The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-24

from the elcltOtAtE 0A <NAs~A@sAt-~--~ nf tIhe white people of the State who have heretofore enjoyed the privilege of voting. that when we go hack in the Fall to advo- cate the adoption of this Constitution, the people of Alabama, wno are are not so intelligent as those Tn tnls | Convention may say. you nave s., A. en out a part of the wnite peop Alabama who were entitled to Eote. . They cannot understand this suHraso report as; whole, for we were so hedged in by the Fifteenth Amenoment on the o,ne side, and the pieusee VI the Party on the other. that 1t IS nec- essarily complex, and l believe MT. President, that large nuHioei large n iss-of the voters of this S.atS will have to take that suffrage plank on faith from the members of tnis Convention, and others from the State, who will 20 out and advocate the adoption of the Constitution ana ol this particular plank,-l say pehes. they will not be able to understand IL thoroughly, and will have to vote oii faith largely. ..,.
 Now. then, if it is brought up on this plain, pure principle, this simple prop nsifion if will be urged by the oppo- !. sition that you have disfranchised mart of the white people of Alapamd' fin that you have taken from those who heretofore had the right to vote that right. and We cannot gainsay IL, put will have to stand silent and admt that we have disfranchised certalh part of them.
 How. then, can we expect them to believe this suffrage report and believe that we have not disfranchised them further? There l.. no man in this Con vention who is more opposed 10 the foreign-born element coming In ana uusurping the functions of government and participating in shaping our laws than I am, and l heartily favor the provision in this report which says that after a certain day all foreigners coming in must hew to the line and becom. citizens of the United States before they can avail themselves Of the privilege of voting, but those Who are at present entitled to vote are mere handful and the amendment or the gen tleman from Mobile and wnicn thoroughly indorse goes to the ent of saying that even they shaI- l:-. con tinue to enjoy the privilege of voting If they do not carry out their inten- tion of becoming citizens, indeed. l trust, MT. President, that, in the in- cipiency of the discussion of this sut- frage report, we will not violate either the spirit or the letter of the pledge and I hope the amendment of the gem
 
 the gentleman from Mobile will pc adopted.
 Mir. Bulger-If I understand the Sec tion as reported by the Committee and the purpose of the ameadm mt offered by the gentleman from Jefferson, 1t seems to me mat it would be unwise to change any thing in this Section as reported py sne Committee. The framers of the funoa- mental law of the whole country fore saw the question with which we are confronted this evening. They put Tn the first article of the Constitution CT the United States provision leaving to Congress the power to settle tnls question, and the Congress Of the United States. in their wlsoonl' saw that five years was little enough for q foreigner to come to this country ana become a citizen. On the other hand, MT. President here Is a young man or America born on American soll' Who is educated in the English language, trained in American colleges in the arts and sciences of our government, ana who at 20 years of age IS nor pernitteu to vote, and yet right by hls slde, foreigner who has only been in this country but a few days, has only to declare-not to become citizen, but to declare-his intention to become citizen, and he is entitled to vote. l say. Mr. President, 1t breaks down the tneory of the Government when you permit such thing. The great nov 4ng principle that called this ConVen- tion together was to purify the ballot. You may pass an article on the sui frage that will strike down every col ored voter in the land, and if you leave the foreign element, about which l have heard, still to vote, the ballot will be far from pure. The honest clpable
 hfr in America, in my humble Judgment, is better qualified to vote even when the foreigner has been here for a term of five years. It seems to me that the Committee which has so faithfully ana SD ably presented to this Convention the Article on the great and all-lm- portant question of the suffrage has acted wisely when they put this simple change from the old Constitution which, with the negro stricken out the strange foreigner will be stricken out and our ballot will be pure. l desire to register not only my vote, put 10 register my voice against both of the amendments and in favor of the Sec tion.
 MT. Coleman (Greene)-Mr. Presl- dent, no thoughtful ma mean underes- timate the importance of the ques- tions which are presented to you for consideration. The future prosperity of this State depends upon how these questions are solved. As has been told you, the Committee struggled with this provision for nearly two days, dis cussing it in all its various aspects. We were aware of the views that had been presented by the distinguished gentleman from Jefferson, and there were counteractng views from other portions of the State. There were del egates who took the same view of some of the delegates here that there was technical violation, perhaps in their own minds it may have been, but that question was not discussed before the Committee. The great question pre- sented to the Committee was what was the best suffrage plan we could devise for the good of the whole State, and won have the result before you. It is the purpose of the Committee to pre- sent it's view, to let this Convention know what it thought best, but upon these points to place the responsibility of the choice with the delegates here assembled. The Committee will make no objection to any action taken by this Convention. We are after the very best plan that can he ascertained and adopted. I think the question has been sufficiently discussed, and while 1 ,,,o,,ld not cut off any gentleman from