The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-30
OFFICIAL REPORT OF TIE PROCEEDINGS OF
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF ALABAMA

sssFsE%TTl4G .let discretion somewhere? There are understand, niHety-six lawyers in thi' Convention. They are all of them con. stitutional lawyers, l presume, by thii time, -Mr. President. l an, not q law yer, I am farmer, but in the language
 sf Mrs. Wyley Janes of North Carolina after the battle Of cpwpens. fn con. yersation with British officer, Colo pel Tarieton, who remarked You ap-
 pear to think very highly of General
 Washington, and yet l have been told
 that he is so very ignorant a fellow
 that he can hardly write his name. ,
 It may be the case, she readily replied
 but no man better than yourself ear
 testify that he knows how to make his
 mark-pointing to his wounded hand
 made so by General Washington in that battle. know how to flake my mark. Subdivision 5 of Section { of the
 suffrage report is sufiiciendt, and All
 soldiers and their sons could and should come under that clause. anything else Is humiliating, Mr. President. the poll
 tax. in my judgment, is the only selu- ton that I see to this question. Mark what say, if any are to be disfran- chised, let them disfraHchise them- SEtvN6f &Al pRPpSra " kNb ateAt esit- ehising of any citizen of Alabama ex. cept for crime. I want the catalogue of crimes mentioned In Section amended so as to disfranchise and put in the penitentiary every man who sells his vote and the man who buys 1t, The
 bribe giver Is as mean as the bFibe taker The man that will do either Is unworthy of the ballot, l listened very patiently the other day when the distinguished senior member frem Ran dolph was picturinG the conditions in his county, and while l know he told the truth, yet wherever there is q man who proposes to sell his vote, there Is somebody that is guilty of buying him, and if negroes sell their votes they should be disfranehised, they are not worthy of it. And 1t occurs to me, coming from the Fifth Congressional District. the same as does the gentle man from Randolph, that in the last Congressional election V that district there was more money spent in the white primaries among white men than was ever known to have been spent in that district in all the past. What we need are honest men in Alabama, when we get them, we will get honest elec- tiens. Section 5, if enacted into law. as part of the canstitution of Ala bama, in my judgment. will disfran- ehise thousands of white men in Ala hama. Section. 6 of Subdivision of Section 1. with q poll tax, Is all that is necessary, with 8 little amendment to Section 6. which propose to offer when We get to it, Mr. President. we sheuld be more discreet. Closed mouths instead of closed doors is what we need now. The old soldiers are ever A5 years old, not subject to poll tax. The old negro always devoted 'tc his old master and mistress Is still loyal and grateful. I appeal to the old Con- federate soldiers who will be the first man to rise up and strike down this faithful old man who stood so faith fully by our fathers and mothers. our wives and children, made bread for them and us while We fought the bat l an an old soldier who surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse on the 9th of April, 1885. l have never gotten my consent to do it. Twill paint no picture, will pre- sent one already painted, and that picture by the lamsntel Grady in his famous speech at Boston:
 What of the negro? This ef him: I want no better friend than the black boy who was raised by my side and who Is HOW trudging patiently, with downcast eyes and shambling figure, through his lonely way of life. l want not sWeeter music than the grooming of my old 'MamHS.' now dead, and gone to rest, as l heard It as she held me in her loving arms, and bending her old black face above me stole the cares from my brain and led me smiling into sleep, ] want no trueF soul than that which moved the trusty slave, who for four years, while my father fought with the armies that barred his free dam, slept every night at my moth CTS chamber door, holding her and her children as safe as if her husband stood guard. and ready te lay down his humble life on her thresheld. History has no parallel to the faith kept by the negro in the South during the war. Often 500 negroes to single white man, and yet through those dusky threnss women and children walked in safety. and the unprotected homes rested in peace. On marshalled the black hattallien marched patiently to the fields in the morning, to feed armies their idleness would have staFv- ed, and gathered anxiously at the big house to hear the news from Marster,' though conscious that his victories made their chains enduring. Every where humble and kindly; the rough companion of the little ones; the ob- servant friend; the silent sentry in his iawly cabin; the shFewd ceunselleri and when the dead came home, mourner at the open grave, A thousand torches would have diabnaded every Southern army, but net one was lighted. When the master, going to a war in which slavery was involved, said to his slave, T leave my heme snd laVed anes in yaur charge the tenderness between man and master stood disclosed. And when the slave held that charge sacred through eteFm and temptation, he gave new meaning to faith and loyalty, 1 rejoice that when freedom came to him, after years of waiting, it was all the sweeteF because the black hands from which the shackles fell were stainless of a single crime against the helpless ones eanfided to hie care"
 MT, President and delegates of this Convention, there have been many noble and patriotic speeches made in this Convention since we have been in St ssiOn. If some had been eliminated, in my Judgment, 1t would have been better far the people of the State of Alabama, They had better have been delivered behind closed doors. l want to repeat what has many times been said on the floor of this Convention, that this Is g white mans country 1t is large enough for the black man also. The white man is ruling, the white man is going to rule it. There is not
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