Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-05
THE REVIVAL OF HEREDITARY
PRIVILEGE.
Senator Morgan on the consequences
of the "Grandfather Clause"

Senator Morgan on the Consequences
of the "Grandfather Clause"
The New York Sun Of today prints the
following from Senator Morgan of Ala
bama to friend relative to the proposed
grandfather clause in the state conven-
lions in the south. which are now wrest-
ling with the suffrage question:
The American revolution was not so
much a redress of grievances as II was a
struggle to abolish heredity In government.
That was the real line Of division between
democratic and regal government and the
church established by law. Heredity dis
appeared, with it's associated rights Of per-
petuity in the ownership of lands, and
many minor hereditaments Of feudalism,
such as titles and tenures and servitudes,
when our new democratic scheme Of gov
eminent was instituted
Political heredity and all its appurte-
nances. such as prerogative and titular
nobility and primogeniture. and all it's pro-
tecting laws, such corruption of blood.
premunire and accommodation persisted
and were placed under the heel Of prohibi-
ton by our Constitution Whoever would
restore any Of these to that extent discred-
it's the cause of the revolution.
Without suffrage the new system had no
possible means of expressing the sovereign
will of the people in laws and their en-
forcement by executive and judicial au-
thority.
These necessary agents Of the govern
ment by and for the people can only be
chosen by voters: and voters could only be
created by law. not by inheritance. These
voters are chosen representatives to per-
form the single function Of electing the
lawful officers of government.
The trust confided in them is personal.
and can neither be sold nor delegated,
transmitted by inheritance or by will to any
other person. 1t is this quality of nom
transmissibility that distinguishes it from
the regal form Of Unbeatable power and
marks the line of the impossible gulf be-
tween regal government and democratic
government. The voters class or body
have certain physical conditions, such as
age and sex, that are necessary qualifica-
lions and certain moral and political quail
ifications that are personal and indepen-
dent of Unbeatable blood.
To make blood the medium OF transmit
ting the electoral power from father to son
is to uproot from It's foundations the whole
system Of democratic government and to
reinstate the system and the form Of regal
government.
The fourteenth and fifteenth amendments
have no more to do with this subject than
any other part of the organic law.
The transmission Of the electoral power
by the blood of Inheritance from father to
son would destroy all distinction between
regal government and democracy, and
would throw the door wide open for q re-
turn to the system that the American revo-
luton abolished. The steps would be few
and would be rapidly taken, to the oom-
we give to any class of voters the power
to qualify their sons as voters by inherit
anoe. In this case 1t is the first step that
tells with fatal and irrevocable effect. The
argument Is irresistible that offices should
follow the blood IL the power that creates
them is the blood Of inheritance; and this
is all that is meant in the British system
Of titled nobility which alone legislates In
the house Of lords and Of regal blood and
prerogative which upholds the throne. and
the power Of appointment to office, which
is an appendage Of the throne, and the
hardening power over which the people
have no control.
When such q titled class Of voters Is
created by the organic law 1t will soon oc-
cur to them that no other class should be
allowed to vote, and they win usurp all
power. 1t Is far from being q comfort to
me that some negroes are included and
many white men are left out by the ordi-
nance reported by the majority of the
committee on suffrage In this ordinance Of
Unbeatable blood With great respect.
JOHN T. MORGAN.
Warm Springs. Va, July e.