The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-24

vious question has been ordered, close the debate. and in so doing may speak for a like period of thirty minutes; provided, that the time here limited may be extended by a majority of the delegates voting without a suspension of the rules.
 The President-The Chair will state that the same question has been pre- scented several times before, and the construction which the gentleman from Jefferson put upon it would be true | if the motion fof the previous ques- tion was limited to the amendment. If the motion for the previous question in this case was limited to the adop- | tion of the amendment, the gentleman ! proposing the amen 1ment would have ! the right to conclude. but where the | previous question, as in this case, is | directed to the section, only one per- son can conclude under the
 rule, and the ruling of the Chair before has been (and the Chair still thinks it is correct) to give that right to conclude to the Chairman of the Committee. because upon this is l sue not only the amendment, but the l original section Is involved.
 MT. Carmichael (Colbert)-I move that the rules be suspended and that the gentleman from Jefferson be all lowed to close the debate.
 The Presidential Is moved that the l rules be suspended and the gentleman from Jefferson be allowed to close the debate. Possibly the Chairman of the Committee would yield the floor to him.
 MT. Coleman-I yield the floor to him. but still I retain the right to close If I see proper.
 The President-The Chairman of the Committee yields ten minutes of his | time to the gentleman from Jefferson. Mir Beddow-I desire to thank the Chairman of the, Committee. There have been some good arguments on the question of who should not be allowed to vote in our elections, but the seri- ous question in the matter we are ta- king under consideration here is not who would be a good voter, but who would be a poor voter, in the contem- plation of the new Constitution we are about to frame. The question that l confronts us at the very oIseset, in the very first section of the article, and the first line of that section, is shall we. as the representatives of our con- stituents in this Constitutional Con- vention stand up and abide by the pledges that we made our people be- fore we were elected to this Consti- tutional Convention. When the dom- inant party of this State met in con- vention. they adopted a platform in which these words were used: That no white voter shall be disfranchsed except for infamous crime" No white voter" There is no other con- struction that can be put upon that than that no man who. at the time he voted for us as delegates for this Convention. and who had the right at that time to vote. should be disfran- chised. When we met in Birmingham to consult together. we, by the unani- nous vote of every delegate present, in the rooms of the Commercial Club. indorsed. ratified and pledged our selves to stand up to those pledges, and now we are confronted as I say in the very first paragraph-the very first line-and asked to go back on our pledges and disfranchise possibly 5000 or 5000 citizens and voters of the State of Alabama. Some gentleman has seen fit to say that these foreign CTS are unworthy of a vote. There are men in my county who are the peer in intellect. who are of foreign birth. and who are not naturalized, of any gentleman upon this floor. There are men in my county who, if this | clause was adopted. would be disfran-
 
 Convention and who thought when we made these promises that we made them in good faith, Some gentlemen | seek to dodge the question by saying that 1t will be submitted back to the people for ratification, and the gen. tleman who spoke from the County of Barbour indicated as much. But if we violate our pledge in that respect, have we not the same right to go further and say that we will not submit it to the people? If you violate it in one instance. you may do it in another.
 MT. President. from the time of the landing of the Pilgrim fathers upon
 this continent, America has always been the refuge and the haven for the oppressed of other nations in quest of liberty and law Shall we refrain from holding out to them those same bless ings? Shall we take a back stepo Shall we go back on our pledges? Go back on the friends who voted to send usI here and stand up here as the poet says.
 That friendship to us Is ambitions
 Whereto the climber upward turns his face,
 But when he once attains the upmost round
 He then to the ladder turns his back Looks into the crowd and scorns The base course by which he did as cend.
 These pledges I made to my people
 are just as binding to me today in the
 halls of this Convention as the day I
 made them. and if we never have suf- frage reform until I am required to go
 back on the pledges I made my people. l say by my vote we will never have it.. l believe that is all care to say on this question. It has heen discussed at length. It has been ably discussed from every standpoint. but 1 say to you. if you forget your pledges. this Constitution will not be ratified and We ought not to hope for it's ratiflca- l tion.
 MT Coleman (Greene)-T provi- sions in the Democratic platform is as
 follows: that we pledge our faith to
 the people of Alabama not to deprive any white man nf the right tn vote ex-
 cept for conviction of infamous crime, etc. The question for you 10 consider is
 this: Whether it deprives any S-hite
 man from qualifying himself to vote
 by becoming citizen of the United States. If he fails to become a citizen
 of the United States, he cannot vote,
 but if he becomes a citizen of the
 United States. then he has the right to
 vote if he possesses the other qualif- cations. As l stated before, you have
 heard distinguished ruen-distinguished laNyers-discuss that question. What