The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-04

tion, but to declare that the state mad not a republican from of government, and proceed to "guarantee' by such corrective legislation as it might deem necessary; even to the extent of over throwing for the time being, the State Government or officials elected under void suffrage provisions. If 1t should attempt to do so, support for its action can be found in the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States In the noted cases of Luther v. Borden, and Texas V. White. In the latter case, Chief Justice Chase upholds, on such grounds. the measures taken with the Southern States after the war. The proposed plan of taking the bull by tte horns will not do on legal con- alterations, to say nothing of others of great importance, and 1t would involve the State or people in vast difficulties. Indirect Repeal by Acts of Officers
 in Administration Unconstitu-
 tional and Full of Evil.
 It is urged by others, who do not wish 'to take the bull by the horns. " that the desired results can be accom- plished by provisions naming the classes entitled to suffrage so as to ex- clude the vast body of negroes, or by general laws operating on their face on all, so administered, as to strike down the negro without touching the great body of the whites. It suffices to say that under the decisions of the Supreme Court a classification of per- sons entitled to suffrage which would not take in the negro, such as the des- cendants of persons who could vote in 1861. and the descendants of soldiers in certain wars, If 1t amounts to sub- stantial denial of suffrage to the negro as a race, would be violative of the Constitution. On such questions. the Supreme Court has repeatedly declar- ed that the natural and ordinary con- sequence of the enforcement of the law, no matter what it's words are, deter mines whether 1t violates or conforms to the Constitution, and that 1t will look behind the form to ascertain the substance. Whenever there is an enumeration by classes of persons en- titled to vote, not because they pos- sess some general qualification open to all. but because so classed. the classi- fication must not be so made as to in- clude so few of the negro race as to amount substantially to a disfranchise- ment of the negro as race. The fact that there may be a few negroes in each class of persons named by class, will not prevent the measure from fall ing under the censure of the Constitu- ton if the practical result is to dis franchise the negro as race The Constitution prevents the State from dealing with the negro as a race. whether 1t is done directly or indi- rectly, and compels the State to deal with him as an individuals: and the State can not prescribe qualifications for suffrage which prevent the negro from voting if he possesses the par ticular requirements; and ancestry or descent can not be made requirement of qualification.
 Phrases Cannot Overthrow Constitu-
 tion.
 It Is idle to contend that scheme of enumeration and chasing of groups so as to compose them altogether, or near ly so, of whites who are permitted to vote, not because of the possession of some qualification to vote, but merely because they are classed in such groups-when it's practical operation is such as to dfsfranchiSe the vast ma jority of the blacks-is not a violation of the prohibition against excluding the negro from the suffrage on account of his race, or, because he is a negro. It is accomplishing indirectly what can not lawfully be accomplished di- Iectly. Such action can not be upheld on the theory that these groups, so se- lected as to be composed almost en- tireiy of white persons are possessed of hereditary fitness for suffrage-not possessed by the negro as race, and it IS, therefore, permissible to exclude the latter. If the whites. as they cer- tainly do, possess hereditary fitness for Af their anfapndpnfS a and ancestry, what is that but a race characteristic? If men are excluded or admitted to suffrage on account of race characteristics or inherited traits of the race, what is that but conferring or denying suffrage on account Of race? What is it in it's last analysis, but a discrimination between the races on &C., count of race? In framing a Consti- tuition to avoid collision with prohibi- tion in the Federal Consultation, we can not effect or disguise our purpose by phrases or juggling with words.
 Williams Case Does Not Help In-
 direct Methods.
 Some neither wtsh ito take the bull by the horns," not to put in classified tions of persons. or their descendants, so as to include the bulk of the whites and disfranchise the bulk of the negro race but insist on a clause which, on its face, is unobjectionable, and applies equally to all men, but leaving its ad- mnistration to registrars or other of ficials so they may practically disfran- chise all the blacks and admit all the whites. They urge this is feasible un- der the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Will Hams vs. Mississippi, 16O U. $. Reports, 2l3, and in view of the great evils to be remedied, that this is the best and wisest solution. The Williams case has been greatly misunderstood and mis- quoted. The Supreme Court of the United States, on an appeal from a under the Constitution, only considers the particular clause of the Constitution which complainant sets up as having been violated by denial of the right claimed. Not a word is said in the case about the effect of the Fifteenth Amendment. The court, in fact, decid- ed only that the Mississippi law was fair on its face, and that there was no evidence in the case before it that it had been administered wrongfully. As if to guard against misunderstanding, it cited and quoted decisions to the effect that laws, however fair on their face and impartial in appearance, if applied and administered by public au- thority with an evil eye and unequal hand" fell under condemnAtion; and concluded it's opinion by saying that the Mississippi Constitution and stat utes did not, lon their face, discrimin- ate between the races" and that 1t had not been shown that their actual administration was evil-only that evil