The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-27

ness of the announcement from the Chair He read the original Constitution and compared the announcement with the letter. Less than two-thirds of the Senate was present: many States were excluded. The Senator was confident that an intelligent and virtuous Supreme Court would set the article at naught
 The enactment of the Fifteenth Amend ment in the debates in either House oc- cupied Congress from the opening day of the session until March 20.
 The casting vote of the Speaker was necessary to pass the measure In the House, and In the Senate 1t passed by single vote.
 While the article remained yet with the States for judgment. an eminent ju- rist of Alabama received a private letter from Chief Justice Chase, under date Washington, April 13. 1889. saying: In asmuch as the proposed Fifteenth Amend Tnent does not prevent the States from imposing reasonable qualifications ton the electorate), If qualifications should be found necessary, I incline to wish that 1t may be ratifed. should have no reser- vation in that wish if the clause giving Congress power to legislate were left out" (Files of Montgomery Advertiser).
 
 springs of the revolution from which the article evolved is to be accredited, 1t was never intended that this war amendment should take from the Northern States their ancient prerogative of regulation of the suffrage. and the right to hold of- flee. The power vested in Congress to legislate in the premises, was already ex- ercised in the exclusion of a sufficient number of Sntes to pass the enactment and this was the power perpetuated for future analogous use by the article. It related to the South( and not at all to the North. in so far as 1t had any mean ing involving the negro.
 In order to present the fact of real In- tent of the last two war amendments, Section of the historic Fourteenth Amendment is here reproduced in full. "Section 4. The validity of the pubic oeht of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for pay, ment of pensions and bounties for ser vice in suppressing instruction or rebel lon, shall not be questioned (sic). But neither the United States, nor any State. shall assume or pay any debt or obliGa- tion incurred ir aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States pr any claim for the emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void" Analyzng the last proviso of the ar ticle, 1t appears that the debt of every State" that is every Southern State, of course. incurred by its own government, fl on 1861 to 1885, inclusive. was confis- cated outright. The transparent motive was, to lift the burden from the one char acter of indebtedness that the capacity of the victim to bear another might be made stronger.
 he dah fnr and h0tIntiaa shall not be questioned" The grava- men of this proviso is easily explained. The limit of the State tax In Alabama is 1-2 cents on the dollar: the share of Union soldiers pensions now paid by Alabama annually is, say, Il cents on. the dollar of the same assessment, or ap- pro ximately double our enormous State | tax rate. The State tax amounts to s. | GOO round numbers, and the States | share in the Union soldiers pensions is sufficiently stated at $3.5OO,OO0. Senator Voorhees said in his principal speech at ! the special session in 1893. that the then prevailing panic would have destroyed large part of the invested capital of In- | dit na but for the fact that in the mid summer $11, ,000,000 on account of pensions had been distributed among the people. I. was stated here previously that im- proved farms in Alabama, before Section | took effect, that is by the census of 1SGO were valued at $30.0O0 600 more than by the census of 1900. There are various corroborative iterns of statistics. For instance, the value of animals slaughtered | in Alabama on farms, in 1860 was $lO per capita of population whereas the value of animals slaughtered here in l9lO ! was fallen to g per capita of population, making no allowance for the fact that ncne was imported on the foot in the earlier times, and now there are import ations Again, in 1860. we had one dairy COW to every four people of all races; now we have only one dairy COW to ev- cry nine people The product of cotton. our monopoly market crop. was one bale per capita of all races in 1860. It is now half bale per capita. We add to the cot ton of today the value In iron and coal exported, about one-eighth of bale per capita of population. but we bring back from other States feed and provisions and land fertilizers, in excess of such im- portations of 1860, far more than the value of the mineral products. we send out.
 There must be some potential and ab- normal force compelling the decadence Of land values in Alabama from previous long settled standard. What Is 1t? Pain full facts answer the question, The facts
  tain the industry of Alabama. Alabama commerce supports more than S50Oo0.O0O in railroads. The stocks and bonds of the roads age not productive here, but else where Our mines, mills, even our farms pay like tribute. not here but elsewhere. We had banking system once that justified Mobile and her proud export commerce of $5O.OOO.OOO a year Interest, commissions and profits on our industry remained at home and compounded at home. Not SO nov. The former com mercc of Mobile and its power in Ala bama life is lost.
 We have a banking system now that repudiates improved farms as collateral
 and all productive assets. Our present banking system accepts nothing as a ba- sis save the public debt and to keep the dcbt alive we have superfiuous taxes to deposit with the favored banks. So much | for Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amend