The nation can not put up with many more of these instruments of
disfranchisement. It can not endure the present ones very much longer.
The question is ceasing to be one of interest merely to the Negro; it is
rapidly becoming one of national moment. It is becoming a contest
between democracy and oligarchy in which the stability and integrity of
republican institutions are involved. Already a few thousand minions of
oligarchy are exerting a larger influence in the national government
than do millions of freemen who are obeying the Federal Constitution by
maintaining a republican form of government. The election returns from
the three states of Louisiana, South Carolina and Mississippi show how
startling is the power which they exercise in Congress by reason of
these disfranchising instruments. The following shows the number of
votes polled in these states for members of Congress in 1898 and in the
case of Louisiana the votes polled may be compared with the returns of
1896 when the old constitution was in force: