The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-28

| LQ un0efStauQ Tepupiicdn luIht oi T/vernment, can come in. and l believe I.I will be the duty of Registrars to ad- Emit such. and under the permanent plan, if they have by their energy and their thrift and their industry ac- | quired $500 worth of property. or If they have acquired sufficient intelligence to read the Constitution of this State and pay voluntarily a patriotic contribu- | ton to the State, your committee says | they can come in, and that is in keep | ing with the broad philanthropy of the | civilization in which we live. Let us educate his children. let us give him an opportunity. Let not the strong hand of the superior race crush him to earth in obedience to the law of the survival of the Attest, but in obedience | to Him who said ''Forgive them for | they know not what they do." Let ns | lift them up, and in doing that we not only vindicate our action in thls Convention, but we lay predicate up on which future generations can act, and we will So entrench ourselves in | the civilization of the age that no Su> preme Court can find hatred and pre- | judice enough to set at naught the methods we have adopted for our sal vation.
 MT. President. tn. negro inherits this | Il | bout it, but when that old statesman over there, the Chairman of this Com mittee. CMr. Coleman of Greene) the other day was giving from his own observation a description of the per sonal conduct of the negroes during the war, it actually brought tears to my eyes, A great race, whose freedom
 would probably result from the success of the Union armies, actually remain ing at home and supplying the sinews of war to keep them in slavery, ana taking care of the wives and daughters of the soldiers who were fighting to
 keep them in a condition of slavery. MT. President, that shows their nature Suppose 1t had been a Caucasian race in slavery, and their masters were d. vided, in less than forty-eisat hours we would have united with the side
 that was fighting to give us our free
 dom, and you know it. This Christian civilization and this Convention should recognize, MT. President, that loyalty of the old slave, and should say to his posterity that if you are honest, if you are patriotic, if you are intelligent. if you will acquire property, We will al- low you to come in and by your vote share in the administration of the af- | fairs of your country. Therefore, when you consider the permanent plan | of the Committee, 1t is not only in keep | ing with the temporary plan, with nat
 ural law, and with history, but 1t is in keeping with the Christian civiiiza-
 tion in which we live. The fact of the busness is, that 1t is one of the finest documents ever written by the hand of
 man, and proclaimed in parliament ary body.
 We'll now, what about the registra- tion plan! As understand it. here Is the top seive, that catches all the
 grand -daddies," and then here Is a
 basement pan that catches the rest.
 Now under the Democratic platform,
 we have got to have 1t, you under
 stand, because there are few of these
 people that are going to slip through
 the neshes of both the upper and mid
 dle seive, and we have said that we
 will not disfranchise any white p,an
 in the State of Alabama. and we won't.
 Therefore we must have a Committee,
 or somebody to come along and shen do not know what rule they will adopt.
 IL I were one of the Registrars, this
 would be my test: First. Have you
 ever been convicted of any crime?"
 No" I could then see the balance for
 myself. without asking another ques-
 tion, and would issue certificate right there, and I think that Is the purpose,
 
 Mr. President, there has arisen in this connection certain questions or propositions which I am sorry have
 come up. It has been alluded to on
 this floor, and 1t has been charged in
 certain newspapers of the State, and 1t has been rumored in sundry ways, that there was something more in this reg istration clause. That there was
 "nigger in the wood pile" and that the | ,ofa N1.Af w.fY in
 the wood pile to the permanent class
 where he could vote, not by one, but
 by the dozens and hundreds, Snd be
 held in reserve for emergencies. Now,
 Mir. President, is that logical? What
 would you think of man, ask you,
 tha: had resting upon his breast great weight, or a great burden, and
 were to cry out for relief and have 1t
 removed with the assistance of his
 brathren, and after. it is removed for
 rim to go back deliberately and pull the
 weight on himself again?
 MT. Rogers (Sumter)-And to secret ly put it back?
 Mr. Cunningham-Yes, secretly put
 1t on, clandestinely and thievishly. MT.
 President, it is so illogical that no sen
 sible man could do it. But that is not
 my answer to those insnuations and statements. I am a physician, and l try usually to find out what is the
 matter with a patient and to make
 correct diagnosis of the case. I have
 heard 1t insinuated as to what would
 be done in certain sections of the
 State, and in that section which is
 known as the Black Belt" I look
 into the faces of the "Black Belt" cit-
 izens here, and they are as good look
 ing as l am; they have the complexion
 and the outline and the contour, face
 and countenance of my sort of folks,
 and I believe they are my sort of folks,
 and therefore do not believe they are
 going to do it. That Is what I be-
 lieve. Who are these gentlemen of the
 Black Belt and who are we of the
 White Belt? We are of one race and
 country. We are one blood, whether
 we trace 1t back to the Puritan, to
 the Cavalier, or to the Huguenot, we
 are all American and are therefore of
 American blood. The forefathers of the
 people of the Black Belt" and our
 fOrefathers wrought alike, side by slde
 in the quarries from which were taken
 the stones that were erected into the
 magnificent temple of liberty for this
 great American Republic. Side by side
 they stood to maintain it against the |,
 world, to deVelope it's resources, and to maintain its institutions. In 1861 when
 the household of the temple divided, the forefathers of the hill counties and of the black belt, were still side by side; | they went shoulder to shoulder, and from Fort Sumter to Apponattox, there | XHlc m ion fr If