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Occasional Papers, No. 11.
The American Negro Academy.
THE NEGRO AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE
*A SERIES OF PAPERS AND A SERMON BY*
*Archibald H. Grimke, Charles C. Cook, John Hope, John L. Love, Kelly
Miller and Rev. Frank J. Grimke.*
*PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS.*
WASHINGTON, D. C.
PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.
1905.
CONTENTS
- The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
Representation--_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE_
- The Penning of the Negro--_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
- The Negro Vote in the States Whose Constitutions Have Not Been
Specifically Revised--_JOHN HOPE_
- The Potentiality of the Negro Vote, North and West--_JOHN L. LOVE_
- Migration and Distribution of the Negro Population as Affecting the
Elective Franchise--_KELLY MILLER_
- The Negro and His Citizenship--_FRANCIS J. GRIMKE_
The Meaning And Need Of The Movement To Reduce Southern
Representation--_ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE_
In 1787 when the founders of the American Republic were framing the
Constitution they encountered many difficulties in the work of
construction, but none greater than the bringing together on terms of
equality under one general government of the slave-holding and the
non-slave-holding states. The South was willing to enter the Union
provided always that its peculiar labor and institutions received
adequate protection in that instrument. And this the North had finally
to consent to incorporate into the organic law of the new nation. One of
these concessions was known as the Slave Representation Clause of the
Constitution, which gave to the Slave section the right to count five
slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives. This
concession did not probably seem at the time like an exorbitant or
ruinous price for the North to pay for the Union, but subsequent events
proved it to be both exorbitant and ruinous in the political burden
which it imposed upon that section, and in the political perils which
grew naturally out of the situation, and which were produced by it.
Everybody now-a-days seems to forget, or makes believe to have
forgotten, this lamentable chapter in our history, and its application
to present day evils--everybody but a few far-seeing Negroes, and a few
far-seeing white men at the North. It is well not to forget this chapter
ourselves, or to let the country make believe to have forgotten it, as
it contains a lesson which it is dangerous to forget.
History repeats itself and will continue to do so just as long as men
are men, and the passion for power and the struggle for domination lasts
among them. Such a struggle set in between the two sections almost
immediately after the adoption of the Constitution. With industrial and
political ideas, interests, and institutions directly opposed to each
other, rivalry and strife between them became from the beginning
unavoidable. Any one not totally blinded by the then emergent needs of
the moment could not fail to foresee something of the consequences which
were sure to follow such a union of irreconcilable forces and passions
under one general government. Each set of antagonistic ideas and
interests was compelled by the great law of self preservation to try to
get possession of the government in its battle with the other set. And
in this conflict of moral and economic forces and ideas the three-fifths
slave representation clause of the Constitution gave to the South a
distinct advantage, an advantage which told immediately and powerfully
in its favor. For the right to count five slaves as three freemen in the
apportionment of representatives among the several states placed the
political power of the Southern states in the hands not of all the
whites but of a small and highly trained and organized minority only,
namely; the master class. This circumstance solidified the South, and
gave to its action a unity and energy of purpose which the industrial
democracy of the North always lacked. As a consequence, Southern men
obtained speedy possession of the National Government, and shaped
National Legislation and policy to advance best the peculiar ideas and
interests of their section. The big end of the National Government lay
plainly enough well to the south of Mason and Dixon's line during the
first twenty-five years of the existence of the Union. The course of
events during this period revealed this bitter fact to New England. For
she was outwitted, out-voted and over-matched again and again in
national legislation and administrative measures by the slave oligarchy,
which ruled the South and dominated in national affairs.
For instance, New England opposed the embargo and the retaliatory
measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which destroyed her splendid
carrying trade, and bore distress to hundreds of thousands of her
people. She opposed the War of 1812 because it seemed to her inimical to
her interests, but regardless of protests and cries the embargo was laid
on her ports and shipping, the War against Great Britain was declared.
She was forced to dance, volens-nolens, to the rag-time music of her
Southern rival. She danced in both instances while discontent grew apace
in her hot, surcharged heart. She did not disguise the ugly fact that
she was sick of her bargain under the Constitution--was discontented
almost to disaffection with Southern domination in the Union. Out of
this widespread discontent and incipient disaffection sprang the
Hartford Convention to voice this growing Anti-Southern sentiment, and
to cast about for a remedy for what was rightly deemed bad political
conditions. The great question with which this celebrated convention
grappled was, in fact, the undue and disproportionate power wielded by
the slave oligarchy in national affairs, and how best to impose a check
upon its further growth. It could think apparently of but one remedial
measure to relieve the situation, and that was the imposition of a check
on any further increase in the then existing number of states. But while
the resolution which embodied this rather doubtful remedy referred to
states in general, it was intended when read between the lines, to refer
to slave states in particular.
