The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-23
THE CONVENTION
 ELECTS ITS PER
 MANENT OFFICERS

Continued from Page one.)
 reform. At the outset of this move ment, ventured to suggest that dele gates should be cautious in undertak- ing to define just what provisions would be or should be embodied in the Constitution; that the new Constitu- tion when made and placed before the people for ratification, would be and ought to be the result of the united action of the Convention; that if one came here with his mind made up and his Constitution in his pocket. he would hardly be in a fit condition to confer with his felfow-delegates on this inn portant subject. still hold this view. I fail to appreciate the idea of those who seem to think 1t the duty of the delegates to this Convention to Write out and publish their views before the Convention meets. Under this plan, we would be liable to have as many constitutions as delegates. What the people want. in my judgment. is an earnest consideration of and consulta- tion upon these important questions, so that the finished work will represent the united wisdom and experience of the Convention. r
 Mississippi is the pioneer State in this movement. In addition to the payment of a poll tax, there 1t Is pro yided that only those can vote who have been duly registered. and only those can register who can read or understand when read. to them. any clause in the Constitution. The de- cision as to who are sufficiently intel ligent to meet the requirements of the understanding clause is exclusively in fhe hands of the reRtstrarg.
 But to this plan. the objection may be urged with force that it perpetu- ates the very form of abuse which we are seeking to escape. Elections by managers or registrars is not what we want, our aim should be for correc- tion of all evils which threaten the purity of the ballot and the morals of the people.
 The provision adopted in South Car olina requires the payment of the poll tax assessed against him for the pre- vious year six months before any cleo tion, and that the voter shall be duly registered. To be qualified for regis tration up to January 1st, 1898, voters must have been able to read a clause in the Constitution or understand or explain 1t when read by the registra- tion officers; and all who register sub sequent to that time must be able both tO ASao anu WfAtC any SCCbIOi VI LuC Constitution, or else show ownership of property assessed at $500 or more, and the payment of all taxes assessed against him and collectable during the previous year.
 In. Louisiana and North Carolina, the methods of relief adopted are substan- tially the same, and require, in addi- tion to the poll-tax clause, that the voter shall register in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and only those are authorized to register who are able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the Eng fish language. with the further provi- so, that no male person who was, on January 1st. 1867, or at any time lfior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any State in the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal descendant of any such person. shall be denied the right to register and vote at any election, by reason of his failure to possess the educational
 qualifications prescribed, provided he register within the time limited by the terms of the Constitution which, i'll Louisiana, is about six months, and in North Carolina, about eight years.
 It is contended in defense of this provision, that while, in effect, it will exclude the great mass of ignorant negro voters 1t does not, in terms, ex- clude them. and applies generally to all classes of voters, without reference to their race. color or previous condition of servitude; that all negroes who were voters prior to January 1st, 1887, of whom, it was claimed. there were quite a number, could vote, and the descendants. whether slaves or not, of these free negroes were entitld to vote. and that these were quite num- erous And on the other hand, that white people born in other countries emigrants, who cannot read and write could not vote, nor could white peo- pie who were unable to vote in the State Tn which they lived prior to 1867, unless they were able -te-seS2 aTid write. If 1t be said that this excep- tion permits many more white people to vote than negroes, the answer was that this would be equally true of any proper qualification which might be proposed. It would be true of an edu- cational qualification. and 1t would be true of a property qualification, the validity of which has never been ques- tioned.
 These provisions are Justified in law and in morals, because it Is said that the negro is not discriminated against on account of his race, but on account or HIS lHIcllcCIudl anu tion. There is a difference, 1t is claimed with great force, between the uneducated white man and the igno- rant negro. Before the art of reading and writing was known, the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon had established an orderly system of government. the ba- sis in fact of the one under which we now live. That the negro on the oth- CT hand. is descended from race low est in intelligence and moral percep- tions of all the races of men. As was remarked by the Supreme Court of the United States. in the case of Williams ys. Mississippi Q70 U. S., 213), Guot- ing the Supreme Court of Mississippi: "Restrained by the Federal Constitu- ton from discriminating against the negro race, the Convention ciscrimi- mates against it's characteristics and the ~offenses to which its criminal ---------------------