Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-08-13

tutional Convention. and was well in
formed as well as greatly interested in
the suffrage clauses. A few days ago
ne gave in the columns of the Virginian-
Pilot the following suggestion as to the
purpose of the poll tax qualification for
voting and the intended meaning of the
term personally pay"
I'm drawing the suffrage clause of
the Virginia Constitution the Conven-
ton was guided by the Supreme Courts
ruling in the Mississippi case, which af-
tirmed the right of the State to legis-
late against the conditions or idiosyn-
cracies of a race, though not against
the race itself. The poverty or ignor-
ance or vagrancy, ct cetera, of the ne
gro might be used to disfranchise him.
but not his blood, his color nor his pre-
vlous condition of servitude. The pre-
payment of poll tax as prerequisite to
voting was intended to minimize the
negro electorate. How? By utilizing
ms known repugnance to sacrifice pres
ent needs or indulgenees for future
gain, by prescribing that he should pay
the tax out of his own money six months
IN advance of the election in which he
desired to participate. The personal
requirement amounts to nothing if ad-
dressed to the bodily appearance of the
negro before the treasurer. The court
house is his Mecca. He would willingly
trudge there back and forth a score of
miles on an errand much less important
than to qualify himself to cast ballot.
Such an imposition of a physical task
would have no terrors for him, but
would act deterrently on hundreds of
white men in each county. On the con-
trary the negro is averse by instinct
and habit to relinquishing money in
hand for bird in the bush of the here
after. When the Supreme Court comes
to consider the question of ''intent" in
constituting the term personally" this
suggestion may not be without value. -
Ot the many absurd and fallacious
reasons that have been given for the
adoption of the poll tax qualification for
voting, and the manner of its payment,
this caps them all
Can it be possible that law-makinp
body which was boastfully claimed tc
be unsurpassed in craftsmanship anc
legal ability could have wasted twelve
months evolving an idea so transparent
ly weak and an intent so at varianc,
with common sense? When the suf
trage laws, with the poll tax qualifica
ton for voting, were first promulgated
and we do not claim to possess extraor
binary prescience, we confidently pre-
dicted that these laws would at thei
first enforcement disqualify a larg,
part of the white electorate; and tina
the work of destruction would continu
ally enlarge until the life of representa-
tive government in Virginia would be il
jeopardy. How have our prediction
been verified?
Now, when confronted with sucl
frightful suffrage conditions, resultin,
from the unwise and wickedly partisan
enactments of a so-called constitutions
convention; when the people are threat
ened by judicial Interpretation of
clause in the constitution that woul,
practically destroy the electorate, tn
able editor of the Virginian- Pilot, VIII
was also one of the ablest members O
the constitutional convention, is force,
to interpose and protest with the abov
idle suggestion to the Supreme Court o
the State.