The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-04
SOUND TALK.
By the, Democratic Leader of the
 House.

House.
 fExtracts from speech by Hon. John Sharp Williams, at Spartanberg, 5. c. December 1st.) publican victory and Democratic de- feot, in my opinion. consisted in the recrudescence of sectionalism shown py the undoubted popularity, reluctant as I am to admit 1t, of the proposition to curb the growing South by reducing its representation in congress ana Ill the electoral college.
 The argument of the Republicans in favor of reduction of southern repre- sentation, repeat. could have been met and ought to have been met. ought. indeed, to haze recoiled on them. Take my own State Mississippi. for ex- ample. It is not true, 1t is unequivo- cally false, that any man is denied the suffrage in Mississippi because he IS black or because he was formally cally false that there Is now In Missis- sippi. in the law itself. or in the ad- ministration of the law, any violation of the fifteenth amendment by a denial or abridgment of the suffrage because of race, color or previous condition or servitude." If there is any question for debate at all it Is under the pro visions of the fourteenth amendment. Whether there Is any question for de- bate there or not depends upon the an swer to these several questions: "1s the requirement. of registration as a prerequisite to voting a denial or abridgment of the suffrage?" 'Is the requirement. that the citizen shall have paid all taxes due by him to the State before he can vote denial or abridg- ment of the suffrage" Is ithe require, ment that he shall be able to read and write a denial or abridgment. of the suffrage?" If either of these is leaglly a denial then undoubtedly the penalty prescribed in the fourteenth amend ment, to wit: reduction of representa- ton in the proportion which the num- Der of citizens deprived of the suffrage shall bear to the whole number has been incurred. If none of these are a denial, then liability to the penalty of the fourteenth amendment has not been incurred.
 Judge Cooley, accepted as the great est constitutional lawyer of recent times, in his textbook, The Principles of Constitutional Law" holds that neither of these requirements Is a de- nial or abridgment of the suffrage. but Is merely a prescribed condition with which the voter can comply If he will. not only without detriment to himself. but with benefit, both to himself and to the State
 In my deliberate opinion, the States boro, Ga. affair cost the South the sympathy of a quarter or half million of voters throughout this country. It could not be defended, nor did any Southerner, for that matter, seek to defend 1t. All deplorcd 1t and all con- most strongly of all, and yet 1t had its weight and effect in chilling sympathy and any hoped for response when we were menaced by injustice. We could have responded truthfully: True, 'tis pity; and pity 'tis. 'tis true" We could have added that northern people shot down negroes at Pana, Ills, be- cause they merely wanted to work that at Springfield, Ohio, after the mob was through with the guilty 1t proceeded to punish the innocent, burning and marrying their homes; that only recent ly the municipal authorities of a Ne vada town ordered all negroes who lived in 1t to leave and gave notice that none could return: that lynch law has been confined to no section or State and that lynchtng of negroes in the North has been, in proportion to their num- bers and any danger to be apprehended from them. more prevalent than in the South.
 All tu quoque arguments are weak, however, because they eally are not arguments at all. You cannot condone wrong or justify it by proving that somebody else has been guilty of an equal wrong, or even a greater one. and that, too. with no greater provocation, or really with less provocation. More over, in this particular case there were those who responded: "Yes. you are right; lynch law has prevailed in every State of the Union, and there are spas modic instances of 1t everywhere, but at least the officers of the law attempt to prevent 1t and the armed constabu- lary of the law-the militia-when called to do their duty, do it. At Statesboro, Ga. it does not appear that the officers of~the law or the militia did or attempted to do their duty. If this is a sample of the feeling through out the South, the fabric of the white mans civilization has already been de- stroyed. There is no white mans civil lization whose supremacy you are called upon to assert The very affair itself Is a confessioH on the white government under his own laws. The officers of the law are elected by you: the militia was organized by you; the whole governmental fabric failed upon even be urged that 1t was because of fear of the failure of justice. The prisoners had been tried and convict ed"
 My friends. 1t remains for me and you to acknowledge. frankly, that, while all this Is a very illogical reply to an argument against an unconstitu- tional partisan reduction of Southern representation, 1t is, at any rate. a natural reply. because human nature Is more controlled by sentiment and sym pathy than it Is by logic, and will ever remain so. The words that l am ut tering here I would not utter to any but a Southern audience. I would sink deeper and lower than plummet could sound before I shall ever reprove the shortcomings of my people to an au- are not charged with the control of our domestic affairs. But as 8 Southerner of the Southerners, "according to the straightes. of my sects I feel 1t my