The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-27


 was properly qualified for suffrage was permitted to vote, and then II was said that no other curly neaoea man or no other negro, TOT that mat. ter. would be allowed to vote, 1t would he perfectly constitutional. The fact that YOU exclude even by race every negro who was not fit to exercise the right of suffrage, would not render that law unconstitutional. My friend from Jefferson told us pig story and asked if you put SOW and pigs Tn pen. as we put the black and the white in the character clause of this article, and then left crack big enough to allow the pigs to get out, wouldn't that be discrimination in favor of the pigs and against the SOW! another gentleman from Jefferson re- piled, yes, but not because she w6s hog. Now. if that old SOW happened to be black and happened to have one black pig and nine white ones, and you made that crack so that the black pig could get out as well as the white ones. then it would not be a discriminat ton against the SOW because of her race or color. she would not be denied her liberty because she was black.
 MT. white-I will ask you now if the grandfather plan you have adopted does not operate to let one crowd in and keep the other out when the law says you shall not do 1t?
 MT. Smith-It operates to let one crowd in and keep the other out. but the law does not say you shall not do it. One crowd Is a crowd of white and negro soldiers. and the other crowd are not either white or negro soldiers. and it lets in the white and negro soldiers and descendants of white and negro soldiers and keeps out those who were not soldiers.
 Mr. White-You admit that If there were no descendants of negro soldiers that would be bad?
 MT. Smith-I do not.
 Mir. white-Then I misunderstood you.
 MT. Smith-The gentleman seems to imagine when he asks question, that it is not sufficient to answer the ques- tion, but I must go further and pre- sume that He asked an intelligent ques- tion also. Uaughter.)
 Therefore, gentlemen, am perfectly satisfied with the constitutionality and validity of both of these clauses. believe that the people have been taught that they are necessary by the enemies of this Constitution. I believe there have been insidiously whispered into the ears of the people throughout l the country that there is a sinister mo- | tive beneath the desires of portions of | the people of this State. and that it matters not what sort of clause they get up, there will be some fraudulent scheme to rob the white men of their right of suffrage. I believe that many people have been made to believe it, and therefore they are demanding this | I.,A 4l ia necessary, but because they fear this unknown something that has been whispered about They are demanding these soldiers and descendants clauses, | because they know the registrars can not say their fathers were not soldiers and that they are not the sons of their fathers, and I believe that is the sole necessity for it, and as I said In the beginning, while no such necessity ex- ists in my portion of the State, still if you gentlemen knowing the people of your portions of the State say it is necessary, put it in, for 1t Is certain that there will be no harm done to i the validity of the Constitution, and I fear no courts decision upon the sub ject.
 AS to the proceeding in Louisiana, if you have had an opportunity to ex- anime the petition you know that they must have been instituted for your especial benefit. You know, further, that in taking that proceeding for your benefit, they have failed to observe that large proportion of the member hip of this Convention are lawyers, be- cause from a legai standpoint they have filed a ridiculous petition. The petition is this: They took full booded negro, 45 years of age that came from Tennessee in 1860, and had him apply for registration. In reply to the questions that were asked him he said that he could not read, nor could not write, that he had no prop erty of any kind, and paid no taxes: that he was not a soldier nor the de- scendant of soldier, and that he had not one single qualification required by the laws under which he offered to register. The registrar declined to ad- init him to register because he had none of the qualifications, but he con tended in his petition that the entire law providing for franchise in Louis- jana is unconstitutional and void, and he therefore prays a mandamus to compel them to register him under the law that he says is an absolute nullity In other words. he claims that no legal registration can be had by any man and still he is in court with proceed ings seeking to have himself registered I care not what may be the merits of his controversy as to the legality ot the suffrage clause, the proceedings he has taken must necessarily fail. If the law be held to be valid, then he admits that he has not a single, solitary qual- l bication named in that law. If 1t be void. then it is absolutely impossible for them to register him, for there is l absolutely no law to register anybody spoke of as having been filed in Lou isiana was therefore necessarily filed to enable the gentleman of the views of the minority of the Committee tC threaten this, and the Virginia Consti- tutiondl Convention with the action or the part of the negroes to amend the institution. I had intended to say something in regard to the position that General Morgan and General Pet tus have taken. AS far as General Pettus is concerned, I have discussed this matter with him. He and l have talked over the "sixty-seven' clause from one end of 1t to the .other; talked over the very authorities that I have called your attention to. We were IT thorough accord uron the subject. Not by the ex-Governor, the gentleman from Montgomery, not because ht imagined for one moment that the de cisions applicable to the Fourteenth Amendment. were applicable to the Eff teenth Amendment. but because. as have said in the outset, the sixty