The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-26

am not here to say that the law demands absolute equality in the num- ber of citizens of the different races who are admitted to citizenship on ac- count of the qualifications" which the State imposes as conditions for the privilege of suffrage. For instance, if you had property qualification. 1t would be no legal objection that 1t let l in more of one race than another, be- | cause the qualification applies alike to each and every man, no matter what is his race and all can attain to 1t, hut when you go to make qualification" you must make qualifications that can be attained by men of each lace, not classifications to which one Jece only can attain. Now I take 1t, MT. Presi- dent. that those propositions will not be seriously disputed. Then what have we in this temporary plan? We must take the conditions that exist here. MT. Smith (Mobile)-May 1 ask the gentleman a question?
 MT. Jones-If it is not to te taken out of my time.
 Mir. Smith-Do understand those propositions are applicable only to the | fifteenth amendment. or are they gen. | eral propositions of law? Mir. Jones-I was speaking more par | ticularly with reference to the fifteenth | amendment. Without he fifteenth | amendment the State could do what 1t pleased in the way of classifications called qualifications" Let IFS see the l problem we have in hand. We start out in Section l: Every male citizen | of this State. who is a .itizen of the l United States. (and every man born | under the Jurisdiction, even a woman, so far as that is concerned, is citi- zen) "every male~ citizen 21 years old l or upwards. not laboring under any of the disabilities named in this article and possessing the qualifications re- | quired by it."
 MT. Fitts-I move that the rules of this Convention be suspended and that the time of the gentleman from Mont gomery be extended for thirty minutes, beyond the time allowed by the rules MT. Heflin (Chambers)-I would like to amend that motion so as to extend the time until o'clock. MT. Fitts-I accept the amendment. The motion was carried and the rules were suspended.
 MT. Jones-I thank the Convention. Now we start out with every male cit izen. and say he shall vote if he pos sesses one of three qualifications; first, he shall have been himself 8 soldier in the enumerated wars. Second, the | lawful descendant of some soldies in the enumerated wars; and, third, a person of good character who under stands the duties and obligations of citizenship under a republican form of government. These are the qualifica- | tions. and the qualifications must ap- proximately as a whole bear alike up- on all the citizens of this State. I do not wish to be misunderstood in this proposition. do not say 1t Is an ob- jection to qualifications that they do not produce given ratio of votes from each race. according to the number of the whole as for example, one hundred | and fifty thousand white voters and only one hundred thousand black vot- ters. I do say there must be substan- tialiy approximations, and that the re- suits of these qualifications" which | are different and operate differently upon the voters of each race must be | such that the court can discover from | them fair intent not to discriminate | against any citizen. on account of race color or previous condition. l MT. deGraffenreid-Can 1 ask the
 gentleman a question:
 | MT. Jones-Yes. sir.
 Mir. Graffenreid-Suppose. for i'm stance. the State of North Dakota has
 no negroes in it, and no one but white l people live there: would 1t be lawful
 for the State of North Dakota to adopt
 in its Constitution the provision en-
 tained in the temporary plan that you have just reached7
 MT. Jones-I think it would be a
 practical abstraction, as the Court
 would say no negroes were there to be
 operated upon. 1t would be perfectly
 apparent from the natural operation
 of the statute that they had no inten-
 tion or design by such laws to exclude | On hn rAt
 there to be affected by it, on account
 of race. etc. I think 1t depends large
 ly upon the character of the popula- tion.
 MT. deGraffenreid-The State of North Dakota then. can do things. if
 1t has no negroes. that Alabama can
 not do?
 MT. Jones-Exactly, because it de-
 bends upon the state of facts existing,
 whether laws are designed to unlaw- | fully strike down a race and whether
 your laws will operate fairly to dis
 franchise people of one race and en- | franchise people of another. I am very
 glad my friend asked me the question,
 because it illustrates the point the
 Supreme Court of the United States
 has made repeatedly. that it is not the
 language of the statute, but 1t Is the | ordinary and natural operation, which ! AS IiiC tCoI. Ol COuTSS WOulQ De an
 abstract question where there were no
 negroes. There would be nobody to be
 affected. and the Supreme Court would
 say it Is manifest that it is not direct
 ed at any race. because there is only
 one race there, and upon that one it
 bears fairly onSall-on each citizen of
 the United States.
 MT. Walker-I would like to ask the
 gentleman a question? I will ask if he
 would regard provision in the Con-
 stitution of California prohibiting na-
 tives of China from voting as uncon- l stitutional?
 MT. Jones-They are not citizens of
 the United States.
 MT. Walker-They may be natural
 ized though.
 MT. Jones-If they were naturalized
 would say they fell under the fif-
 teenth amendment.
 MT. Oates-But the laws now do not
 allow them to be naturalized.
 MT. Jones-I understand that. | MT. Walker-It is not a Chinaman
 not a Mongolian. but a native of
 China. white. black. or any other col | or?
 MT. Jones-If he is a citizen of the
 United States. if he is naturalized. he
 cannot be disfranchised on account of
 his race. A mongolian cannot become
 a citizen of the United States under our laws.
 Mir. Walker-That Is on account of
 his race. something over which he has
 no control.