The age-herald., 1901-07-26

We are now having an easy time, but in a close political contest partisan Re- publican body would cause trouble for the States like Alabama and Mississippi He concluded amid applause.
 MT. Hehln of Chambers.
 MT. Hefiin of Chambers said this was a great problem we had to solve. Since man lost paradise he had been in search of an ideal country. It was this love that has carried the torch of revolution through the blood of many wars seeking the light of liberty. It was never found until the Goddess of Liberty lifted her torch over the land of the free and the home of the brave. Here in America a government of liberty was established for all. The negro, however, was brought here as a slave. He is inferior to the white man and knows 1t himself. The war was on question of states rights, and not question of slavery. They were freed as war measure and afterwards were given the right to march side by side with the white man and deposit their ballot.
 The exercise of the right of franchise Is the birthright of the white man and the privilege of the negro Placing in his hand the ballot was the most diabolical piece of political knavery in the history of the world. President Lincoln never fa- vored giving the franchise to the negro. Many of the northern states voted against it. The Confederate soldier, I believe was the bravest the world has ever seen, and yet the gentlemen of tue minority tell us it will humiliate' his son to own that he is his son. It is an honor to be the son of a Confederate. (Applause).
 We have told the white people of Ala bama for years that we want to disfran- chise the negro, who has hung about the ballot box with his vote for sale. Why did not these gentlemen of the minority talk of these views of theirs before they entered the convention? We are all elect ed on the same platform, which pledges us not to disfranchis& single white man and to disfranchise hhe negro. In olden times when only the white man voted the ballot box was sacred. It has been pro- famed by the negro, but we are going to purify it and restore it's sanctity.
 A woman in Alabama who may be worth hundred thousand dollars cannot vote. The Chinese and Indians cannot vote, and why would you take this Afri- can savage and say he may vote? We have heard the tributes paid the negro during the war, but, MT. President, this was the old-time slave. We love him and the old negro mammy. But the negro of today is a different article. The old negro Is pass ing away, but the young bucks have got to be attended to. (Great applause).
 He spoke of a negro he had seen this morning blowing goo-goo eyes on piece of watermelon. He was happy, and was simply negro, just as they had been for thousands of years.
 The white man bought this country with his blood and he is entitled to rule 1t, and the negro has no right to have voice in its management. If the negro was let alone he would be happy and content. am opposed to disfranchising single white man. be he ever so lowly. He con cluded amid much applause.
 Captain White Speaks.
 Captain White, who had also signed tho minority report said he regretted that he had to differ with the majority in tho main feature of their report, but that they differed only as to the means to be employed. They understood their commis- sion from the people exactly alike-to 'tslter away from the unworthy the ballot and to conf1ne it to those who understood the sacredness of its use.
 It is not surprising we differ. At the outset we were confronted with two bar riers the fifteenth and fourteenth amend ments, which shielded the negro from at tack, and the Democratic platform which said that no white man should be de- prived of his right to vote Without the privilege of discriminating against the negro as a negro and with this pledge of the Democratic party, was 1t strange that we should differ as to the means or method to be employed. I have faced responsibilities since was a boy. I shared the duties of war and did my humble part under Forrest, I have seen the horrors of reconstruction and the time when a white man had no rights. I felt serious then, but I did not feel any more serious then than do today. We are called together to reform the suff- rage, and we must do that work right in such way as will stand the tests of the courts and of Congress- This is a time when the deepest reason and patriot ism should be with us in our work The majority and minority plans are striving towards the same end. I differed with the majority as to the constitutionality of that part of the plan which gave to sol diers and their descendants the right to vote without regard to any other qualifi- cations. It is not what we want or like but what can we do to reform the suff- rage in the face of the provisions of the fifteenth amendment.
 The first provision in the uan Is valid. The next provision is that Soldiers can kote The next Is that their descendants can vote The next Is that pefsons of good character can vote who understand the duties of citizenship under 4 republican form of government IA
 You have one class that HEust possess <good character and anotheH class that need not possess that Qualifdk ton at all. Then. I ask you, if you hav& not discri- minated in favor of one clas5&against the other? Have you not erectedA plan upon which one class must stand &nd a plane upon which another may stshd? Having one condition for one ar0Gp and another for the other, the uiestfon is, has race. ,.olor or previous condition of servitudc enything to do with the formation of ei- ther group? Good character may apply to either group. One group, however is formed of soldiers and descendants of sol- diers. The revolutionary soldier and the soldier of 1872 has passed away So have the soldiers of the Indian wars and therc are probably not a hundred in Alabama who were in the Mexican war. Most of the Confederate soldiers have passed a. way. Take their descendants. Every de- scendant of the revolutionary Swar. the war of 1872, the Indian wars and tho Mexican war are all white men, The descendants of the Confederate soldiers are all white men. Ninety per cent of the descendants of Federal soldiers in AL abama are white men. There were only a few negro soldiers. 2570 men, furnished the Federal government by Alabama at the close of the war. It Is not a question of what I want; it is a question of what we can do. Can we discriminate? We know we can't. Have we done so? say that 95 per cent of those who can vote under this plan are white men onIy. The question is not have ySu discrimina- ted against the negro in lterms but in effect Suppose we adopt a provision that no man without straighf hair should vote. Would not this be a discrimlna-