The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-14

Washington, June 1s.-(special. )-It is a common impression among students of noticed. Representative Thomas William Hard wick, of the Tenth Georgia District, is the second new member of Congress to de- clare himself in no uncertain terms for the repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment so the federal ., consatution. institution ss The first % was phreys. of the Third Mississippi District. Both are young men. Humphreys was a baby when the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted by an unconstitutional number of States, and Hardwick had not been born. It is the way they say. of ambitious young first-termers to cherish the notion that unless they come to the front with some great big idea which must attract crowd forever and aye. So your preco- cious first-termer sallies forth into the | open with his scroll of statecraft under his arm. with all the beaming ardor of l fond idea was in the minds of millions of people ere he quit infantile mewiing and fell to musing upon the first problems of life. It may be an idea that was | long ago settled by national consent: 1t | may have been dismissed decades ago by the wtsest statesmen as sropostion only to be deferred to the ripening of its own good time. Nevertheless. the yearning
 
 place doth often constrain the ambitious youth to step into the open and proclaim and declaim the robust proportions of his precious conceit
 The fifteenth amendment has been dis cussed ever since 1t was unumely and wickedly enacted. It has been debated | in Congress. not as a pending or relevant issue, but as vehicle for crtmination and | recrimination of its defenders and &C., l cusers, who charge it with responsibility | for all our race troubles. The fifteenth 1 amendment has had few and impotent de- | lenders. It has been confessed almost | generally even in that part of the country | that fastened 1t upon the whole as the most abortive and stupendous mistake | ever committed in the experiment of self | government. But 1t remains undisturbed, 1 and, in the opinion of many statesmen, | who have given 1t long and exhaustive thought. it will continue unmolested. To this conclusion the South seems to have settled.
 Southern States can regulate the suf- 1 frage qualifications of their own citizens. | It is their sole means of mitigating the l evils of the fifteenth amendment. That right they will enjoy as long as the con stitution Is as 1t is. As 1t Is In that respect, 1t is no more likely to be changed | than 1t Is in the respect of the fifteenth l amendment. In retaliation for the cur | tailment of the negro vote, 1t may be attempted to cut down the congressional representation of the Southern States. I Northern fanatics and enemies of the | South, but the Southern people, eliminat- ing of course selfish politicians, would far rather face the alternative of reduced l representation than see a return of negro domination in any part of the country they love
 It Is the feeling of 5outherners who come about Washington and of others whose sympathies are entirely with us, that the constitution Is not going to be disturbed either by politics or judicial con l struction in the protection 1t affords the | Southern States in their right to prescribe qualifications for their own voters. The l northern commonwealths have their own | peculiar suffrage problems and they Will l have need of the same organic law to l save them from the subtle, insidfous and | certain pollution Of citizenship now pour ing into their dominions from the cess l pools Of European humanity Northern | communities have goods to sell in South ern markets, to say nothing Of the con
 sideratton of elf-preservation from local sa
 can people have long since learned to love
 peace better than strife. The stability of general business interests will never
 again be sacrificed to radical politics
 This, sage observers of nowaday politics
 will tell you, Is the first thing your cor
 gressional frst-comer should take to his
 heart of hearts.
 One of the old fellows who has beer
 there and is now looking on at the vari-
 ous schools of statesmanship that come
 and 10 in Washington, has said to your
 correspondent on this theme:
 ''Nothinging Is so dangerous to com
 forting reputation than for young mar
 in Congress to start out to be famous
 with a jump, no matter how agile he car
 be ir the leap. Shakespere laid pardcu'
 lar stress upon the unconscionable Tickle
 ness of public opinion precipitately wooed
 Billy Bryan of Nebraska, with his howl
 ing swarming crowds of a few seasons
 since might we'll fit into the lines 1T
 Henry W:
 The commonwealth is sick of their owr | choice,
 Their over-greedy love hath been sufeited
 A habitation giddy and unsure
 Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart
 o thou fond many! With what loud ap' plaus0 -
 Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke, Before he was what hou Woulost nave
 And being now trimmed in thine own de- sireS,
 Thou peastly feeder, art so full of him, ] That hou provok'st myself to cast hin up.'"