The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-02
SAYS E lE PLAN IS GOOD
Declarese. hat Objections of
 Minorg g Recommend Ii.
Document Dag Not, in His Opinion, Conflict with Federal Constitu- tion and withholds Franchise
 from Majority of Negroes.

When Hon. John B. Knox, President of the Constitutional Convention, was asked yesterday for his views upon the report of the Committee on Suffrage and Elections. which was presented to the Convention Saturday he said:
 .I am very much pleased with the report of the Committee. 1t provides a temporary as well as a permanent plan of registration. Prior to January 1st. 1903, the following. when properly registered. are entitled to vote as long as they live, provided they annually pay a poll tax of one and one-half dol lars:
 "First-Au who honorably served in the land or naval forces of the United States or the Confederate States.
 "Second-The lawful descendants of such persons.
 "Third-Al persons of good charac- ter who understand the duties and ob- ligations of citizenship under Repub- lican form of government.
 The Committee consists of twenty five members. and the report Is unani- nous with the exception of four mem- bers. who filed a lengthy minority re- port. The main objection urged by the minority to the majority report seems to be that the provision recommended by the majority report may operate to withhold the right of suffrage from q considerable number of negroes. In- stead of being an objection to the rlan, in my judgment this is it's chief recom- mendation.
 Tn the matter of suffrage, the State is sovereign. and may confer 1t upon or withhold 1t from any citizens it chooses. except that no discrimina tion shall be made against any person on account of his race, color or previous condition of servitude. Concerning the right to vote on soldiers and their de- scendants who fought the battles of the State Is not a discrimination against any class on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude nor can this objection be made to that clause of the plan which confers the right to vote upon all persons of good charac- ter who understand the duties and ob- ligations of citizenship under a Re- publican form of government.
 Is Within Federal Constitution.
 The Supreme Court of the United States has several times decided that neither the Fourteenth nor the Eff teenth Amendmnts confers any right to vote. The right of suffrage is not affected by the Fourteenth Amend ment. and the Fifteenth Amendment merely limits the right of the State LO hBdiLISI any pSISOh Olt account of race, color or previous con- dition of servitude. Such is the de- cision of the Supreme Court of the United States In the cases of Minor ts. Happersett. 21 Wall. 162, United States vs. Cruikshank. 92 U. $. 555, U. s. vs. Reese, 92 U. $. 214.
 In the Cruikshank case, supra, the Supreme Court of the United States says: 'Tn Minor vs. Happersett, we decided that the Constitution of the United States has not conferred the right of suffrage upon anyone, and that the United States have no voters of their own creation in the States. In United States vs. Reese, we held @at the Fifteenth American has invested the citizens of the United States with a new constitutional right, which is exemption from dir crimination in the exercise of the elective franchise on ac- count of race, color or previous condi- tion of servitude. The right of ex- emption from the prohibited discrim- nation comes from the United States" To the provision of our Constitution as reported by the Suffrage Committee, the language of the Supreme Court of the United States. in the case of Will Hams vs. Mississippi, Q70 U. s. III, strictly applies. In that case the court says: "The operation of the Constitu- tion and the law is not limited by their language or effect to one race"
 After the 1st of January, 1903. no one who failed to register under the above provision can vote unless he be able to read and write any article of the Con- stitution of the United States in the English language. or own property of the assessed value of $500, or own, in his own right, forty acres of land sit- uated in the State. upon. which he re- sides. Here again it is evident that there Is no discrimination against any one on account of his race, color or previous condition of servitude. All citizens are placed upon the same basis, and the noble incentive is offered to the young and rising generation to acquire the clements at least of a common school education.