Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-10-26

cere. Of course nothing honorable can
be expected from J. Taylor Ellyson,
chairman Of. the Democratic party and
its candidate for Lieutenant Governor.
Better things should have been expect
ed from Judge Hundley. He has drag
ged the judicial ermine in the mire Of
politics and has consented to defame
one of the highest and cleanest of men
and one of the most highly honored ex-
members of the Virginia judiciary.
The prompt and emphatic denial of
Judge Lewis that he was ever at any
time an advocate of miscegenation is
enough. But if it were necessary to
support that denial with other proof,
ample evidence is furnished by the stat
ute law made by the Democratic legis-
lature and judicial decisions rendered
by Democratic courts. At the very
time Judge Hundley says that Judge
Lewis declared that he was friendly to
miscegenation the intermarrying of
white persons and negroes was permit
ted in Virginia under Democratic laws,
and they were upheld by decisions of
the Supreme Court of Appeals of the
State. Consequently there could have
been no such statement called for or
made by Judge Lewis as is attributed to
him by Judge Hundley.
The following statute will be found in
the Virginia Code of 1873, Sec. 8, page
1908:
SO. Any white person who shall in
termarry with negro shall be confined
in Jail not more than one ear, and fined
not exceeding one hundred dollars"
This continued to be the law on that
subject until it was changed by the
Democratic Legislature at its session of
1877-78. Below we will give the law as
changed.
Even under the above quoted statute
the Court Of Appeals held that negroes
and white persons could intermarry in
Virginia. In the case of Mcpherson,
decided in 1877, Judge Moncure, Presi-
dent of the Court of Appeals, read the
opinion, and the Court held as follows:
"a marriage between white man and
a woman who has less than one-fourth
negro blood, even though it be only one
drop less, is legal. A woman whose
father was white and whose mothers
father was white, and whose great
grandfather was of brown complexion,
is not negro 1.-THE sense of the stat
ute." See McPherson's case, % Graft,
9S9.
A short time after this decision was
rendered by the Court Of Appeals, at
the session of the General Assembly in
1877-78, the statute was so changed
as to eliminate therefrom the word
negro and substitute therefor, eOIOred per
SON. This change in the statute was
made by Democratic Legislature and
was approved by Democratic Gov
ernor. So, for the past twenty-seven
years the intermarrying of white per-
sons and negroes in Virginia has not
only been allowed but has been invited
and in known instances practiced-two
notable instances, we have been told,
having occurred in the neighborhood Of
Senator Thomas S. Martin.
The Act of the General Assembly
passed at the session of 1S77-78i is as fol-
lows:
eff any white person intermarry with
colored person, or any colored person
intermarry with a white person, he
shall be confined in the penitentiary not
less than two nor more than five years. "
Previous to the enactment of this
statute there was another act, then sec.
40 and still sec. 40 in the Code of Vir-
GINA, which reads as follows:
Every person having one-fourth or
more negro blood shall be deemed col
ored person, and every person having
one-fourth or more Indian blood shall be
deemed an Indian"
These two last mentioned Acts or
statutes settled conclusively, who is
colored person in Virginia and made
miscegenation legal in the State ratify-
ing and confirming the decision of the
Court of Appeals in the Mcpherson case,
wherein it was said:
"a marriage between white man
and woman who is of less than one
fourth negro blood, even though it be
only one drop less, is legal. !"
Thanks to the Democrats we have had
legalized intermarrying of white persons
and negroes in Virginia for the past
twenty-seven years.
Is it not plain that Judge Hundley
never asked L. L. Lewis whether he
was in favor of the enactment of law
to prohibit the intermarrying of whites
and negroes, and is it not equally as evil
4 II T..