The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-25

event of the exercise of that power so as to give the right to vote to- all white men, and to take 1t away from all black men, was that its represent ation in the Lower House of Congress might be reduced in proportion to the number whose right to vote was de- nied. Now that was the extent Of the operation oi the Fourteenth Amend ment The right of the State to confer vote upon all white men as such, ana to exclude all black men as such. re- mained unimpaired. There was simply a penalty imposed upon the exercise of this power. Now while the Fourteenth Amendment did not mention the matter of race specifically, it Is known as matter of history that the occasion of the adoption of that amendment was the contemplated probability that in the Southern states black men would continue to be excluded from the suf frage. and there were simply put upon this section of country that penalty, involving merely the loss of propor- tion of its representation in the lower House of Congress. But the success full part of the country in this great movement of which the war between the States was a part, concluded that the extent of this restriction had not been. satisfactory to them, and they concluded to go further. What did they do? They adopted the Fifteenth Amendment. which provides that the right of a citizen of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. You will ob- serve that they do not confer the right upon the class of men who could be ex- -t. .t An Fourteenth Amendment. They did not confer upon them that right. While so far as the suffrage is concerned the Fourteenth Amendment was directed against the action of the Southern States in depriving negroes of the suf- frage, when 1t came to the adoption of tho Fourteenth Amendment they did not deny the right of State. They did not confer the right of suffrage upon that class of citizens who form erly might have been denied the suf- frage. Now consider for a moment the variety of discrimination that might have been adopted by the States before the Fifteenth Amendment was passed, and then consider how far that wide choice was curtailed by the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment. Before the Fifteenth Amendment was passed
 
 right to vote to the educated, to the property holders. to natives. to persons who were the descendants of the peo- pie of this country at the time of the Revolutionary war, for instance, to persons who were the descendants of people who had migrated to this coun- try from a certain part of the Eastern hemisphere, for instance, to persons who for stated period of time had been accustomed to the exercise of the rights of popular government as 1t was practiced in England or in Amer lea; and they might have confined 1t so as to exclude all men of Spanish descent, or of French descent, UT of Italian or of Polish. Hungarian or Rus sian descent. There was a great field of choice left in the State in reference to this matter. Now how far has that choice been curtailed? Certainly. cer- tainly there has been no curtailment by that provision of the right of the States to make d selection from its population of those who by reason of intelligence or possession of good char acter were fit to exercise the suffrage. There was no requirement under the operation of the Fifteenth Amendment that all negroes should have the right to vote equally with all white men. There was no requirement that the proportion of negroes who were allowed same as the proportion of white men who were allowed the franchise. I think some confusion in reference to the opera tion of this fifteenth amendment has found place in the public mind by reason of undertaking to apply to this question certain decisions, certain ex- pressions used by the Supreme Court of the United States in dealing with the fourteenth amendment, and 1 sub init that those decisions and those ex- pressions which are relied upon are not properly applicable to this ques- tion which we are now dealing with. The two amendments are very differ ent propositions. The fourteenth amendment. except in the respect that I have called your attention to it operated upon the civil right of all members of society, the right to life, liberty and property, the right to fol- low all the pursuits of business. the right to make contracts, the right to sue in the courts, the right to have ev- idence. the same as everybody else. the right to have the laws against crime apply to all alike. That amendment in broad terms established a rule of equality. It operated to make the laws throughout all this broad land fall like the gentle dew from heaven upon all the people alike. The fifteenth amend ment on the other hand, recognized the existence of a rule of inequality. It recognized the right of State to make selection of those upon whom the right of suffrage should be conferred. At that very time and up to this good time political rights are all conferred under rules of inequality. There is no such thing as an equality in the po-
 litical right of suffrage. Under our present system we do already what the suffrage committee has attempted to carry farther. We establish qualifi- cations as to character and Qualifica- tions as to intelligence, although under the system as it now stands lack of character cuts no figure unless it is so glaring as to put the person among those who are convicted of crime, has been publicly and officially recognized by a conviction of crime. A fack of intelligence is also made a test of qualification to the extent of exclud
 ing those who are classed as idiots and insane persons. Now we simply, by this provision, fix a standard of character and intelligence. We draw the lines closer than heretofore drawn but we are exercising the same power as was exercised when our present sys- tenn was established. and submit that the right of making the selection with reference to the lack of character or lack of intelligence is one that is still left with the States, and that there is nothing in the fifteenth amendment to deny the validity of any provision