That was the first blow aimed by the industrial democracy of the North
at this aristocratic feature of the National Constitution, namely: the
right to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of
representatives among the states. It was felt at the time and much more
strongly and generally afterward, that this three-fifths slave
representation clause which enabled a small minority of the people of
the South to wield the political power of that section, and in any
controverted question between the sections to neutralize the free-will
of every three freemen by the dummy-will of every five slaves, was an
unjust and dangerous advantage possessed by the slave oligarchy over its
sectional rival, the free democracy of the North.
The consciousness of this political wrong and danger was at the bottom
of the bitter opposition on the part of the North to the admission of
Missouri as a slave state, to the annexation of Texas, and to the
Mexican War. It was at the bottom of the fierce cry which rose all over
that section at the close of that war, "No more slave territory, no more
slave states." It was the soul of the great movement which beat back the
slave tide from Kansas and saved that state to freedom. It was, in fact,
this struggle of the free states to reduce to a minimum the peril to its
industrial democracy which grew out of the slave representation clause
of the Constitution, and the resistance of the slave states to such a
movement, which produced the war between the sections. This war ended in
the destruction of slavery and as the North supposed and intended, in
the total destruction of this right of the South to count five slaves as
three freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the several
states in the newly restored Union.
But wrong does not die under a single stroke. It has a strange power of
metamorphosis, i. e. ability to change its form without losing its
identity. The slave power, which everybody at the North imagined to be
dead, re-appeared almost at once as the Southern serf power, in
consequence of legislation enacted in the then lately rebellious states
by the old slave masters. They had lost their slaves, to be sure, and
the political power incident under the Constitution to such ownership,
but they had not lost the political cunning and determination to create
a similar power out of the social forces and material which lay in
disorder about them.
The reconstruction of the South by the old slave oligarchy resulted in
the threatened rise in national affairs of an African serf power more
formidable to the North than was the old slave power than five is
greater than three in federal numbers. This threatened rise in national
politics of an African serf power aroused the North to the danger which
girt afresh the supremacy of its industrial democracy in the Union. It
thereupon set about the work of removing this peril forever. In doing
this work it unfortunately limited itself exclusively to the use of
political agencies. But there is no doubt that what it did in
reconstructing the old slave states was meant to be thorough. It meant
to extirpate root and branch, from the Constitution the right of the
South to count five slaves as three freemen, or five serfs as five
freemen in the apportionment of representatives among the states. This
was the plain purpose of the whole body of congressional legislation
looking to southern reconstruction. It is the plain purpose likewise of
the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
All of these great acts were intended to destroy utterly the basis on
which rested the old slave power, and on which would rest the new serf
power, namely: inequality and race subjection. The 13th amendment
abolished slavery, the 14th raised the former slaves to citizenship, and
the 15th conferred on them the right to vote. The whole scheme for
removing forever this evil seemed on paper complete enough, and in
practice it would undoubtedly have proven effective had not an
unexpected difficulty arisen when it was put into operation. This
unexpected difficulty was the attitude of the Supreme Court in
interpreting the laws made in pursuance thereof. The effect of the
decisions of this tribunal has almost invariably been against the
Negro's claim to equality, and in favor of the Southern contention of
the existence of two races in the south, one permanently dominant and
the other permanently servile, and that the maintenance of this state of
race superiority on the one side, and of race inferiority on the other
furnished the only working plan of their living in peace together or of
their making any further progress in civilization. Owing to this
deplorable attitude the Supreme Court has been a hindrance rather than a
help in the settlement of this question. No relief need be looked for
from it, therefore, under the circumstances. Relief, if it comes at all,
must come from another quarter of the political system under which we
live. And for such relief fortunately, the 14th amendment has adequately
provided. All that is necessary to render the provision of this
amendment, which is applicable to the present situation, effective are
courage and common sense. But alas, courage and common sense in respect
to this subject seem to be sadly lacking to-day both at the North and
among the Negroes as well.
The provision of the 14th amendment just referred to reads as follows:
"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according
to their respective numbers counting the whole number of persons in each
state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any
election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of
the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof,
is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one
years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged
except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such state."
