ballots, the re- suit was counted out and they shook
 hands and all was well. Nobody but the proud Caucasian cast his vote. Mo-
 body but him dared to walk upon the sacred soil about the ballot box in that day, and time. but when slavery was no more. when the slave was given the "A hrN Vrn a Ire ed to the ballot box. the proud spirit of the white man felt to large ex- tent that the virtue of the ballot had been removed, had flown and he did not respect it as he did in the glad days that were gone. We want to see that glad time restored in Alabama, and 1t is going to be restored. The people hope that this Convention will carry out the pledges that were made to the people, and unless they do, the people will pass final judgment upon our work here, and will not endorse our action. They tell us what the Supreme Court
 may say and do. l want to remind gentlemen what the supreme authority in Alabama will say and do if you do not obey It's mandate. do not be- iieye that we are violating the Consti- tuition of the United States. If 90. am willing to trust my destiny along that line with the distinguished President of this Convention and the chairman of the Suffrage Committee, and the other distinguished gentlemen who made the able argument on yesterday, Mir. Walker from Madison, and the other gentlemen who have spoken on | this question, and the able lawyers in this body. am willing to tske their decision in respect to its constitution | wf h of young men that General Harrison referred to. I hope to God that I will always stick along the line that I have started on, of living up to the pledges | that make to my people. have not grown beyond that yet. want to | live up to the pledges that have made | to them. We all must do that. They spoke of the young man back wonder | who said that he could drink all the blood that would be spilled in the war. | and whip the North with pop guns. 1 We have all heard that old story. We | know those were bloody times. but would remind them for a moment of | these of whom I speak, when l speak of the Confederate soldier and his de- | scendants. I would remind the gentle man that 1t was a Southern man who | wrote the Declaration of Independence; l that 1t was Washington who led the 1 triumphant cause of the American In- ! dependence; that 1t was Madison who | wrote the Constitution; that 1t was Marshall and Fancy who construed the law; that it was Winfield Scott and Jefferson Davis that carried our lag | into the heritage of the Montezumas. | I would say to them that 1t was these | Southern men that for four long years fought the battle of their country, and | they could never have fought as they l did at Gettysburg, perished as they | did at Cramptonj's Gap unless they | had fought for the loved principle. and | the descendants of these men you say | will be humiliated and cast down when | they approach the ballot box to reg
 ister their will upon the public ques- l tions, must be required to state them
 selves descendants of Confederate eol- | diers Far be 1t from him. There will
 never be single instance in this State
 of that sort. Not one.
 MT. Pettus Gimestone)-Mr. Presi-
 dent, move that the time of the gen.
 tleman from Chambers be extended | twenty minutes.
 The motion prevailed and the time
 was extended.
 MT. Hefiin (Chambers)-1 thank the Convention. l do not think that I will
 take up the time. MT. President. we | have here a peculiar state Of amairs. | Here we have a widowed woman, who owns possibly a hundred thousand dol
 lars worth of property. She is disfran- l chised. She cannot under our law vote | in any election. You say that Is taxa ton without representation. You argue that in defense of the negro, and you
 say that you are not going to tax him | without allowing him to vote, or to
 shut off his voice in public affairs, and
 yet here is this property that you are
 taxing today, the property of all ths
 women in the State who have not hus-
 bands or sons old enough to vote. with
 out representation.
 Under our law, Mir. President, the
 Chinaman and the Indian cannot vote. Why discriminate against the children l of the forest, the Red Man. who, by
 some means in the plan of God AL
 mighty, owned this country before we found it? Why say to them that we
 will shut them away from the ballot
 box, and say to the negro whom we found in Africa, roaming the woods like a beast, brought here and sold slave, we will elevate you to the high
 plane of a citizen in Alabama, and arm you with the ballot, but say to the ln- dian, you cannot vote; and. as was
 said by the gentleman from Wilcox (Mr. Jenkins), some of the proudest blood in Alabama today is Indian blood. Some men in Alabama are
 proud of that blood. but we have
 said to the Red Man, you cannot vote, but to the negro, you may.
 | MT President I love to think of how