The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-28
lFFICIAL REPORT 0F THE PROCEEDINGS OF
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF ALABAMA

.uT " coJ va
 .esterday that the National Govern
 nent had no power except that which has given to 1t by the States. Why is remember correctly, that statement is nothing more than restatement or the proposition tha, was made by Cal houn long years ago in the American Senate. It Is nothing but the reafnr- nation of the doctrine laid down by Calhoun and which was so completely answered by Webster. It iS nothing but reaffirmation of the doctrine that was exploded by the war. l suppose when Hawaii is admitted as State the gentleman will say 1t helped 10 create the United States. That Florida that we bought from Spain helped to make this government, and Louisiana and all that scope of country that we acquired from Mexico, and those peo- pie helped to make this country. l do not understand 1t that way.
 I now come to the soldier grand father clause incorporated in the article reported by the majority of the Committee. I want to talk about that just little. To my mind 1t Is what some distinguished gentleman said when he referred to the Republican National platform some years ago, 1t is a miserable "makeshift." It, is not a fraud because 1t lacks the element of reconciliation, but it is a miserable makeshift. It only lasts for little over a year. If it is a good thing, why not let 1t continue. If the blood that courses the veins of the soldier, wheth- CT he fought in the Union or the Con- federate army, if that blood is good now 1t ought to be good 100 years from now, and why stop at the first day Of January, 1903? Whence the difference? It is makeshift, but for what purpose l have not been able to understand
 unless it may be that if law suit was commenced to test the constitutional-
 ty of the article on that account 1t
 would play out of it's own operation and limitation before the Supreme Court of the United States could be brought to pass upon it. Now gentle men I claim that this grandfather clause Is clearly in conflict with the Fifteenth Amendment. Now suppose we strike out of this ordinance all that speaks of the soldiers and their des- cendants. and suppose we put in its place the following amendment that will suggest. Understand me. do not offer 1t. but I suggest 1t, and 1t would read this way: The following persons. and none other. shall be entitled to register and vote in this State. First, all male citizens of the United States 21 years old and upwards who have resided in the State of Alabama three years. in the county one year. in the precinct or ward three months. and who have been slaves or subjected to involuntary servitude: second, all the descendants of slaves and the descen- dants of persons that have been sub Jected to involuntary servitude imagine that the distinguished chair man of the Committee on Suffrage and Elections would be the first man to spring to his feet and denounce it as a gross violation of the Fifteenth amendment of the United States, and 1t would be true, he would be right, but it would be no more in viola ton of the Federal Constitution than this soldier grandfather clause. The descendants of white persons who nave been subjected to involuntary servitnde are as many as the descend ants of the negroes that have been in tne army, Tn the war with Spain or Tn any other war. Now what white man. If such proposition as that were made here. would stand up and say 1t is not unconstitutional? It would be unconstitutional. but it is no more So than the grandfather clause in this article. Some men talk very loudly about the decisions of the courts in re- gard to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitu- tlon. l have very high regard for the decisions of all courts when they have been in the proper sphere and Jurisdiction of the courts, but I would nave no patience with and no respect for the decision of any court that would decide that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments do not mean exactly what they say 1 remember that on another occasion a high court in this country decided that a negro mad no rights in the United States that white man was bound to respect. I remember that the greatest and the pest man in the world rose up and de- nounced that decision. characterizing It as covenant with the devil and a league with hell. I remember that the people of the United States soon after that decision was rendered, decided than when the liberty and inaliena ble rlght or the citizen is involved, that there IS higher power in this country than the courts. Another thing. renL tlemen, that l want to call your atten- ton to. Is the fact that the Democratic party in Alabama, when it made the Constitution in 1875, the Constitution under which we are now living, made that ConstltHtion and wrote in it uni Versal manhood suffrage, The white people. the Democratic party of Ala pahna. and other white men adopted 1t and ratified 1t, and it has been the law or this State for 25 years If 1t was rlsht then. it is right now. If it was good then it is good now I stand on the Constitution of 1875. that the white people and the white Democrats made. and l stand on firm foundation. have planted my feet upon the rock of universal manhood suffrage. and I am not afraid. stand today where the fathers stood in IT'S. Standing here on this rock with the rising sun of the lwentIeth century shining in my face, l am undismayed. I am noc afraid that any evil will befall me when I stand up and defend liberty and universal suffrage, when I defend the doctrine tS Tt was han9cd down by Washington and Jefferson. Jackson and Lincoln
 when [ am inspired by such a lofty mo- tive and such high degree of patriot ism fear neither man. beast nor devil l care nothing for the traitors in the State nor the hYpocrtes in the church
 I stand where Jefferson stood when he declared in the fare of kings and ty- rants that all men are created equal aud endowed with certain inaliena ble rights. that taxation without represen- tation is oppression. that all just gov crnments are founded in the consent of the governed I stand where An drew .IacifSnn stood when he declaretl that the Union must and should be pre- served when he ewore by the Eternal