The age-herald., 1901-09-01
D.. Hmgey Dascmsses hhe RlgAt g
 States % oDss1yamchsse Neeyo Voters

, 1t is hiding it's body, has a talent for concealment compared to this flimsy scheme to evade the amendments to the constitution. And, moreover, Alabama is not driven to this pitiful and direful ne- cessity As things now stand she has large white majority and under the other clauses of the proposed constitution this majority would be safe beyond the shadow of a doubt. Let it be boldly said that after a certain time an educational qualification in persons under the age of sixty will be imperatively required to en- title one to vote. The suggestion that such provision will work to the ad- vantage of the negro rather than to that of the white man I denounce as a islander affind an insult to the color of my face If so, so be 1t, but I will never believe 1t until see 1t. 1t is equivalent to saying that the negro excells the white man In ambition and the duties of intelligent citizenship. I do not care a thrip for the post bellum amendment conferring the suffrage upon the negro, nor do I regard them as part of the federal constitu- tion. They are bayonet legislation, ille- gally enacted and forced upon distracted and prostrated States. The negro Is, with some exceptions, incompetent to vote, an has never had a legal right to do so. But I cannot understand how any one who differs with me in this respect and believes these amendments to be, in very deed and truth, part of the constitution can call God to witness that he will sup port the same and vote for this grand father clause" which is a plain violation of these amendments-too palpable and plain to deceive any one, and, in fact, confessedly prepared to do so To con ceive how he can reconcile such a course to his conscience requires nimbler wit than mine, and until I obtain greater mental illumination I must consider that man as possessing mountains of faith in 6-aB ....- T e.. his souls health that he may not be call ed hence until he has had an abundance of time to exercise the same in fasting and prayer.
 If keeping the negro from voting was the only thing at stake I would be mute as mummy, but l regard this
 clause as an assault upon republi- can form of government, the very par ticuiar thing for which my grandfathers under whose coat-tails I am expected to reach the ballot box. pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors. Would I not be recreant to my heredity and disioyal to the cause they so enthusi- astically espoused did I not protest; and at least empty an ink horn for that for which they emptied powder horn? And I am moved by another motive--and one as gentle as the falling dew" I do not wish to see many scores of honored statesmen rudely aroused from their mid summers nights dream by the non placet of a judge with a head on his shoulders, and the State lose clear hundred thousand dollars in the coolest kind of cash.
 Gentlemen. if you cannot do better than turn our Alabama into a quid-nunc, in the words of Henry Grady, come home! The only other grandfather clause with which I am acquainted Is that thundered from Mount Sinai in which Jehovah de- clares He will visit the sins and iniquities of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him.. And this surely proves that it is some time more blessed to give then to receive and that hereditary privileges are not neces- sarily benefactions. This ought to be suggestive to thoughtful mind, and make constitution makers careful how they eat grapes for fear the teeth of their children may be on edge. The most graceful thing these gentlemen did they quickly undid-giving women the right to vote on question of special taxation of property, and this too, in the face of their declared love of the fathers who detested "taxation without representation'' as an unspeakable abomination. The plain Justice of the proposition struck the con vention with the force of a cyclone and would have become righteous law had not the Headers returned, after smoking their cigars and smothered it with their sopnistry. "A dangerous precedent lead ing to female suffrage" In these days when muti-millionaires step in steam launch to be conveyed to a steam yacht to carry them to dinner, and swap their daughters for titled sons-in-law, it Is not a dangerous precedent forsooth to grant the right of suffrage to the accident of birth! To what does this lead, think you? l admit that the reasoning is not without precedent. youthful person was once upbraided and plead justifica- tion in the fact that 1t was only "a little one.' An acorn is a little thing, but may become an oak and wrestle with the storm! If this deviation from democracy is to last only little while, why should it exist at all? May not coming imperial- ism point to it with pride and yet plague us with it? Why not keep the record clear? Alabama does not fear ne- gro supremacy in any contingency. Give us something of real value and pressing need. Down the syndicate of solicitors, make a sheriff protect prisoner, let the people elect the railroad commissioners. Do these things and your constitution may not be rejected from title page to colophon! f R. P. HIJGER
 Anniston, Ala, August 29. 1901.