The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-27

with myself, and to be led by my hon. est convictions of duty. must dissent from Section { of that report. There are two reasons which bring about this dissent. The first is that, although not | a lawyer, I think have some capacity to interpret and understand my mother tongue. I believe it Is in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Fed eral Constitution. You remember, sir. and we all remember, that in the or ganization of this Convention on the z1st of May last, every man of us. of our own accord, stood up in this his- | toric hall, and with uncovered head and | uplifted hands and with bated breath. deliberately took an oath to support | the Constitution of the United States, | and in my judgment. we are undertak- | ing to do a thing indirectly that we cannot do directly. and it Is a great | principle in law, in morals and in re- ligion, and everything that s high and right. that it Is wrong to do thing | indirectly that we cannot do directly. 1 must confess. sir. that ever since these States have taken this step. while 1t | was done by Democrats and bv white men. in spite of myself. 1t has lowered them in my estimation as great, honorable. high toned class of ..1eiE allow no man to excel me In my loyalty | to the Democratic party. For forty | long years I have never scratched a name from the Democratic ticket. allow no man to excel me in my sd- miration and esteem of the Confederst te soldier. because no man that lived through the war left more blood upon the field of battle than I did. Yet. when I am confronted with this solemn oath, not only registered here in the I IL. .f |. by the recording angel on high. and which you and l must meet at the end. I am not prepared to join here in doing thing indirectly which I have sworn not to do directly. I cannot vote with the majority, on conscientious scruples.
 l cannot vote with them for another | reason believe the grandfather clause is wrong in principle. AS have said, no man would accord to Con- federate soldier, or to any other sol dier, and his descendants. down through all the coming years. more than I would. I have five sons who are voters. and some grandsons who are voters and while they may bt proud. possibly. of the record of theii father and their grandfather, as { Confederate soldier, I risk nothing 1T saying that they would not appreciate in any degree the privilege of going side by side with their neighbor tc the polls, and being allowed to vote because they were sons of Confed- crate soldier, and their neighbor who was not in that condition, be required to come up to other qualifications
 These. MT. President. are the reasons for my dissent from the majority re- port, and I regret 1t. because l esteem | Ii oh nlittee is composed of men of distin- guished ability. men whose honesty
 integrity and patriotism l have nc reason to question, but these are Ques- tions, my friends, which every one must decide for himself. I will moi detain the Convention longer. These are briefly some of my reasons, and the main ones. why I dissent from the report of Section of that Article.
 MT. Kyle (Etowahl-It is only fif- teen minutes before adjournment, and as I have not occupied the time of the Convention for a moment during these fifty-odd days, I desire to make few remarks, and state the reasons why cannot support the pen1ing question As l understand it, we were sent here to amend the Constitution, so as tC have frachise clause which would allow every white man in the State tc vote, and at the same time not tc violate any provision of the ConsIitu- ton. Now, sir. l desire to speak or this question from a business stand. point. and the point of public policy. shall not attempt, not being lawyer to go into the question of the consti' nationality to any degree. 1 will leave that to the able gentlemen who have discussed the question on both sides I will say, however, that if l were sit ting here as juror, and the question had been presented as this has been pre- sented. I should certainly he one of the jury that would bring in mis- trial. When we go before the people sir, for the ratification of this Con- stitution (and all of our work here amounts to nothing unless it is rati- fied), what is the condition that con fronts us? AS able men as there are in the State, men learned as lawyers and as constitutional lawyers, tell us
 sir. that the adoption of this grand father clause will probably bring about | difficulties in the future that will ar rest the progress of the State, and heI grand development which is low in progress. Capitalists, not only of this State. but. of other States, are looking to us in relation 10 the fundamental law we are about to esta biish, and trey will say the question is so doubtful in Alabama. as to the result of this grandfather clause. would ather nol invest my money there until the ques- tior is settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. It will hereby intimidate capitalists from investment
 When we look upon it from this stand point. 1t does seem to me, sir, if we CoulC allow every white man 70 vote in the State. under the third clause of this section which we are now discus sion. it would be impolitic to engraft upon the Constitution a provision that would bring up these untold difficulties which the learned gentlemen of the minority report have told us about | Now. sir, it is only on that point that l want to draw the attention of the Convention. Shall we weight 1t down | with a clause that imperils not only l the liberties of the people of Alabama l by a reconstruction measure, by the | appointment Of a provisional Cover | nor and all those untold horrors we have had In the past. when we can carry out our pledges. and fulfill every l obligation that we have entered into | with the people who sent us here, ty l the third section of this arti cle? It oc- CUTS to be- sir. 1t would be unwise to | do it. AS I view the question, sir, the body polite of the State of Alabama has a fostering sore. and Te have Teen | sent here to relieve the 1tate of thai | difficulty. We have called in the doc tors; they have diagnosed the case | about one-half of the learnAd gentle men on each side have differed in theil l One has said that NOll TIllISi