Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1902-10-16
Congress, Ninth Virginia District,
lOL. CAMPBELL SLEMP,
Of Big Stone Gap.
A MASKED BATTERY.


The Democratic leaders and papers in
Virginia have been misleading the~poor
and initera,e white men Of State as to
thoPurposes and future effect of the new
suffrage law. They have told the peouIe
That the poorest and most uneducateo
fhite,man can and ,cN uote under the pro.
slope of any of the bills" that were Of
Akhe late Constitutional Convtn.
bas cen made to create
II frage was to be free and
the white mau, aud
the colored manic
nry G. Stuart has
||fabIe negro Mr.. |
% said in his circular, pub
9 t(Fall: 1.-THE Republican leaders
" too we'll that we are not pro
d,sfrane hise white men, and that
will fall ON the negro, where it is
n becir to realize how the promise
- disfranchjse white men has Deen
II making the new registration. In
tie districts hundreds, yea, thou-
If white men have been refused reg
under the "understanding clause
hearty every instance the man re-
+ = - has been a white Republican. j.
white Democrat has been rejected 1t
been accidental. This is vely signii-
Il: and demonstrates the iniqulty OF
ming partisan registration boards loose
|hout even requiring them to take an
lh to do their work fairly.
ver may have been the intention
mers of the new suffrage law with
having all white voters that ap-
|Istered under the understanding
it is certain that provision has
iced in the Constitution that vii
iisfrauchise nearly one.half of fine
lie that may be registered in 1907
and 1903 This will be accomplished 10y
the poll.tsx qualification for voting. which
has been placed in Sec 81. of.the Constiiu-
ton. That section says:
"Any person registered under either Of
the last two sections, shall have the right
to vote for members of the General As
sembly and all officers elective by the peo-
pie, subject to the following conditions:
THAT be, unle's exempted by section
twenty-five, shalt, asa prerequisite to the
right to vote after the first day of January,
nineteen hundred and four, personally
pay, at least six months prior to the elec-
tion, all State polltaxes assessed or asses
able against him, under this Constitution,
during the three years next preceding that
in which he offers to vote"
Every voter in 1904, except those who
served in either army in the Civil War,
will have to pay his poll-tax for the years
1901, 1902 and 1903 six months prior to
the election in 1904, or he will be denied
the right to vote. That amount will be
four dollars, and it is a trap set to disfran-
chise many thousands of the poor and un
educated white men. The negro vote
having been practically eliminated it can
not affect any but white men.
Not only has trap been set to catch
the poor white man, but it has been bait
ed with very attractive bait. The last
sentence Of Sec. %. of the Constitution
says: 'fhe collection of the State poll tax
assessed against any one shall not be en-
forced by legal process until the same has
become three years past due" This looks
like offering an inducement to men to be-
come delinquent in the payment of their
poll tax that they may thereby be kept
away from the ballot box.
The more We study the new Constitu-
ton, and especially the new suffrage law
the more do we become impressed with
the idea that the chief aim of the men who
dominated the Copyention was to arrange
our organic law SO as to give few people-a
preferred class of citizens con-
troll of our State, county and municipal
governments. The new registration has
about wiped out the negro vote and has
reduced the white vote already one-third.
After 1904 the poll tax qualification will
disffanchise nearly one.half of the white
men who have been enfranchised by the
new registration, and only about one-fourth
of the men of voting age in the State will
be in position to vote. Then we will
have a veritable oligarchy in Virginia.