The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-01

I deny that we did any such thing. believe in standing up like men to what we do here and in doing nothing we cannot stand by and defend publicly or otherwise.
 am willing and ready to say to the courts and to the world: eyes, this temporary suffrage plan is our plan; 1t is good it IS our annunciamento; 1t is our doctrine; it is our faith; 1t is our creed: it is our thesis; and we pin 1t to our walls and stain here ready and able like brave men to defend it.
 With like candor and fearlessness we should protect our youths yet awnlle' We ought not to let the clouds gather round them and add to their misfor- tunes for which they are probably not responsible, the other mortlfylng ana humiliating one of disfranchisement. And it will require time and tacttui management to bring them up 10 the required conditions. We have to ap- proach them according to their several conditions and surroundings. We must let them understand that our purpose is to lift them up, not crush them. we cannot do that by making a summary law requiring quick, radical ehange Tn their lives Who of you campaigners has not learned that you nave 10 move to the accomplishment of an object in one community by one set Of methods and in another by different one? Who of us all is so blind to human nature as to approach all men in the same way? Who has taught school without learning that he must manage one child one way and another in differ ent way? So iy is with voters. I plead for the youth of the rural districts. Those of you who were not reared among them do not understand them possibly as I do. What seems easy and right to you may seem hard and unjust to them. Their situation and environments are all different from yours, possibly. This requirement that they must forthwith get property and education will seem hard to them. Let's keep the trust.
 would like to see the substitute adopted. If this cannot be then hope we will adopt tht amendment.
 Mir. Smith (Mobile)-The argument the gentleman nas made is practically the same position that he took in ref erence to the second paragraph of the fourth Section. The same considera- tions were presented to the Committee in the Committee room, and discussed at very considerable length, and the views that the Committee there ex- pressed 1 believe to be well founded. In the first place, it seems to me that there is some misconception as to why We have adopted the temporary plan at all. It may be the intention Of some members of the onvention to arrange a fraudulent scheme to dlsqualify the negro, but that is not the view with which the Committee has formed its plan. It's idea has been to truly and in fact, elevate the basis upon which the electorate was 70 be put in the State of Alabama. Circumstances, however much concerned us, owing to the fact that we have this large num- Der of ignorant blacks with us which made it absolutely impossible for us to put the suffrage upon a high basis without making some exceptions to that rule. If we had introduced the permanent plan in the first instance, unaided by the admission into the cleo torate that IS granted by the tempo rary plan, it would have been abso- lutely impossible, under existing cir cumstances. to have adopted the Con- stitu;ion. The negroes would have been disqualified to a large extent and therefore would have voted against it. A large number of citizens who on ac- count of the fortunes of war had no opportunity to quality under the per manent plan would have been dis franchised, and it would have left but a small minority to vote for any plan that we might produce. It was there fore absolutely necessary that we should make temporary plan, that looked with tenderness to the condi- ton of the soldiers and their descend ants. and a temporary plan that would enable us to redeem thc pledges that were made to the party, and to adopt what would eventuate in a high plane of suffrage. That We have attempted to do and that we think is going to be of benefit to us. on any contest in the courts upon the validity of these exceptions, but probably in considera- tion of these questions as they arise, as they may in Congress, upon a con- sideration of whether or not they would reduce our representation both in Congress and in the Electoral College. If we present to them this position and tell them that the honest true effort of our people has been to raise the suffrage to an intelligent and proper basis, and that what we have done in the temporary plan has been absolutely necessary to get iI upon that basis, then there can be no disposition whatever to cut down our representation in Con- gress or in the Electoral College. They will say, yes, it is true they have made exceptions which apply more largely to the whites than to the blacks; yes it is true you have introduced a soldiers clause to admit to a large extent white men; it is true they have introduced the descendants clause, to admit to a large extent white men, but what was the final purpose? Was it the purpose to circumvent the Fifteenth Amend ment. or was it the purpose to place upon a high plane the suffrage of the State of Alabama, and could they have placed it upon this high plane in any other way"
 The President-Wfll the gentleman from Mobile suspend. He will be en- titled 10 the floor this afternoon.
 The Convention then adjourned until S:30 p. m.
 AFTERNOON SESSION.
 The Convention met pursuant to ad-