The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-28

keep that section. The other clause I refer to in reference to primaries will DC of very great effect in ratifying this Constitution. Whenever you get the white Republicans of Alabama to un- derstand that hereafter in party coun- cilS the negro cannot participate be- cause by the Constitution of the State nobody can participate in primaries or conventions except a qualified efector, you will have in my judgment the united support of the white Republi- cans of Alabama, because by that means they will be able to control the politics of the Republican party in Alabama and se rid of the negro. want to say this in reference to the plan. however, there Is one small ob- jection that I have to 1t. do not like that word "eivil'' before the words "betwen the States"
 Mir. Coleman (Greene)-It has been stricken out.
 Mir. Watts-I am glad to hear that. because 1t was not a civil war. That was settled when Chief Justice Chase advised President Johnston that Presi- dent Davis was not amenable to treason. Now in order that we may understand this matter, let us turn for a moment to the Fifteenth Amend
 ment. Its language is that, The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied nor abridged by the United States nor by any State. Mark you the language. the right of citizens of the United States to vote. Not the right of citizens of the State of Ala bama to vote, but the right of the citizens of the United States to vote. What right then have citizens of the United States to vote. They have only such rights, as was stated here by the learned President of this Con- vention. as the respective States choose to give them. Let us look back a lit- tie into the history of this government
 For more than one hundred years be- fore the articles of Confederation were signed. old England and the people of the colonies which composed this Union had been treating the negro as a slave, and as having no rights which any man was bound to respect. They brought those feelings with them to America and the early history of New England and the other colonies shows that laws were costantly enacted in those States in reference to the rights of the negro, and if you will examine them you fill find striking similar ity between them and the laws which were enacted in Alabama just prior to the war and since in reference to the negro race, in reference to schools, travelling on trains. the inter- marriage of negroes and whites, etc. Now when these thirteen colonies signed the Ar ticles of Confederation, and when they said in there that all men are created equal they were not talking about the negro. Why? Because they spoke about the liberties of the citizens. When they wrote the Declaration of Independence they were not speaking about the negro. When the Constitu- tion of the United States was written, 1t is as plainly written there as though 1t had been set, down in so many words the negro Is not citizen and we are not talking about him. Why? Be- cause in that very Constitution it is expressly written that the colonies un- til 1903 should have the right to con- tinue the slave trade and without lim- itation. It is written that when the slave flies from the master into anoth- CT State he must be given up. In view of that history, MT. President, it has astonished me to see men like ex-Gov- ernor Oates, MT. White of Jefferson, MT. Dent of Barbour and General Har- rison of Lee. state their objections to this majority report because it is against the Jeffersonian doctrine of equal rights to all and special privi- leges to none. In the light of history Jefferson was not speaking of the ne gro. If you treat him as speaking of the negro in that remark you are bound to bring him down considerably in the estimation of the American people for wisdor9 and for truth. because with one hand he writes the Declaration of Independence and helps to frame the Constitution of the United States, and with the other. as it were, says that all men are equal-equal rights to all and special privileges to none. He was not speaking of the negro, and I am surprised, 1 say, to hear these gentle men advocate the Jeffersonian doctrine as a solution of this difficulty. MT. Speers also follows their lead. MT. Specrs took occasion to challenge a statement made by President Knox in reference to the citizenship of a State and of the United States, and said that that had been exploded by Web ster long ago. If it had been exploded it is astonishing that the Supreme Court of the United States as late as 16 Wallace in the slaughter house cases still recognized the doctrine. I read from slaughter house cases in 16 Wal lace: Tt is quite clear. then, that there is a citizenship of the United oIdIeS, ana a cltlZenSnlp or the state, which are distinct from each other, and which depends upon different char acteristics or circumstances in the in- dividual," Then skipping down a lit- tie in the opinion, speaking of the fourteenth amendment: Tt is little remarkable. If this clause was intend cd as a protection to the citizen of a State against the legislative power of his own State. that the word citizen of the State should be left out when it is so carefully used. and used in con- tradistinction to citizens of the Unit ed States, Tn the very sentence which precedes it. It is too clear that the change in the phraseoogy was adopt ei understandingly and with a pur- pose" and then, again, this Judge says in the same case. speaking of the fourteenth amendment: The Consti- tutional provision there alluded to did not create those rights. which it called privileges and immunities of the cIti- zenS of this State. Ii threw around them in that clause no security for the citizen, of the State in which they were claimed or exercised. Nor did it pro- fess to control the power of the State government over the rights of it's own citizens. It's sole purpose was to de- clare to the several States, that what ever those rights. as you grant or es- ta blish them to your own citizens, or 1 as you limit or qualify, or impose re- StrictionS on their exercise, the same, neither more nor less, shall be the measure of the rights of citizens of other States within your Jurlsdiction. It would be the Naiuest show of learn