Every Southern state has virtually by one device or another, since the
adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, denied to its colored citizens
the right to vote. This was first done by the shot-gun method, which
gave place in time to fraudulent manipulations of electoral returns, and
this in turn to "grandfather" and "understanding clauses" administered
by prejudiced registration boards in those states which have revised
their constitutions. Says Professor Dunning in an article on "The
Undoing of Reconstruction" in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1901:
"With the enactment of these constitutional amendments by the various
states, the political equality of the Negro is becoming extinct in law
as it has long been in fact, and the undoing of reconstruction is
nearing completion." Now this statement is exactly true. The South has
everywhere nullified in practice the 14th and 15th amendments to the
Constitution. It denies to black men the right to vote, but it counts at
the same time those same black men in the apportionment of its
representatives. The present serf power therefore, enjoys to-day a right
far greater than that enjoyed by the old slave power, for it counts five
of its disfranchised black citizens not as three but as five free men.
It has achieved the extraordinary feat of eating its political cake and
keeping it at the same time.
In South Carolina, for example, where the blacks outnumber the whites by
224,326, and in Mississippi where the colored population is in excess of
the white by 263,640, "the influence of the Negroes in political
affairs," as put by Prof. Dunning, "is nil." And this is substantially
true of almost everyone of the old slave states whether they have or
have not revised their constitutions. Says Prof. DuBois: "To-day the
black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall
be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended, as to who shall make the
laws and how they shall be made. It is pitiable that frantic efforts
must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some states even to
listen to the respectful presentation of the black side of a current
controversy."
Entrenched in the South to-day is an aristocracy based on race. The
whole tendency of things down there is to de-citizenize the blacks, to
reduce them to a state of permanent political and industrial
subordination to the whites. This is aristocratizing the republic with a
vengeance. For with the right to vote, the right to a voice in making
the laws, denied to any class of people in an industrial republic like
ours, such class must go from bad to worse in the struggle for bread,
for existence, in competition with more favored classes. It does more:
it reduces the efficiency of such a class as a producer of wealth not
alone in respect to itself, but in respect to the section in which it
lives as well. For whatever degrades and wrongs such a class degrades
and wrongs the community and the country of which it forms a part. And
there is no help for it, for such is the natural law of retribution
which no "understanding" and "grandfather clauses" and registration
boards, however adroitly devised, can in the long run possibly evade or
nullify. This then is the deplorable economic situation with regard to
whites and blacks alike in the Southern states, as a direct consequence
of the undoing of the 14th and the 15th amendments to the Constitution
by those States. The degradation of their black labor will ultimate in
the degradation of their white labor also. In fact, the disfranchisement
of the blacks operates practically everywhere down there as a
disfranchisement of the great body of the whites likewise. For disuse of
a power, whether physical or political, begets in time disinclination
and then incapacity for exercising the same. The right to vote, under
present political conditions which prevail throughout that section, is,
as a matter of fact, exercised but by a small minority of the whites
only. The total vote, for example, cast for representatives in Southern
congressional districts is surprisingly slight in comparison with that
cast in Northern congressional districts. The same is true of the vote
for presidential electors, and for the executive, legislative and
judicial officers of the various southern states for that matter. A
handful of ruling whites, and that not of the best class as in
antebellum times, casts to-day the entire vote of that section as
represented by all of its black and a large majority of its white
citizens, at national and state elections.
For instance, the average vote cast for Congressmen by Northern
congressional districts during the election of 1898 was over 35,000,
while that cast by Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South
Carolina, which are operated in effect on the Mississippi plan, was less
than 5,000. The total vote cast for 37 congressmen by those five
Southern states was only 184,602, while the total vote polled by the
state of New York for 34 congressmen was 1,250,000, i. e. 184,602
electors in those five Mississippi-ized states had actually a larger
congressional representation by three than had the 1,250,000 voters of
the Empire state. Again, take the case of Kansas, which though casting
100,000 more votes at its congressional election in 1898, than were cast
by these same five Southern states combined, yet Kansas had but seven
representatives in Congress to guard and promote her peculiar interests
against the 37 who sat in the House to guard and promote the peculiar
interests of the ruling oligarchy of those five de-republicanized
Southern states.
