The age-herald., 1901-05-26

In other countries-emiRrant who cannot read and write could not vote nor could white people who were unable to vote in the State in which they lived prior to 1887, unless they were able to read and write. If it be said that this exception permits many more white people to vote than me- groes, the answer was that this would be equally true of any proper qualification which might be proposed. It would be true of an educational qualification, and 1t would be true of property qualification the validity of which has never been ques- toned.
 These provisions are justified In law and in morals, because it Is said that the negro is not discriminated against on account of hls race. but on account of his intellectual and moral condition. There is difference, it Is claimed with great force, between the uneducated white man and the ignorant negro. Before the art of reading and writing was known, the ancestors of the Anglo-Sax had established an orderly system of government, the basis in fact of the one under which we now life. While the negro on the other hand. Is descended from a race lowest in intelligence and moral perception of all the races of men. As was remarked by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Will Hams vs. Mississippi Q70 U. S., HS), quot ing the Supreme Court of Mississippi Restrained by the Federal Constitution from discriminating against the negro race, the Convention discriminates against its characteristics and the offenses to which its criminal members are prone" And in the Wilson case. the Supreme Court of the United States. referring to that, said that the Convention had swept the field of expedients to obstruct the ex- ercise of suffrage of the negro race, but that they were permissible expedients.
 As stated by Judge Cooley the right of suffrage is not natural right, because 1t exists where 1t is allowed to be exercised only for the good of the State,-to say that those whose participation in the affairs of the State would endanger and emperil the good of the State have, nevertheless, the right to participate, is not only folly in it. self, but 1t Is to set the individual above the State.
 Right of Suffrage In Massachusetts.
 The election laws in Massachusetts con- tain substantially the same provision as are embodied in the Constitution of Louis lana and North Carolina just referred to- The election law of that State, as it stands today, provides that the voter must be able to read the Constitution of the Commonwealth in the English language, and to write his name, except that mo person who is prevented from reading and writing as aforesaid, by physical disa- D1llty, or WHO ndQ the flBnL to VOIo on the first day of May in the year 1857, shall, if otherwise qualified be deprived of the right to vote by reason of not being able so to read and write.''
 While it is true that the provision of this law do not extend to the descend ants of the voter, yet 1t does not seem that on that account the principle involv- ed would be effected. 2.
 The exception In the Massachusetts law was no doubt directed against illiterate and incompetent immigrants, whereas the provisions in the Constitutions of Louis- jana and North Carolina were directed against illiterate and incompetent negroes as well as foreigners.
 But it is beyond the province of the courts, 1t is claimed, to inquire into the motives of the law-making power; their function Is confined to ascertaining the meaning and effect of the law drawn in question. These views have been elabor- ated and ably defended by Mr. Semmes, Louisiana, and by MT. Rountree and Sen ator Simmons, of North Carolina, from whose able arguments I have greatly profited.
 They find strong support in the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States. in the Mississippi case, where it is said, 'If weakness were to be taken advantage of, it was to be done within l the field of permissible action, under the 1 limitations imposed by the Federal Con- | stitution, and the means of it were the all | legged characteristics of the negro race, | not the administration of the law by off, | cers of the State. Besides, the operation | CContin,,ed on Thirteenth Page.)