The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-07
TIE NEGRO IN THE WAR AMENDMENTS
tNumber l.l
JOHN WITHERsPooN DuBosE.

(Nnmber 1.)
 The practical interest of the eubE,e h 2 correct understanding of the history and the theory Qf the last three amend rnenfs to the Federal Constitution, be- comes acute with the advent of the legal controversy euch as the recent oIles case. and the later Sparks case. the two cases originating in different claims of pro- lection from those amendments. one or ali, set up by the negro in Alabama.
 By statute the State ordains that tiis public schools shall teach as history that "the Fourteenth Amendmsnt save the negro the right to vote. Now q constitutional right is quite q different Tight from q privilege conferred upon the beneficiary by arbitrary power. A sCen- stItution of free government is valid only as an evolution from the mind, rinan- ners, physical strength and moral status of the community governed. The. num- Der Of negroes in Alabama Is Ssi,so1. and the number of negro voters In this year of grace 1904, thirty-six years after tlie adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, is s,9eo. On the other hand, the number of whites in Alabama is 1,oOi ,Sgo, and the number of white voters is 1st.4e2.
 Evidently, q negro electorate does not evolve frcm the dominating energies of CDms0uuitY IfIo III AiAD0Htt- n0 WA1Sos of heathen philosophers has said. re- ligion consists in v.rtuous energies. yir- tuous energies, residing ih the commit. rity of Alabama, are abundant. We are responsible to the givcr of every good and perfect gift for the use of it. We may not lay it aside in napkin for fear we should lose 1t in the use. We have considered long and anxiously the rights of the negro in the electorate We have experimented with the Four teenth Amendment fl every feature of the article as it relates to the negro.
 A text book in the curriculum of the State University declares: From purely scientific point of view, the Con. stitution of the United States never reached it's logical completion until after the adoption of the Fourteenth Amend merit" This we get from MT. Hani'ss Taylor's great work, "The Origin anc Growth of the English Constitution, p. "A.
 Tie distinguished author alleges that ssthe leading motive which led to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment was to reverse the results of the Drod Scott case, and to secure the right CT citizenship to the African race" etc.
 Answering these paragraphs In order, it seems that the noticeably increasing
 
 litical rights in their more tentative as- poets upon the citizenship and electorate provisos of the Fourteenth Amendment, the long and indeterminate record of sur prises to counsel, disappointment to ltt- lgants and the sharp division of the Court itself on the cases at bar, justly excite suspicion that the article is not of scientific evolution from the sources os the Constitution, but is to be ciassed among phenomena of revolution, from the disturbing effects of which society was unrecovered at the date of It's adop' ton.
 Coming to the allegation of the second citation from Mir. Taylor, that the lead ing motive" Of the Fourteenth Amend ment was to endow the African (of the | South, of course) with citizenship in | the United States, we must test its ac- | curacy by proof of the words and nctian of men who prepared the article to sub. init 1t to the States.
 One preliminary word as to the Thir- teenth Amendment. This article was pas. sed through Congress fin the war time as a war measure and the evident intent was to incorporate 1t in the Constitution in the absence of the Southern States | The Constitution requires the assent o1 three-fourths of the States to an amend. ment. The whole number of States, in- cluding West Virginia, then represented I in Congress and liable to assent to the amendment. was much less than three | fourths. But the Thirteenth Amend ment had not been ratified by the States represented in Congress when by the turn of events, 1t was sent also to the South ern States for acceptance or rejection Thus the singular confusion of the times presents itself, that the Southern States were held to be as out of the UnioR be- fore Appomattox, but as restored to the | Union after Appomattox and invited to l pass upon the Thirteenth Amendment without any process of reconstruction by Congress whatever. As soon as Congress met, fin December, 1885. the first session after Appomattox. the body by resolu- ton formally accepted the State action of Alabama taken the September before and other Southern States in ratification of that Amendment. and the article was declared part of the Federal Consti- tuition.
 Now we proceed to consider somewhat the ''moticve" of the Fourteenth Amend ment.
 On January p, 1866. Senator Henry | Wilson reported as from the Joint Con- mIttee of Fifteen. twelve Republicans and l three Democrats, the Reconstruct. 1n Coramjttee," the following original form | of Fourteenth Amendment:
 Representatives and direct taxes shliI | be apportioned," etc, etc; provided that whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State, on ac- count of race or color all (sic) persons of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of representation" l That Is to say. Alabama may exclude | say, 100 negroes, because they are ne- | groes, from the electorate, if so inclined. | If 100 negroes are thus excluded, then not one of the Sz7 3O1 individuals of the race shall enjoy the benefit of rep-c- senta ion in any branch of the Federa al Government. under this report.
 We shall take note of the then exist ing Federal rights of the negro in Ala bapla. which the State was entirely powerless to disturb. No slave was then | known in Alabama. The entire popuia-