Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1908-05-21
BILL DOOLY'S LETTER
In Which He Treats the Subjects He Dis
cusses According to His Own Views
and May or May Not Reflect the
Editorial Opinions of the News.

| think l promised Representative
last week that would have something
to say in regard to freedom, in the
News this week, so here goes.
Yearning for the privilege of wor-
Shipping God according to the dictates
of their own consciences, desirous of
seeking escape from the tyranny of a
despotic government, these are the
foremost reasons why the earlier set
tiers came to establish their pioneer
homes upon the American shores.
This movement. humble as was its
beginning and tempestuous as were the
struggles to be overcome, resulted in
finally giving to the world its loftiest
example of religious and political lib
erty.
The privations of the earlier settlers,
the love of freedom, combined with
the valor of the colonial fathers, the
adherence by the thirteen states to
the patriotic conceptions of the pi-
oneer, the forming of the American
union on the basic principles which
had given fervor to the unyielding
faith of the Revolutionary patriots,
this recites the emerging of the cause
Of freedom, as it advanced step by step
from under the shadow of the ages.
American government by the consent
and by the direction of the governed,
at once attracted to it the eyes of civ
ilization everywhere, as the beacon
| light of constitutional liberty. If this
country of ours is to reign as one of
liberty enlightening the world it must
not depart from the fundamental prin-
ciples constituting the very end of its
existence to adhere without wavering
or evasion to the bedrock doctrine of
the equality of rights and privileges of
our government. When the formation
of the American union was under con-
sideration by the representatives of the
thirteen states, arising from colonial
conditions, there were some among
these representatives who were quick
to apprehend what then appeared to
them as inconsistent with the spirit of
| the Declaration of Independence The
dangers which befell the government
by reason of the constitutional recog
milton of the slave trade in the states
south of the Ohio river, bears out the
thought, and the wisdom of the men
who then gave just Interpretation to
the living principles sustaining our
| H.
ceived the conviction that the existence
Of slavery was contradictory to the de-
claration of independence. The fact
Of this contradiction was why the sys-
TEN of slavery could not endure.
AS result of the system of bondage
and subsequent addition of constitu-
tional amendments, empowering the
legally declared negro citizen with ev-
cry political right possessed by the
white citizens, the doctrine Of the
equality of rights and privileges,
which was never brought into the
question or sought to be evaded, is
now undoubtedly being menaced by
the peculiar forms of laws adopted by
local state government in states of the
south, and with an apparent concert OF
action and a purpose that is undisguis
ed.
As a consequence of the bold assaults
upon the suffrage right of the blacks
= by these Southern local state govern
ments, it has developed that the con
: stitutiOnal ballot rights Of thousands
z of whites in the Southern states have
{ come into question and disregard the
2 same influences that have thwarted the
purposes of the United States govern
ment in securing to the negro citize1
the right and protection of the ballot
1t is peculiar commentary to ack
nowledge the fact that while the Con
t stitutional amendments gave the righ
t of suffrage to the blacks a condition
e has developed in the south whereof,
the right of suffrage is being subter
: fuged away from thousands of whit
4 as well as from practically all tn
blacks. 1t is impossible to conceive
e how congress can avoid the considera
tion of the issue 1t is as much tn
: duty under solemn oath of members o
a Congress to sustain and to cause th
suffrage provision of the Constitution
7 to be effective as it is a duty TO up
hold the other provisions of the con
5 stitution. The cause of the preserva
tion of the individual rights of tn
sovereign citizen is certainly not on
5 of, secondary Importance. The sug
gestion that this problem be left to tn
5 local state government, which hav
! exploited these wholesale disfranchis
ing acts, must appear absurd and rid
+ iculOus when we contemplate how nj
terly helpless are those who are dis
t franchised to engage in political CON
o bat at the polls as against those wh
Is are enfranchised and who absolutel
e dominate every branch of the electio
e machinery and of the state governmeT
l. as we'll The solution of this problem
% the righting of the condition, is i'm
l. possible from within. Just as did th
e movement for the abolition of tn
o chattIe slavery, so will the movemel
d tor the overthrow of this whOlesaI
II disfranchisement have to come frOl
D. without, if ever the masses of th
y States of the South are to have actui
republican form of government. Th
issue arising from the South has evol'
, ed into a suffrage problem. It's not
n negro problem and the ballot rights
~ whites are over-ridden in defiance
the fundamental law of the Republ
Is as brazenly as the suffrage rights
> the blacks.
y Under the existing suffrage syste
% in Alabama. South Carolina, Mississi
55l III and other southern States, q
IA method of taxation without represent
81 tion. the exercising of suffrage pOwe
lS and the usurpation of Representative
D. where all the citizens are equally Ia
ed 70 sustain a local government,