The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-04-26
FRAUGHT WITH
GREAT DANCER
So Thinks Washington Post
of Senator Boards
Dis-Franchisement
Scheme.

uS " dSIluSlOu GOSl mas the fOl
lowing to say regarding Senator John
S. Boards disfranchisement scheme:
Modification is a word of ugly
sound in American politics. 1t recalls
the most thrilling episode in Jack
sons administrat ton. the attempt OF
South Carolina, under the leading OF
Calhoun, TO nullify certain features
of an act Of congress. Had a mild
hammered man been in Jacksons
place, the audacity of Calhoun might
have been successful but with Old
Hickory on the quarter deck ready
to proceed TO the las extremity at
the first overt act, the scheme was
bound 10 fail. The Democratic legis-
lature of Florida is making a serious
blunder in declaring the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments null. There
are just two ways, and this is not one
of the two, to avoid the operation or
any part of the fundamental law One
is the adoption of a repeating amend
ment. The other is just what has
been going on for good many years
in the Democratic South, with the
silent acQuiesenCe of the republican
north
Prior to the adoption of those two
war amendments there was no at
tempt by the national government to
interfere with the suffrage laws Of
the states. Each state gave the bal
lot to or withheld it from such of its
citizens as il saw fit. And that is
very nearly the situation today.
There is a practically universal recOS-
milton of the fact that the attempt of
acknowledgment of the freedmen was
a gigantic mistake, a calamity to both
races. Not only is the demise of the
fifteenth amendment aSquiseced in by
nearly all the people in the republican
states, but there is no indication of
an intention anywhere to enforce that
part of the fourteenth amendment
which relates to reduction of repre-
sentatiOn in congress and the cleo
tOTal college as a penalty for suppress
sion of votes The old sectional fight
long died out. All is going on much
better than could have been reason
ably expected The decision of the
supreme court in the Mississippi case
and several other deliVerances of that
tribunal have contributed materially
to mitigate the evils that might else
have resulted from the suffrage
amendments. Under these conditions
it seems passing strange that the
legislature of Florida should have de
sired to fan into life such sparks OF
fire as may be left in the cold ashes
of sectional animOsity- This tele-
gram, printed in the Post of the 18th
inst, records an i'll advisable perform
ance:
Tallahassee. Fla, April 1.-THE
senate by a vote of % to 3 has adOp-
ted a joint resolution to declare the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments
to the federal constitution void and
to disfranchise the negroes in Flor
ida. The resolution was introduced by
Senator John S. Beard, of Pensacola,
who spoke at length upon the sub
ject. Senator Beard declared he be-
lieved that the supreme court of the
United States would uphold the action
of this state in DISTINGUISHING the
negro.
The house is overwhelmingly for
the resolution. and the question of
the legality of the amendments in
question will thus go before the
United States supreme court Crowded
galleries cheered the action of the
senate
The idea that the United States
supreme court would uphold state in
an attempt to nullify any part of the
constitution is an absurditN'