The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-26

 ton if 1t has been violatsd-and they are the judges of that. and as of the political remedies to be applied.
 Ouxht delegates to be blamed, then, R we ask this Convention to carefully consider the Fifteenth Amendment. and e hear us. I will not take up the time Of the Convention In reading law books wish to state some principles which think none of the distingushed law yers on the other side will gainsay. One of them Is this. you cannot do in directly, unlawfully. what you cannot do lawfully. directly. Another Is that in whatever phrases you may couch the language of statute, its ordinary and practical results, as applied to the subject matter with which 1t deals, de- termines whether 1t is constitutional or not. There is no necromancy Tn the law by which you can put up curtain between your yords and your purposes, because your words may deny your purposes. When this section goes be- fore the courts, it will be taken up in view of its known history, in view of facts Known to all men in Alabama, known of all men in the South, all men In the United States, and the purpose underlying it, and by these tests. not by our language, and the results which must flow from its execution, will be
 
 upheld. or whether 1t will go down. If the courts or Congress should be of the opinion that the purpose was unlawful and would be the practical operation. that purpose, however yelled, whether in one section or two sections, whether the conductive or is used or not, would be arrested and held for naught. 1T the practical operation Is to subject black citizens to one test and white .~tk1 &~ fa mt m or the great bulk of them by classifica- tion--to which, being rested on white ancestry, the negro could never attain and to "abridge" or hinder the negro by other qualifications to which the great bulk of the whites are not subjected, then these sections, they standlng alone. might be valid, would be treated as part and parcel of one Constitutlonai utterance designed to evade the Con- stitution of the United States, and as mere adjuncts of ore unlawful purpose. ana the whole fabric would fall.
 wish to call attention, as tllustrat- fnr the principle to which have ad- verted, to what is known as the Chinese Queue case The people of the Pacific slope were greatly troubled with the Chinaman. It was hard to collect fines from him, even when put m prison. They passed, or rather the supervisors of San Francisco passed, an ordinance that any prisoner confined in jail who lid not pay his fine. should have his hair cropped, think within an inch and a half of his skull On it's face. the ordinance applied to the white man and the Mongolian alike. There was no distinction whatever in the words Of the ordinance, but the Chinaman has queue, while the white man has not. The Chinaman is superstitious about IL. He believes if his queue is cut on, 1t af- fleets the repose of his soul in the hereafter A Chinaman was put in Jali and failed to pay his fine. His hair was cut to within an inch and a half or his skull, and, of course, that took off his queue. He sued the supervisors. in the Circuit Court of the United States. pre- sfAed over by eminent Justice Field Of inc limited States Supreme Court, Judge Sawyer and some other Judge. They delivered an opinion which has often been quoted with approval since in the courts of the country. I ask particular attention to one paragraph. l read from Kow vs. Nunan, 5th Sawyer, p. 66o. Here is what Judge Field says:
 .The class character of this legisla- tion is none the less manifest because of the general terms in which 1t is ex- pressed. The statements of supervis- ors in debate on the passage of the orr diuance cannot, it Is true. be resorted fo for the purpose of explaining the meaning of the terms used; but they can be resorted to for the purpose oi ascertaining the general object of the legislation proposed. and the mischiefs sought to be remedied. Besides we cannot shut out eyes to matters or pup lie notoriety and general cognizance When we take our seats on the bench we are not struck with blindness, and forbidden to know as judges what we see as men; and where an ordinance, though general in its terms, only oper- ates upon a special race, sect or class, If being universally understood that It ia to be enforced only against that race, sect or class. we may justly conclude that it was the intention of the body adopting it that 1t should only have such operation, and treat 1t according iy. We may take notice of the limita- flor given to the general terms Of an ordinance by its practical construction as fact in its history. as we do In some cases that a law has practically become obsolete. If this were not so, the most important provisions or the Constitution, intended for the security of personal rights, would. by the gen. eral terms of an enactment, often be eyaded and practically annulled.
 Judge Fields lays down in that case The doctrine which the Supreme Court of the United States has often laid down, that 1t will go behind the general language, take up the operation or the statute, step by step, with it's known ntrpose, and then, no matter how gen erai the language is, whether it Is the act of a State, in its sovereign ca- pacity. or the acts of the officers or the State, it will test the constituttonality of that law by its practical operation If that effects a forbidden purpose, the law is void. Here, then, is the princi- ple we have to apply. What is It to which it is to be applied! The right of citizens of the United States mot the right of the white citizens. or black citizens, but the right of any citizen of the United States-to vote, shall not be denied. Does the language stop there? No. "Or abridged by the United States, or any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of seryitude" You shall not only not deny it, but you shall not lessen it; ahalI not cut 1t shorter, you shall not nut difficulties in the way of it. You must not deny it, or abridge the right on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." When we scan this language, what do we find is it's anevitab ables scope. as applied to the power of the State in dealing with suffrage lis first inevitable consequence is a command to the State. You must not deal with citizens of a race as a race. You must not deal with a otAs1an anoordinU the raca that he