The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-21

while we stand united, as we are todav. possible, of attainment; but if we put on until such division as have indi cated and firmly believe will come. the proposition l now make will then be impossible of attainment.
 After much thought, and as thor. ough an Investigation as am capable Of giving to any subject firmly be- lieve that the Supreme Court of the United States will sustain my position. If 1t does not we will be no worse off than we are today; we will stand ex- actly where we do today, but with the consciousness = having made firm and patriotic effort to avert the caIam- ity which and all of you must see Is In the not distant future"
 Introductory to his speech, which takes up more than thirty pages in tho Senate Journal, Senator Beard said:
 The provisions or the resolution proposing an amendment to the Con- stitution of the State of Florida limit. ing as they do the franchise. to the waite males, are in direct conflict With the provisions of the fifteenth amend ment to the Federal Constitution. II this resolution passes both houses Of the Legislature by the requisite consti- tutional majority. and 1t Is ratified by the people at the polls as a part of thu State organic law. its validity as part of of the Constitution of the State win or course depend upon the invalidity o. the so-ealled fifteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution. which will finally have to be determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.
 T contend and I think l can demon strate and believe that the Supreme Court of the United States will hold that the fifteenth amendment Is not a part of the Constitution of the United states; that 1t was neither constitution ally proposed nor constitutionally rati- fled.
 It is necessary to consider the pro posal and adoption of the thirteenth an. fourteenth amendments in order thor oughly to understand the methods ern- ployed in the so-calIed proposal and adoption of the fifteenth. The are in design intimately connected, each fol lowing the other in logical sequence The thirteenth amendment makes the former negro slaves a freedman; tn fourteenth elevates him to citizenship. and the fifteenth enfranchises him.
 Discusses Amendment.
 Here MT. Beard reviewed at lengtl the conditions surrounding the proposa and adoption of these amendments, leading up to his discussion of the tif- teenth.
 T will not now go through the his- tory of the parliamentary progress Of the fifteenth amendment, but on the 23rd day of February, 1869, the Confer- snce Committee reported the resolu- ton to the Senate and House. This Congress expired on the 4th of March In vain did Thomas A. Hendricks and other great good and patriotic men ap- peal to the fanatic majority to let tho next Congress. fresh from the people. dispose of this measure. Tn vain did Hendricks. Davis and others in the House and Senate remind the leaders O the Radical Party of their platform pledge to the people upon which the! had carried the election. Under the leadership of Boutwell,, Ccnkling, Sum. ner. Trumbull, Morton, Wade and others of that ilk, the resolution was pushed to vote and rushed to a so called passage in the Senate and House Under whip and spur the House of Representatives on the 18th of Febru- ary voted on it. The vote stood IA yeas; A nays; 35 not voting. The en- tire membership of the House was ther 22S The two-thirds of 223 are 149.
 So the amendment did not receive two-thirds of the vote of the House. On February 26 the amendment was voted on in the Senate. There were then thirty-seven States in the Union, which would make the membership of the Senate seventy-four, but Texas, Vir- ginia, and Mississippi were arbitrarily held as military districts; that would leave thfrty-four States with a mem bership in the Senate of sixty-eight but Georgia, though she had fully complied with the reconstruction acts, and her representatives had been admitted to the House and had there voted on the amendment. was excluded from the Senate under the protest of even Sena- tor John Sherman of Ohio So there were four Southern States which were not accorded even the -representa- ton accorded to the other seven South ern States. This left thirty three States represented in the Senate, with total membership of sixty-six. The vote stood: Yeas, 39; nays, IS; not voting, fl.
 But two-t thirds of Bixty-sfx are forty -four, so the amendment did not receive two-thirds of the Senate, and Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky and Senator Hendricks of Indiana imme- diately challenged the announcement of B. F. Wade, President pro tenn of the Senate, that two-thirds had voted or the amendment. But Wade persisted in holding that two-thirds of BLxty-six was thirty-nine, and he was sustained by a radical and constituencies major ity. The so-called ratification of this amendment by the Legislatures of some of the States, and the declaration that it had been ratified by three -fourths of the States was if possible even more infamous and scandalous than its pro posaL"
 Senator Boards resolution was passed in the Senate by a vote of 23 to 5. The measure received the constitutional re- quirement of three-fifths, and has passed to the House for action. Those voting against it were Senators Buck man. Cottrell, Crane Henderson and