The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-03

Jefferson, has proceeded to amend the Constitution and has made Conkfess the Supreme and final tribYpai, tc Rsss Tn Judgment on the constitutions Of the laws of the states In reiefeh''
 ThBs amazing platform strikes oown the line of demarcation which exls.s between the three great depar .neh.s .s Of government. The courts are not ~ be entrusted with expounding ana en- forcing the laws, but partisan Son gress, not obeying the rules or law but the exigencies and demands or par
 ty necessity, is to be vested wlth JuuI. cial powers, and made the final ludge of the validity of the laws or the States, clothed with the arbitrary pow CT of reducing the represenAation oi States in the councils of the nation.
 It may be insisted that the secoho section of the Fourteenth Amendment provides in effect that the States snan pass no laws forbidding universal SUI. frage. It has been argued tnat any State which forbids; denies or apr,Iged drniged the right of a citizen of the uhlteu States to vote, except for crime. Vio- lates the Fourteenth Amendment.
 The argument has been made that those States, such as Massachusetts anu property or educational qualification violate the second section of the Four- teenth Amendment, and are llanie eo have their representation reduced.
 This section of tn. the :, FGSs'espbbtt "tSs rs9bt to vote is denied or abridged to any male inhabitant of the United states having attained majority, and pelne citizen of the United States. then the basis of representation to which escn State Is entitled in the Congress shall be proportionately reduced ,,.,.,
 The Supreme Court of the Unlteo States, speaking of this section of the Rscs n the n. of Tight to Vote intended to be protected refers to the right to vote as established by the laws and constitution of the State. There Is no color for the contention that un der the amendment every male inhapi- tant of the State. being a. citizen or the United States has from the time Of his majority a right to vote for Presiden- tial electors.
 neither conferred on the negro the right to vote, or protected him in his suffrage. The right of the State to regulate and control the suffrage IS the Fifteenth Amendmnet. The doc, Urine of the Republican party. endorsed by its leaders, and promulgated by its convention, overthrows the traditions and practices of the country for over a century .and in effect makes the Con, gress the supreme and final tribunal to pass on the validity of the laws or the sovereign States of the Union. The Republican platform sounds danger signal to all lovers of constitutional government. No State in the Union has more intelligent electorate than Alabama. In the exercise of her con- stitutional rights, she has recently re- formed her suffrage, basing the right to vote on the solid rock-bed of prop erty and intelligence. She has vio- lated no provision of the Federal Con- stitution, and although her article on suffrage has been attacked in the courts, 1t has been sustained by the highest Judicial tribunals of the coun- try. Yet although the provision she has made as to suffrage, has stood the test of Judicial construction, a partisan Republican Congress. in obedience to the mandate of It's party, could deter mine that she has violated the provisS ions of the Fifteenth Amendment, and proceed to punish her by reduction of her representation in the Congress and in the electoral college.
 The offense of which the South has been guilty Is inexcusable and unpar- donable. It Is an adherence to the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy. The Republican platform Is not only threat against the South. but signal warning to the country, of that con- temptuous disregard of the Constitu- ton. and of the sovereign rights of the States, which, if not rebuked. will bring disaster to all sections of our common country.