The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-14

the United States. The platform of the state Nominating Convent;cn also de- clores that the Convention shall not make a Constitution which conflicts With that of the United States. The 1Sth article of the latter says that no St,te shah make any law which denies to any man the right to vote on &C., count of race. color or previous con dition. If the suffrage cla.3e uf the n.w Constitution denies the right ,s ali of the negro men in .he State to vote, t will be because they are ne- gro ss. Such Constitution would sub tcct She State to the loss of four out O. nine Representatives in Congress, aal reduce the right of the Stare in like manner in the Electoral College foi Prt rtsident, and could aot be su3- ta.nc,l in the courts. Neith.r ot tie new Constitutions of Mississippi and South Carolina anywhere mention ire negro or undertakes to prescribe hIs race or deny his right to vote. The latter State has an educational and property qualification which may cause a reduction in that States rep-esenta- tion.
 In the Fifty-first Congress Houk of Tennessee bitter Republic an, inlro-
 
 dietary Committee to bring in.a bin re- ducing the number of Representatives which the States of Mississippi and South Carolina had on account e an alleged disfranchisement of men as voters. contrary to the 1jth article of amendment. Judge Caswell Of Wis consin, wrSte a favorable report, which all the Republican members of the committee approved. I wrote tn! mi hority report, which all of the Dem- ocrats upon the Committee signed. It took the position that Congress could rot reduce the representation e a State until it ascertaineds the number who were illegally disfran chise1, and that was entirely lacking; ITS absence killed the proposition. MisSiaSippis representation can never be reduced. That prince Of constitutional lawyeIs $, Senator George. was in her convention and steered that body of lea: lod men to sound, legal conclusions.
 Mississippi's Constitution.
 Many uninformed people speak of Mississippi's constitution as disfran- chising all of the negroes, when there is in fact no mention of that race in the constitution of that State. The same test of qualifications to vote is applied to white and black alike. There
 
 constitution of that State, and hence that constitution has been passed upon and sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States. The qualifications required to make a man a voter in that State are much more liberal than I advocated in my letter for which some of the delegates to our Cpnven- tion object to making me the pres;d ing officer. I am told they have the aid of a certain big railroad corpora tion to accomplish my defeat because when Governor I vetoed a bill which had passed the General Assembly. by questionable means, in which that com pany was deeply interested. If I am ever defeated in any of my aspirations for refusing to be influenced to act contrary to my duty, or for the ex- pression of my honest opinion as to the best interests of the people, can stand it without humiliation. When know that I am right, I never grieve if others adhere to different conclu- sion. A consciousness of duty faith fully performed is worth more to me than the plaudfts of men. My candi- dacy for the presidency of the Conven- ton is not matter of ambition with me. but because in that position I be- lieve that could do more for the cause and in behalf of the people than oth- erwise.
 Hon. J. L. Power, Secretary of State, says that the constitution of Missis- sippi does not disfranchise the me- gro any more than 1t does the white man. It simply means that the citi- zen. black or white. who will not pay taxes. including the uniform poll tax of two dollars. to be used in aid If the common schools. on or before the first day of February of the year in which he offers to vote, and who Is not in- telligent enough to read any section of the State Constitution, or to under stand the same when read to him, or give reasonable interpretation tEere& ot, shall not be allowed to vote. In other words. he voluntarily disfran- chises himself for the period named. FTTf FTf the case Of tine poil tax, II VIII be noticed that no criminal proceedings vii he allowed to force its collection The only penalty is that the delinquent cannot vote. And the registration sta tistics of the several counties show that there are thousands of whites as we'll as blacks who thus disqualify themselves. And the fact that the poll tax is a school fund. and that cannot be otherwise applied, makes this de- linquency all the more to be regretted.
 'The total polls assessed in 1899 were 273,S77. which at $2 each would have made a school fund of $547.754. Of this, the total collected was $204, ,S57. 50. show ing that there was unpaid $253, ,417--the delinquents being mostly negroes"
 I have faith in the delegates chosen to the convention. They will of course not agree upon every proposition, nor fully upon any mans theory as to the suffrage but after due deliberation a satisfactory conclusion will be reached, and a good constitution win be fram- ed and submitted to the people for rat ification.