Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-03-22

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amendment to the Federal constitution
which provides that the right OF clti
zens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United
States, or by any state on account o.
race, color or previous conditions o.
servitude." This was one of the perm
anent results which grew out of the
War of the Rebellion, and which was
accepted apparently in good faith by
the Southern states when they came
back into the Union. 1t was an obll-
CATION that came to them upon theli
restoration to citizenship in the re-
public which they had tried to over
throw. An yet for number of years
past the work of DISTINGUISHING the
cOlored population in the Southern
states has been pushed forward without
any pretense of concealment under the
cover of law. Many Of the leading men
of the South have thrown off all pre-
tense i'm the matter and boldly assert
that the negro race is an inferior race,
and, rs such. not entitled to any polit-
ical rights which the white race is
bound to respect.
Not only are they opposed to the
negro's exercise Of the franchise. but
they would deprive him of the advant-
ages of education. To be sure there are
many noble men and women in the
south who do not carry their race pre-
iudice to this extent, but the action of
most of the states in which they reside,
in erecting constitutional and statutory
barriers against the negro. have
resulted. as they were intended to do,
in deriving him of his political rights,
50 that they are in the minority in the
communities in which they reside. One
of the most bgoted and rancorous en-
emies Of the negro race is Governor
Vardaman of Mississippi, who, in his
inaugural address, expressed the opin-
ion that education OF the cOlOred peo-
pie tended 10 draw them from indus
triOus pursuits and TO acccntuate in
them idle and criminal tendencies.
There was not in this remarkable doc
unent any evidence 10 sustain this as
sertion which was only the unsppport-
ed dictum of a very narrowminded dog
matist 1t is evident. however, that
Governor Nardaman is not disposed to
let any opportunity pass which will en-
able him to strike blow at the negro
race. one of his latest official acts was
TO veto bill making the usual appro-
Normal school at Holly Springs upon
the ground that education is not good
for the colored race. 1t is Il singular
fact that While Governor Nardaman,
and the little men of his stamp in the
South. are anxious to deprive the negro
of his political and educational rights,
still they insist that he shall be count
ed when it comes to appOrtiOnment of
representatives in Congress. This is
certainly decidedly inconsistent. If the
negro is to be made Il cipher in the civic
life of the South. ard all legislation
pertaining to him for the last four or
five years has steadily tended in that
direction, and if the South is to be re-
g
country" then we submit as Il matter
of common justice and equity that rep
resentation from the South should be
based exclusively upon that portion OF
the population, which is permitted to
enjoy the rights of citizenship, guar
anteed by the Federal constitution.
Furthermore We contend that it IS
entirely within the province of Con-
gress to meet the wholesale disfran-
chisement of the negro by cnacting leg
islation to that end. While section one
of the 18th amendment of the federal
provides that no man
shall be disfranchised because of race,
color or previous condition of servi-
tude," section > provides that the
Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
1t is evident. therefore. that there is a
remedy provided in the organic law of
tho land against the illegal and uncon-
stitutional usurpatiOn of the just rights
of the colored people of the South. and
one which the white people of the
South themselves acquieSced in. when
they accepted that provision and came
back into the Union. This is Il matter
that will not be sneered out of sight by
men of the Vardaman stripe, and ii
will never be settled until it is settle l
right
Ii is n relief to sec that while Varda-
man has with him ut the present time
the official machinery of his state. and
although the element which he repre-
SCENTS is now in the ascendency in most
of the Southern states. there are brave
men and women in that section VINO