The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-25

I stripes all over his back with my sword l to force him to fight, and he .alseiy l said. "I am wounded" He got up and rode saplings ten feet high running to | the rear and out of danger. He was l white man! You tell me that man Is better than Willis Hill, that negro? No. I would trust the ballot or any thing else to Willis Hill long ways | in preference to that white man, or his son. All white men that were soldiers are not angels, nor are the descend- ants of them. No man honors good soldier more than l do. My aSsocia- | tion with them was from the first to | the last. It was my fortune to serve | in an old regiment that was in thirty-3 | nine engagements. as the roll will show from tn, files in the Adjutant Gener- 1 als office. I happened to be in twen- ty-seven of them. and while it is no concern to you how many marks of bullets are on my body, did my duty. and I am going to do it here, and ev- erywhere else, as long as God lets me live. tApplause.) But, gentlemen, it will not do for us to undertake to tie our hands to anything that don't run right all the way through. want to be little broader and more liberal than that. I have no contentious with this Committee. of which I have the honor to be a member, except where based | on my conscientious conviction. and I concede to them their right to differ | with me as broadly as I claim the right to differ with any of them.
 Now, gentlemen, there is this other 1 objection to this provision. tell you | 1t is regal form of government, or | royal form of government, which is | sustained by the doctrine of inherit ance. It never has a place properly anywhere in our American form of government. would like, If I only had the time, to have read some of the | letters I have received from our dis tingufshed Senator. I have not always, nor do now on every question, agree with Senator Morgan. but can say of him from my long acquaintance with him. and my close observance of his work in the Congress of the United states, that he is a learned man, the most learned and versatile man in the Senate of the United States. (Ap- plause.) He is patriot. He is learn ed in the law, and the old mans heart is in his work, and never in money, | It Is in completing that great column Of glory that he has erected to him. self by twenty odG years of service there, that he is now engaged. Of his letter to me on July 2nd, I will read only one paragraph: My Dear Gen. eral-I agree with the minority in their objections to the second subdivision of | Section 4 of the suffrage ordinance reported to the Convention. The lan- guage of the subsequent sections" and
 then he goes on to discourse upon it | generally.
 Now in another letter of July 10, from | warm Springs, he says: My Dear | General-If I were to address you by the title l would prefer, 1t would be that Of Confederate Colonel, but you | and general Wheeler and others have united in your military histories events that are so significant of the restored harmony between the white citizen- ship of the United States. and so hon. orable to the motive that has influ- enced your action. that I am proud to address you as Brigadier General of
 United States Volunteers. Surely the people or the North will give you credit for honesty when you
 still proclaim the necessity for white l supremacy secured by law. in the | states that are dominated or threat
 ened With negro supremacy in govern
 ment, to degree that requires the un- lawful manipulation of the ballot box
 as the means of public security. In the letters l have written you and others
 touching the action of the Constitu- | tional Convention on the suffrage ques-
 tion, my purpose has been to suggest
 rational methods by which white su- premacy can be secured by the laws
 that are consistent with the Constitu-
 tion of the United States, and as my
 letters to members of the Convention
 are intended only to promote its pur-
 poses without reference to the ques-
 tions of party policies, I have no wish
 that they should be treated as private
 or confidential. Every citizen has the right to offer suggestions on such a
 matter, and 1t is no intrusion if they
 are made in respectful terms. l have
 the additional fact that as a Senator, | I must answer in debate and by my
 vote on questions that are certain to
 arise in Congress relating to negro
 suffrage, to excuse my anxiety as to
 what will be the action of the Con-
 vention. Consequently have written
 letters to you and the Honorable
 Frank s. White. Honorable B. H. Craig
 and others, all of which are to be used
 at the discretion of the gentleman to
 whom they are addressed"
 have presumed, MT. President and
 gentlemen, to read that much of these
 letters from Senator Morgan to snow wou why it is he Is interested so deeply not only as 8 citizen but as a Senator |
 tuition we adopt will be brought under
 review, and attacks will be ma le upon it. He Is our mouthpiece to whom we
 must look to defend our action here.
 Then ought you to put anything in the l Constitution which is not absoIutely
 essential to your welfare, which would
 embarrass him. and his associate. Sen ator Pettus? Answering any and all
 of these questions l think not. I think
 it is, as I stated before, wholly un- necessary and it is un-American. Why
 should we have any inherItaDle port ical right? Did you ever hear of it be- fore. Why our country and government proceeds upon the hypothesis that
 commonly speaking every tub stands
 on its own bottom. and It ouGhI to so
 stand. That is Americanisn. Not that there should be an inheritable political
 right, with respect to voting or any
 thing else. We do not want anything
 of the kind. Some say. however. and
 the able delegate from Greene (Mr.
 Coleman) In his speech says. who would
 deny the right of the son of the father
 that wore the grey in defense of his | country? An, that is narrow view! If the son was worthy of the father Wko did his duty, I would say never dely to
 him the privilege. hut not give # to
 him as right established by nheri-
 tance. We must not shut our eyes to
 the facts. that there were good many
 that wore the grey who did not wear II
 very honorably. We know that. We | I,,l