The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-27
and these countier ought to have th,

ana these CouAtseb SuS ~ " h3Nc th. benefit of it
 Senator Morgan. declarel Mr. Smith. was entirely mistaken on .he propusi- ton of law. He had the highest re- gard for Senator Morsa 1 and his opin- ions and if the senior .jsnator had never made but this one declaration he (Mr. Smith) would say ha MAS wrong. He had too much respect for Senator Morgan, he said. to go further into a discussion of his posi-.,l. It was X mere matter of law.
 Mr, Smith argued that the good thar acter clause was no dse) laid scheme of the black belt count! g against the hill counties. It renamed Ia Inc Gen. necticut Constitution for years aud no- body ha claimed trat ;her'. were black belt counties in Connecticut.
 Governor oates asked Mir. Smith if it was not a fact that the Suprem. Court had not ruled on these matters and if the deductions were nol merely mat- ters of opinion.
 Mir. Smith replied taat the:, were original propositions .h the maj,r:;y report which has not had time to reach the Supreme Court. Ills argument. he said was deductions from welT estab- lished principles of law and decisions of the courts.
 Taxing up the Qu4St!on [ reg,stra- ton, Mir. Smith said IL proposed io merely throw a safekudri around me dearest rights of good citizenship. # the Convention proposed to frame sucn a Constitution as to absolutely t'ose out fraud the delegates would sit .n session forever and forov"r In conclusion, Mir. Smith said 1t was not any more a question of giving re- lief to the Black Belt than 1t was question of giving relief to the counties where the negro holds the balance or power. If it was merely for relief of the Black Belt counties the Convention mieh: nos have been necessary, asi the Black Belt had solved the problem of caring for itself. Tho Black Belt should be permitted. however, to rid itself of the practice of fraud. He de clared himself as willing to trust the delegates from tho Black Belt.
 MT. Smith spoke one hour and fif- teen minutes, and concluded at 5:25 o'clock.
 MT. Spears, the Republican delegate from st. Clair, was recognized and spoke in favor of permitting negroes to vote. He declared that the National right to vote, and the State of Ala bama could not take that right from him. The practical operation of this h Article would be to deprive 375,000 cit izens of Alabama of the right to vote temporarily and turn them over to 19S partisan registrars--Democrati regis trars-who would disfranchise Popu- lists, Republicans and negroes alike. MT. Spears reminded the delegates that they had held up their hands and solemnly sworn to uphold the Con stitution of the United States and these oatha had been registered in Heaven. He pictured the delegates at the end of time standing up or falling down on their faces and answering whether or not they had kept their oaths. | He said the language of the Eff | teentht Amendment was written in the simple language of the common people and they did not need any United l States Senator or Judge of any court to determine the question for them. He argued that the Convention had defined voting to be 8 privilege and that the | Federal Constitution proclaimed that no State could take away from any cit izen hi, privileges.
 | Mir Spears spoke of what he regard ed as the arbitrary power given the County Boards of Registrars, and said there were other obnoxious and embar- rassing clauses which were plainly for the purpose of abridging the rights oi some citizens. He argued that the pur- pose Of the Suffrage Article was to dis franchise the negro. He. declared i deliberately that in his judgmenr the Thirteenth. Fourteenth and Fifteenth | Amendments were the proudest jewels that bedecked the Federal Constitu- | ton.
 Mir. Spears rldiculed the efforts of Senator Morgan and the minority of tn; Committee to prove that the grand father clause" is unconstitutional He said If they wanted to kill the snake they should strike at the head of the reptile where it carries it's poison-the Board of Registration clause He said it was plainly a partisan scheme that the people would not tolerate. The Committee. he declared, had turned back the hands of the clock of civili- zation.
 l Answering Captain Graham of Tal- ladega, MT. Spears said that he was opposed to disfranchlsing any white man. and that he favored disfranchis- ing some negroes, but not most oi them.
 On motion of MT. Freeman of Win ston. MT. Spears was given forty min utes to continue his remarks this morning and the Convention at | O'CIock adjourned