The Washington bee., 1907-05-11
PUTTING ON THE CAP AND
BELLS.

From the Post.
The Senate of the Florida Legislature
has made a Ounce of itself, and has in
vited the whole State to put on the cap
and bells 1t has passed a bill declaring
null and void within the confines of the
State the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments that grew out OF the civil war
and which were intended to guarantee
perfect political equality to the Negroes
who had been freed from slavery. The
bill is now pending in the lower house
of the Florida Legislature, but we have
an idea that it will be laughed out Of
that body, thus saving the State from
the ludicrous attitude before all the
world in which it would be placed should
the short-sighted and hot-headed Senate
at Tallahassee be permitted to have its
foolish way
When South Carolina, under the lead
ership of John C. Calhoun, a statesman
of great resolution and profound con-
victions, essayed the task of nullifca-
ton, the indomitable Jackson, himself
South Carolinian by birth, was Presi-
dent and issued ringing proclamation
that was the prelude to the great asser-
ton of nationalism that called into the
field a quarter of a century later armies
that shook the world, Jackson's procla-
nation postponed the great war over the
question OF State rights, though in the
| then unsettled condition of the relations
| between the Federal and State author
| ity the bloody drama of the COS was
I inevitable. In this day we need nc
| Jackson's BY the eternal" to check
State defiance of national authority, but
what we do need is a fool-killer among
all assemblages of men, North and
South, like that which comprises the
majority of the Florida Senate. While
| Federal authority laterally may have
grown too aggressive and is inclined to
overstep its proper limits, this tendency
of the times is not due to shortcomings
of the Constitution, but rather to the
laxity of State governments. The SUI
preme Court of the United States has
preserved to the States exclusive control
of the elective franchise, so that on that
score there can be no complaint of Fed
eral interference in any form in our
elections. Moreover, and of still higher
benefit to all the people, the North has
become better acquainted with conditions
in the South during the past decade or
so, and we discern in no responsible
quarter disposition on this side of the
Potomac to stir up the animosities OF
the dead and buried past. Action such
as that taken by the Florida Senate is
calculated to reopen the old sores OF
sectionalism and set the hounds OF
hateful demagogy everywhere to snarl-
/ ing and yelping.
Industrially and politically the races
are getting along in the South better
than ever before. The contention that
the race problem IS. national and not
sectional has gained recognition in ev-
cry part of the country. This marks
progress in the solution of that tre-
mendous question creditable alike to
the good sense, patriotism, and forbear-
ance of both sections. The time Eiay
come when discussion Of the repeal Of
one or both of the amendments acted
upon by the Florida Senate may take
on a national character, but when II
does the South will not be the leader
in it. However, this phase of the main
Squestion is strictly academic at present.
and is almost on a par in Stiffness with