The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-27

civil war most people place too little. | The states are not creatures of the fed | eral government. On the contrary the 1 federal government is the creature of the
 states. The power of the states is un- l limited except specified in the compact
 which they made with each other in the i formation of the general government The l power of the general government is limit l ed to the powers granted by the states. l The right of suffrage is derived from
 the states, and not from the federal gov l ernment The federal government has no citizens of it's own creation The right of citizenship is in the state, and not
 in the federal government man be-
 comes a citizen of the United States when 1 he becomes a citizen of one of the states.
 Favored Qualifications
 When this question was before the l convention which framed the constitution l of the United States in 17S7. there was l strong party. headed by Edmund Ran
 dolph, who favored making the qualified I tions of citizenship the same in all the
 states. but Benjamin Franklin and others l opposed it on the ground that it was a
 subject on which the people were Jeal- | ous, and it would not be well to excite | their opposition by depriving some of | them of the right to vote as to federal l officers when the same citizens might have a right to vote under the states | discussion, to leave the question of fixing
 the qualifications of the voter to the
 states respectively, and the following pro- l vision was adopted. and has remained un- 1 changed s a part of the federal con- l sttution The house of representatives 1 shall be composed of members chosen | every second year by the people of the several states. and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications re-
 quste for the electors of the most merous branch of the state legislature.' The same rule obtained with reference to the selection of presidential electors
 the whole question, by the terms of the constitution being turned 70 ine states. each of which was to appoint in such manner as the legislature thereof
 may direct number of electors equal l to the whole number of senators l representatives to which the state
 may be entitled in Congress. As
 confirming this view permit me to cite
 you to the decision of the supreme court
 of the United States itself, where it says | in United States vs Cruikshank (92 T.. &.
 555), In Minor vs. Happersett (21 Wall | l1S) we decide. that the constitution of the
 United States has not conferred the right | of suffrage upon anyone. and that the 1 United States have no voters of their own creation in the states
 Has Not Changed
 "But it is said that the adoption of
 the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments 1 has changed all this. and that the states are now helpless before the federal con stitution Not so. The fourteenth amend
 ment does not deal with or affect the
 right of suffrage at all; and the fif- ] teenth amendment simply undertakes to 1 restrict the states in limiting the exer- | else of the suffrage upon one ground
 alone, namely that of race, color, or pre- yous condition of servtude. As declared i hy the supreme court of California in i Van Valkenberg Vs. Brown 13 Am. Rep.
 142). The mere power of the state to determine the class of inhabitants who may vote within her limits was not cur i tailed by the fourteenth amendment The 1 fifteenth amendment took away her pow l CT to discriminate against citizens of the 1 United States on account of either race, 1 color or previous condition of servitude.
 but the power of exclusion upon all other 1 grounds remains intact To the same effect is the decision of the supreme court
 of the United States in the case of the l United States vs. Cruikshank, already
 cited.
 But, finally upon this point, and con l clusively, it seems to me. as sustaining
 the views recited above, permit me to
 call your attention to the decision of the
 supreme court of the United States in
 this Oklahoma case, which we are now l considering, and which has just been
 decided. MT. Chief Justice White. in
 announcing the decision of the court. 1 says Beyond doubt the amendment (fif- l teenth) does not take away from the
 state government in a general sense the l power over suffrage which has belonged | to these governments from the beginning. l and without the possession of which pow
 CT the whole fabric upon which the di- | vision of state and national authority under the constitution and the organiza- i ton of both governments rests, would be without support, and both the author
 ity of the United States and the state
 would fall to the ground. But 1t Is equal 1 lv beyond the possibility of question that
 the amendment in express terms restricts l the power of the United States or the states to abridge or. deny the right of a citizen of the United States to vote on account of race. color, or previous con- dition of servitude But while this is l true ti Is true also that the amendment
 does not change, modify, or deprive the states of their full power as to suffrage | except of course as to the subject with l which the amendment deals and to the extent that obedience to it's command is
 necessary
 May Restrict Suffrage
 "It is preposterous. therefore. to say | that a sovereign state may not adopt any form of restricted suffrage it | chooses, with the single limitation that | this restriction must not be based upon 1 race color or previous condition of | servtude. Suffrage is not a right at