The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-26

few who have been soldiers. Don't we do that? Is not that the practical ef- feet of what we are doing. are not We running square in the teeth Of the pro" hibition in practical way! The su- preme Court of the United States nas often said, and in its later cases, too, that the 18th amendment intended. so far as political rights were secured thereby to the negro, that he should ee on an absolute equality with the white man in the assertion of those political rights. Now one of those political rights of a man who Is a citizen by law Of the State and of the United States. is not to be discriminated against in the test by which 1t will be determined whether he is to remain longer citizen of the State That cannot be denied. Then. what else do you do? We say here are some soldiers. or rather descendants Of soldiers, nearly all of whom come from white percentage. because the negro at that time was not a soldier. He never got to be a solder until 1863 or 4. when the Federals armed him.
 MT. Sanford (Montgomery)-I desire | to correct an error in your history.
 Mir. Jones (Montgomery)-Mr. Presi- | dent. my history is correct. There were a few soldiers in the Revolutionary War who were negroes, just like the negroes mentioned by the gentleman from Wilcox, and the gentleman from Montgomery, and others of us. but the | negro as a race was not a soldier in this country until 1862 or 3. when he was enlisted in the Federal army. Now we have a few descendants of these soldiers. That is all we have done. with
 that race up to that time as soldiers. MT. Oates Montgomery)-I do not p n n int ant H..k ( was after the emancipation went into
 effect, January 1st. 1863, that they were enlisted.
 MT. Jones (Montgomery)-Yes, sir, | and after that time the Confederate States passed an act enlisting them, too, but the negro up to that time had | never been a soldier in the Civil War. Now you take the few negroes and their descendants. and let them go under the descendant clause. and take the bulk | of the white people and put them into | the suffrage without subjecting them
 to the other qualification, while you subject the bulk of the negroes to I different test. Now is not that sub | jecting the bulk of the white people to one test, that is easy, or rather is not | a test at all. and subjecting the bulk
 of black people to another and differ | ent, and 1t may be harder test, and
 that, too. for the purpose of enfran- chising one race and disfranchising the other? If I did not believe that was
 the purpose, and did not believe that was the result, and that thereby this plan of suffrage becomes unconstitu-
 tional. would not stand here and raise
 my voice against this part of the re- port of this committee. although I diff fer so strongly with them about this AhA- Co. .Asrw. 1T nsa
 ident, that this plan, as now framed, is unconstitutional, because the natur- al, ordinary result from its operation is that one test is applied to a major | ity of the white people, and another I test is applied to the majority of the | black people; and that too in view of | our known history, our platform and | our intention to enfranchise the one | and disfranchise the other! But 1t is | said that these are distinctive clauses, | that it Is soldiers, or descendants. or | persons of good character, and that if you wipe out one, that the other will
 remain and be upheld. We'll, there are
 cases where that may be done; but whenever the court comes to the con-
 clusion that the unconstitutional pro-
 vision is put in there as an addition
 or to compensate for some other, and
 that they are all designed and intend- i ed as part of one harmonious whole | to effect an unlawful purpose, then | when you strike down one, you strike | down all. Under this plan the descend
 ants of soldiers become permanently
 vested with the right of suffrage, and
 pass from the temporary registration
 into the permanent registration. They
 are not required to register any more
 except when they change their resi-
 dence. They are made citizens ire
 vocable, and that. too. by test which
 the other race, in the nature of things,
 can never come up to because they
 cannot be white men or the descend
 ants of white men. How is it possible
 for this act to be constitutional, in
 view of these inevitable results?
 l It Is a pleasing thing, and
 1t does mans heart good
 to let it pulsate fully with the pas
 sions and pride of his race; but a man
 who Is trusted by his people, owes no
 higher duty, if his conscience gives him
 an opinion different from them, to
 stand up and maintain those opinions, | when deltberating upon laws for them
 though he be trampled down in the dust.
 l remember coming into this hall, in
 1861. when a mere lad. William M
 Brooks was where the Chairman now
 is. and William l.. Yancey had thrilled
 this hall, as no other living man had
 ever thrilled it by his eloquence. The
 pulses of the people were hot; revolu-
 tion was in the air. Yet, there were
 gentlemen. grave men, wise in their
 day and generation" who, when the
 people begged them to pause and wait
 when they were told that Virginia was
 trying to call a convention of the States, and asked to delay that other | States might cooperate, who were told
 that we might lose answered trium-
 phantly and confidently that they would
 drink all the blood that was shed in
 the war" It was not ninety days af- | ter that when the gun boomed out at
 Sumter, and two nations rose on this continent, and the most terrible war
 known to modern times devasted our
 dear land, and we were prostrate in
 the dust. To this day we have not l fully recovered from some of its ef-
 fleets. because we are here discussing
 the aftermath of that great war, in the
 conditions which confront us today
 which constitute the chief motive and
 reason which called this Convention. Gentlemen on the other side are as
 confident now as they were that no l harm would come to the Republic then. There is not a man, 1 think, in this | Convention who loves the Confederate | soldier more than I. When I was a lad
 became one, and when they stacked
 arms at Appomatox l took my parole
 there; but with all my love for them Hn mo hGl oh