The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-27

init all white men to vote and exclude all negroes. You have thereby denied and abridged the right of suffrage "on account of race, color and previous condition of servitude." and not for any other cause. Take. on the other hand. the scheme this committee has pre- sented. and what do you say? You say that every man of good character who understands the duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government may vote whether he De a negro or a white man. and. when YOU have said that, you have said that every negro who has the proper quail fications for the exercise of the elective franchise, every negro who Is capaple of participating in free government
 may vote. and when you have permit ed every negro who is capable or prop erly exercising the franchise to vote you have deprived no negro or the right of suffrage, nor have you abridged that right, because of his trace. color and previous condition of servitude." Now, if your soldier clause and your descendant clause simply admitted number of white men without aonnt- ting a single, solitary negro, you would not have deprived any negro Of the right to vote, nor would you nave abridged his right, because Of race. color or previous condition of servi- tude." Suppose under such conil- ton a that. negro was to apply Ter registration, and was asked whesner or not he was a man of good character
 No, am not. Do you understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of govern ment? No. I do not. Then you ar, not permitted to vote. Why am I not per
 mitted to vote? Not because of ycur race or color but because you are not a man of good character. Could he do as a man has attempted to do Tn the State of Louisiana. go into the courts and say Ut is true, they ought rot 10 have let me vote, it is true l was not fit to vote. 1t is true I was rfan or bad character and would have been stench in the electorate put still they did not exclude me for that reason. They excluded me because | was a negro. How do you know itE l know it because I am a negro. The soldier and descendant clause does not simply admit white people. All of my friends on the other side of this con troversy admit the character clause IS constitutional. All of them admit II you wipe out the soldier and descen- dent clauses, this plan would, be 1rec from attack on that account. EVefy one of them admit that every negro who is entitled under the Constitution of the United States to the right or suffrage would have the right Of suf- frage under that clause. If that is so, what does the adding of the soldier clause do? As the President or the Convention told you this morning, you have the right to fix any qualification upon voting you see fit, provided only, that there is no exclusion on account of race color or previous condition or servitude." What. now. does the sol dier clause do? Does it exclude sin gle solitary negro? Is there negro that can complain that he is not ad- mitted to the suffrage when he con- fesses that he Is not qualified to exer- else it? If it does not exclude sin gle negro, from the electorate, then it does not deprive him of his right Of suffrage nor does 1t abrfdge that right; far from depriving him of it. 1t ab- solutely adds to the number or ne- groes that can vote under what the gentleman admit would be an entirely lawful plan. How. then, can it be said that a provision that grants to race a right of suffrage that they would not possess except for that pro- vision denies either the race or the individual the right of suffrage or abridges it in the remotest degree? My friend from Montgomery, Governor Jones. announced a principle that the President of this Convention showed to be etirely untenable. l had sup posed that the gentleman knew what there were only five or six decisions bearing directly upon this question, and that all of the earlier decisions to which he and others have referred were confined exclusively to the treat ment and discussion of the fourteenth amendment and that the question or inequality was one applicable only to the provisions of the fourteenth amend ment which is to the effect that the equal protection of the law shall not be denied to any person within the jurisdiction of the United States. It is not a provision that is confined to the male citizen of the United States. It is not a provision that Is intended to protect the negro or the Chinaman or any other particular class. It is not a provision that relates in the remotest degree to race, color or former condi- tion of servitude. It Is true that the danger of inequality between the two races actuated Congress in adopting 1t, but when adopted. it was so not to be confined to the negro race but to cover every person, white or black. male or female, citizen or foreigner within the jurisdiction of these United States. It sdid not protect them in their political right It related solely and exclusive ly to civil rights, to the rights Of lib- erty and property; rights that inher- ently belonged to all men, not rights of suffrage which are necessarily un- der the law, gifts of the several States. The President has called your attention to the fact that ip one case absolute equality is demanded and ln the other the only restriction Is that one particular exception can not be made against one particular class of people Now, the most extreme decis- ions that there are upon this subject are the Kruickshanks case and the Reese case. which are based upon the case of Minor against Happersett
 Those are the decisions that define and limits the rights of the State to- wards this race, and the furtherest they have ever gone is to say that wherever a white man having named qualification is permitted to vote. a negro having the same qualifications shall also be permitted tQ vote. What those qualifications may be, outside Of the question of race. has been left en- tirely and absolutely to the arbitrary will of the State. My friend over here from Jefferson (Mr. White) in stanced as a qualification all persons with flat noses. and, MT. President while 1t is true that if you simply pass a law that no man with flat nose shall vote. and that everybody else shall vote. that law, taken in connec- AE,,a .feff of F1A-