The age-herald., 1901-05-30

Justice Woodward of the Appellate court
 of New York in an address delivered be-
 fore recent meeting of the Bar Associa- ton, speaking of the limitation of suffrage in the Southern States. said:
 Having thus passed in review some of the historical precedents for restricting the suffrage, we are in a position to view with whatever charity may be neces-
 sary the action of North Carolina in adopting what Is known as the grand father clause of its new Constitution.
 Conceding ,as we must, that the State in the exercise of its high sovereign powers may reasonably restrict the franchise by the application of a property, and educa- tional or any other qualification which Is not in conflict with the provisions of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. 1t
 only remains to examine the extent to
 which this fight of the State has been
 abridged, and what are the powers of the Federal government, either in it's legis-. lative or judicial departments. to interfere
 with the State and to restore the disfran- chised colored man to his rights. It is pretty generally conceded by law writers and publicists that the negro can claim
 no right of the elective franchise under that clause of the fourteenth amendment
 which provides that No State shall make or enforce any law abridging the privil- eges or immunities of the citizens of the United States. because, as has already been pointed out, the right to vote is not privilege of citizenship in the United States, but belongs to those of the States. The only clause of the fourteenth amend ment bearing upon this question is that which declares that when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial off, cers of the State or the members of the Legislature thereof. is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being N years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime. the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such State
 This unquestionably recognizes the power of the state to restrict the suf- frage and it imposes a political penalty upon the state for refusing the right to all male citizens. but it points out no way in which the United States may restore the right taken from the negro, so long as the state Is willing to pay the penal ty. The South, however, to quote the language of Isaac Francis Russell in his work on Outline Study of Law. preferred to have its representation cut down rath- CT than allow negroes to vote,' and the amendment was, therefore, adopted. which practically admitted ne- groes to the suffrage by disallowing race. color or previous. condition of servitude as tests for the exclusion of persons from the exercise of the elective franchise. This amendment provides that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race. color or previous condition of servitude.' which is clearly not a limita- tion upon the state of North Carolina to restrict its suffrage to those who can read and write, even though this should OptTdl6 IO Sytfs Soioi Cd voter in the state. If MT. Curtis was right wheR he declared that when this country is ignorant. then this country ceases to bel mean in it's true and best sense,' then it is the right of state, an- swering to the law of self-reservation, to disfranchise such of it's citizens as are ignorant to a degree which is a menace to the integrity of popular government. North Carolina, to the extent that she has established an educational qualifica- ton for her suffrage, is clearly within the limits of her constitutional and natural rights, as much as Maine or Colorado: she might have gone further and pre- scribed a property qualification, or that the voter should have paid taxes, or that. as in Virginia. he should have been free from dueling in any capacity, either as a principal or accessory, and thefe would have been no constitutional ground on which this action could have been ques- toned.
 When, however, she went beyond this. and excepted from the operation of this qualification men who, with better op- portunities than have fallen to the lot of the average man of color in the South, have grown up in ignorance, she im-
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