The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1906-09-21

thrown open without restriction or qualih
cation of any sort, in almost every Repub
lican State in the Union there were restric
tons and qualifications upon the right t,
vote. Living in a Southern State an.
among Southern people, Mr.. Evans wa
daily assaulting the very ark of their safe
ty, while broad-minded and patriotic Re
publicans in the North, as we'll as tn,
South, were fast concluding that the South
ern people could best manage their owl
affairs. 1t is small wonder that a man who
entertains his views on suffrage as Re
publican member of Congress from the
South could have voted for the passage Of
the force bill.
THE FORCE BILL.
The well understood purpose of this bill was
to break up the solid South and to put II in
the Republican column. with the aid of the
negro vote. II passed the House at the second
session OF the Fifty-hrst Congress- and such
was the storm of Indignation it created
throughout the country that Republican Sem
ate, either from policy principle. did not
dare to enact II into law. The discussion of
the bill in Congress provoked bad feeling and
famed into burning flame the smoldering fires
of sectionalsm and revived the fierce passions
and conflicts of the Civil War; which should
have been allowed to die at once and forever
The abolition Republicans of the North hailed
the bill with delight for 1t would give every me-
gro of voting age the right to cast a ballot and
to carry out their aceursed and meretricious
ideas OF equality. In the newspapers of
the South the alarm was sounded and day
after day the maledictions of helpless people
were called down upon the heads of the au-
thors and supporters of the measure. Through
w he
with the white. like premonition of woe and
disaster quick to follow. a nameless dread
seized upon the people of the South ) Under
the spell of this summons of evil the South
stood powerless. but with firm resolve regis
tered in the high court of God who had in
delibly marked and separated the races in the
beginning and forever, that what may.
they would never submit to negro domination
on foot of Southern soil.
Mr.. Evans, a member of Congress, voted
for this bill, and all 1t meant to the people of
The South. though he lived and thrived amongst
as and knew political conditions. Are Ten
lesseans now ready to bestow their highest
honor upon him and call upon him to govern
State which they once saved from the hor-
'ors of reconstruction?
In Memphis recently a Republican conven-
Jon, which nominated a candidate for Con-
yress gave the honor of it's disapproval,
Endorsed the candidacy of Mr. Ev-
white supremacy.
My fellow citizens, as a Southern man and
IS the nominee of a party that stands for the
utilization of the white and the separation of
he races, say we owe 1t to ourselves and to
yet unborn to elect no man as
Governor of any Southern State who will
ourage by his record false notions In the
reast Of the negro whether we are taking |
iii ~ NJ % lkzeAe s,ss ~ 4
ore and more throughout tho country that
lie position Of the South on the negro ques
on virtue out of necessity
1, and every other right thinking man, want
see the negro protected in his life. liberty
nd property. He has his virtues as well as
IS faults, and II he was let alone by designing
oliticians, he would work out his own destiny
18th the help OF the Southern who his
al friends. But that destiny does not lead
m to equality. and no law that man has de-
sed can force it.
Lcks we have borne, often impatienty, but
it'll all the heroism born of the Never
public utterance by vote has Mr.. Evans
own any sympathy with our people, under
e hard conditions which faced them, unless
be in that serene self-complacency which
ems to envelop him as color does the rose,
ID which causes him to highly and often
himself the panacea for all our
In his speech at Lawrenceburg Mr.. Evans
tempts an analysis of this bill, and gives the
DIVISIONS by sections. He not only makes
bored effort to support himself which fails
impress anyone. but his speech shows that
does not even know what bill he voted for,
ough it was of momentous consequence in
e cuntry. Mr. Evans says he voted for the
II numbered Fl. r. S242, introduced by Mr.
dge on March Is, 1890, but he did no such ,
ing That bill was never reported by
e committee.
The bill he did vote for, and the only one that
Is reported or that ever before Con-
ess was H r. 11045. Mr.. Evans says that
the bill he voted for were twenty-one sec .
ms and proceeds to cite them, but the bill
did vote for contained fifty-seven sections
ne of which does he cite.
do not charge Mr.. Evans with bad faith,
t this is only an exhibition of the kind of
siness we may have If he should be elected
vernon, when he does not even know what he
ted for and has misinformed the people of :
} very bill whose provisions revolu-
nary and for the support of which he has
en- so often, and justly, criticised. 1t is rath-
difficult to answer an argument based upon
It's which do not exist and ! may be ex-
,ed for the attempt. The bill which Mr.. Ev- =
5 voted for as well the one he imagines '
voted for, were both conceived in devilish !
rit by cunning partisanship and sectional :,
levolence.
can only call attention to the general feat
IS of the bill the Republican candidate ac-
lily voted for. and thereby assist his mem :
and inform the people, :,
shall not discuss the power of Congress to :,
,s the measure but the best constitutional !
yyers Of the country Republican as well as :
m ocratic thought there no power under
Constitution to control Congressional cleo !
ms unless the States had failed to provide :"
such elections. AS the States had done so
their Legislatures which had been express
granted the power by the Federal Consti- y,
ion, and had prescribed the time place and =
nner such elections were to be held, there =
5 no further power in Congress to do that =
ich had already been done This bill, how = =
r. proposed to set aside all State authority y