The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-30
ALABAMA SUFFRAGE
PROPOSED ARTICLE OF THE NEW
CONSTITUTION.
APE MANY RESTRICTIONS.
WILL SHUT OUT NEGRO AND FA.
vOR WHITE MAN.

All Veterans of Wars of the United
States, Except the Spanish-Ame
can War, and Their Lawful De-
scendants and All Who Can Read
and Write and Have Regular EN-
plOyment Can Register and Vote.
Husbands May Vote Where Wives
Have PrOperty-Strong Minority
Report Submitted.
Montgomery, Ala, June ga suffrage
and elections article for the proposed new
constitution was submitted to the Consti-
tutional Convention to-day. 1t provides
that to vote in any election a citizen
shall have resided in the state at least
two years, county one year and precinct
or ward three months preceding the elec-
ton, and he shall have been duly regis
tered and shall have paid all poll taxes
due. Following are the male citizens who
are the citizens of the United States, 81
years old or upwards, qualified to register
prior to Jan. l, 1903; All who have honor
ably served in the land or naval forces of
the United States, in the war of 1872, or
IN the war with Mexico, or in any war
with the Indians, or in the Civil War be-
tween the states, or who honorably served
in the land or naval forces OF the Confed-
crate States.
Lawful descendants of persons above
mentioned.
All others of good character and who
understand the duties of citizenship and
1e oIo r,ot,fc
After the first day of January, 1903, the
following persons, and no others, shall be
qualified to register as electors:
Those who can, unless prevented by
physical disability, read and write any
article of the Constitution of the United
States in the English language and who,
being physically able to work, have been
regularly engaged in some lawful busi-
ness or occupation, trade or caifing for
twelve months next preceding the time
they offer to register.
Husbands Vote for Wives.
The owner in good faith in his own
right, or the husband of a woman who is
the owner of forty acres of land in the
state, upon which they reside, or the hus-
band OF any woman who is the owner in
her own right of real estate in Alabama,
of the value of $500 or more or the owner,
or the husband of a woman who is owner
in her own right of personal property
assessed at $50 or more; provided, that all
taxes due by him for the next year pre-
ceding shall have been paid.
Those wa9Are Disqualified.
Following are the persons disqualified
both from, registering and from voting;
All IDIOTS ana insane persons, those VINO
shall be disqualified from voting at the
4r.f of This anngfitn-
tion, and those who snail nave neeil cor
vIcted of treason murder, arson, embez-
Element, malfeasance. in office, larceny,
obtaining property or money under fal sc
preten Ses, perjury, subornation OF perjury,
robbery, ASSAULT with intent to rob, forg-
cry, bribery. assault and battery on the
wife, bigamy, living in adultery, receiving
stolen property, sodomy, incest, rape,
miscegenation, crime against nature, or
any crime punishable by Imprisonment in
the penftentiary, or of any infamous crime
or crimes involving moral turpitude; also
persons who shall have been convicted as
vagrants and tramps, and any person who
shall sell or offer to sell his vote or the
vote of another, or who Shall buy or or
Ter to buy the vote of another, in any
election by the people or in any primary
election, or to procure the nomination or
election of any person to any office or
who shall suborn any witness or regis
trar to secure the registration of any per-
son as an elector,
A POLL tax OF $1.50 and county registTa-
ton boards are provided for.
The "Grandfather" Clause.
The minority report is signed by Frank
s, White, s. II. Dent George P. Harri-
son and w. c. Oates. 1t takes vigorous
exception to the grandfather clause" and
says:
The grandfather clause, which refers
to descendants of soldiers, violates the
federal constitution by undertaking, by in
direct means, to abridge the right to vote
to certain citizens. This is done by con-
ferring the right to vote upon descend
ants of soldiers. This class includes prac-
tically all the white and excludes prac-
tically an of the negro races it does not
prescribe a qualification bearing any
proper relation TO the capacity of the
voter to understand and discharge the
responsibilities of the elective franchise,
Dut fixes an arbitrary stat
u.s. depending solely upon his
descent from an ancestry, over which he
had and has no control, and which is
impossible of attainment by any exertion
on his part
This provision establishes a perma-
hent hereditary, governing class, which is
undemocratic, unrepublican and un-
American
1t insults the white men of Alabama,
and procaifns their inferiority to the ne
gro by requiring of them as suffragans,
lower standard of capacity and intelli-
Senee than that required by the negro.
1t IS impracticanle OF administration,
owing to the impossibiiity OF stablshing
with any certainty the descent from re-
mote ancestors"
A minority report was also brought In.
Both reports were ordered plSnted
The privileges of the floor were extend
ga to Hon. J. J. Sullivan Of Pensacola,
RIA, who-felicitated the delegates on the
cordial spirit manifested by the conven-
uon towards the annexation Of West
Florida