The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-24

v t0tc OA <1ldU6Ild. A CttAkCA V 0tf---O land here. citizen of Great Britain owning land here may come to the city or Montgomery, for instance, De pleased with the social surroundings, and declare his intention to become citizen. He goes back home, he re- mains several years. he comes back, ne never has perfected his citizenship and yet an election Is held and he chooses to vote. He votes for the electors for President. for the Governor. for your legislature, for your Congressman, for your judges of every court. from jus tice of the peace to the Supreme Court. Now. 1t does seem to me that men who have no interest In this country should not be permitted to vote at the elec- tions. To those gentlemen who have so much sympathy for the foreigner who has merely declared his intention, let me say that have quite as much, and that l have canvassed Alabama in be- half of the rights of foreign citizens when many of those gentlemen were not born, or were playing marbles in the school-yards. I have always. been the friend of the foreigner. 1t is a fact we'll known where I live, but I do not believe that any foreigner, however wise. virtuous or worthy he may be, has right to participate in this gov ernment unless he is in a condition to bear its burdens. A foreigner here who has declared his intention cannot be compelled to bear arms in defense of the State. he cannot be enlisted in your police. he cannot be recruited for any purpose, and. therefore, it seems to me. that he who cannot be com- pelled to support the government should not have the privilege of making its policies and of voting for it's chief off, AI,,% ,It.,~ 1te- will not be adopted by this Convention. I can see no reason why a man from Italy or Turkey or any of the Caucas- ian countries may have the privilege of voting in Alabama when he merely said. 'I would like to be a citizen" The government requires certain facts to be proven. He must be proven to be a man of good moral cha racter, he must be proven to be attached to republican institutions. and if that is the experi- ence of the statute of naturalization, he cannot become a citizen of Alabama unless ke is citizen of the United States by birth or by the process re- Quired by it's naturalization laws. It does not require him to be five years in Alabama-as one of my friends sug- gested-he must be a resident of the United States five years before he can become citizen. and yet we give him all the rights of citizenship if he hap pens to declare his intention and comes to Alabama under the proposed amend mentS and remains two years in the State. I do not think it is just to oth- CT citizens of the country. Men may own thousands of acres of land here. they put their tenants, foreigners, upon these lands they may teach them to declare their intention. they become ,y<AN
 influence in vour elections far beyond what was contemplated when the ten antry was settled upon the lands of Alabama. I hape. MT. President, that the section reported by this Committee will be adopted without amendment
 Mir. Knox-I do not desire to discuss the question at any length, but I sim- ply want to say that fully agree with the gentleman from Pike and the gen. tieman from Montgomery who have spoken against these amendments. may be m staken, but my recollection is, MT. President. that the States of South Carolina, Mississippi. Louisiana and North Carolina, that have dealt with this subjtct have taken this view. They have embodied the same provision with reference to the participation of for eigners in the exercise of the right of
 
 frage has done. It is not disfran- chisement of these people. It simply provides that they cannot merely de- clare their intention and remain citi- zens of foreign countries. Many of them, l am informed, declare their in- tentfon and never get any further. They never prove up and comply with the requirement of the act of Congress. any many of them. 1t may be, cannot comply, because the act of Congress, Mir. President, requires that they must be able and ascribe up to the condi- tions which our Committee on Suffrage have required. They must prove that they are men of good character, that they have behaved and conducted them selves as good citizens before they can comply, and 1t may be that many of them fail to comply because of their inability to do so. They are not dis franchised by this provision. They may go on If their conduct and character is such as to enable them to do SO, and qualify themselves for citizenship. It seems to me that it is only req sonable to expect and to require that they should do so. l am in favor of the provision as it was originally re- ported by the committee.
 MT. deGraffenreid-I desire to state that agree with the gentleman from Pike and it seems to me that 1t is ab- solutely unnecessary for this section to be encountered with either one of these amendments. It also seems to me that in refusing to adopt them we will not violate any statement that was made in the Democratic platform. If the members of this Convention will read carefully this report that comes from this committee, they will find that all men who are now entitled to vote under the laws of Alabama will be en- titled to vote in all elections except the general election in 1902, and that this Constitution, 50 far as it's limita- ton upon suffrage is concerned, will not So fully into effect prior to 1903. If the majority report of the Committee on Suffrage is adopted by this Conven- ton, no election after the election in 1902 will be held for State officers until 1906, so that any man who has already
 declared his intention to become d citizen of this State will have the op- portunity under the general laws or the United States to perfect his inten- ton by becoming a citizen. before this Constitution goes fully into effect. l do not think. MT. President as we pro- pose to cut from the electorate many men who have been born and raised to manhood in Alabama, and who are citizens of this State. that we should permit people who are foreigners by virtue of a mere declaration and who, perhaps, not only do not understand anything about our institutions, but are perhapS unable to speak our lan-