But let us look more closely into this matter. Alabama with a population
of 1,828,697, and nine representatives in Congress polled at the
Congressional election, in 1902 a total vote of 90,105 for the nine
districts, while the new state of Washington with a population of
518,103 and three representatives polled at the same election a total
vote of 93,681, i. e., there were 3,000 more votes polled to elect three
congressmen in Washington than Alabama polled to elect nine. Again,
Mississippi with a population of 1,531,270 and eight representatives in
Congress polled at the same election a total vote of 18,058 for the
eight congressional districts, while little Idaho with a population of
161,772 and one representative polled at the same time a vote of 57,712,
which exceeded more than three times the vote polled by Mississippi for
eight representatives. Or let us take Louisiana with a population of
1,381,625 and seven representatives in Congress, and her total vote of
26,265 during the same election for seven districts and contrast these
figures with those of Rhode Island with a population of 428,556 and two
representatives. The Rhode Island figures are 56,064, or nearly double
the vote of Louisiana for seven congressional districts. Or again, let
us glance in passing at South Carolina with a population of 1,340,316
and seven representatives in Congress, and New Hampshire with a
population of 411,588 and two representatives. The first polled in 1902
at the election of her seven congressmen 32,085 votes, and the second at
the election of her two representatives polled at the same time 74,833.
In other words, there were nearly 43,000 less votes polled in South
Carolina to elect seven Congressmen than were polled in New Hampshire to
elect two. To sum up: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South
Carolina with an aggregate population of 6,106,908 and 31
representatives in Congress cast in 1902 a total vote of 166,576 in 31
congressional districts, while Idaho, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and
Washington with an aggregate population of 1,500,000, and eight
representatives polled at the same general elections a total vote of
282,294 in their eight congressional districts. The average vote for
each of the 31 Southern congressional districts was 5,530; while that
for each of the eight Northern districts was 35,287. Why Massachusetts
alone with a population of 2,805,346 and 14 representatives rolled up a
vote to elect these 14 congressmen more than double that which the four
Southern states with a population of over 6,000,000 polled to elect
their 31 representatives!
Again: At the presidential election last November the combined vote of
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, for 39 electors was
less than 200,000 or to be exact was just 186,253, while the vote of
Massachusetts for 16 electors was 442,732. In other words, the vote of
Massachusetts for her 16 representatives in the electoral college,
exceeded that of the four Southern states for their 39 in the same body
by more than 250,000 polls. Once more: Is it not immensely ominous and
significant the marked shrinkage in 1904 of the popular vote for
electors in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, states which had but
recently revised their constitutions, as compared with the popular vote
of the same states for electors in 1900? There was for example a
shrinkage of the popular vote in Alabama of nearly 50,000 polls; in
North Carolina the shrinkage amounted to nearly 85,000, and in Virginia
it ran up to more than 135,000. These figures are eloquent of great
wrongs done the Negro. They are not less eloquent of great dangers which
now threaten to subvert free institutions in the Republic.
Since the elections of 1898 things in the South went rapidly in respect
to this subject from bad to worse. Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia
followed the example of Mississippi and revised their constitutions.
This reactionary movement of the Southern oligarchy has reached as far
north as Maryland, and the work of aristocratizing her constitution and
of Jim-Crowing her laws is now nearing completion. Where is this
movement to stop? Will it halt south of Mason and Dixon's line unless
drastic measures are speedily adopted by the National Government to
arrest it? No, this aristocratic revolution will certainly, unless
checked, invade the North, attacking and overthrowing first the
political rights of black men in that section, and later those of other
classes of citizens industrially and politically feebler than the rest
until one after another of the states now free shall have succumbed to
the rule of class and plutocratic power. Then indeed will the undoing of
the 14th and the 15th amendments, and of democratic institutions in
America, be complete. Not until then will the movement, which is fast
aristocratizing the Republic, stop its steady advance. I am no alarmist,
but am telling the sober truth. Those who have eyes to see, let them
look around at the ominous signs of this advancing evil. Those who have
ears to hear, may hear everywhere about them the foreboding sounds of
this rising flood of wrong and inequality, this growing disregard for
law, this denial to the people of a voice in government, whether state,
colonial or national, which characterize the present period of our
national history.
It will not be impertinent for me to add by way of concluding this
article, a few words regarding some of the political consequences, which
would be sure to follow a reduction of Southern representation in
Congress and the electoral college. It would, in the first place, reduce
the political strength of the South as a factor in national legislation,
diminish its relative importance as an element in national politics.
That section is insolent, exacting and aggressive to-day on the Negro
question because it has so much numerical strength in Congress and the
electoral college by reason of its suppressed Negro vote. Reduce that
strength by a judicious blood-letting to the number of twenty-five or
thirty-five representatives and there will follow in due time a
corresponding reduction of its arrogance and aggressiveness on the race
question. For as it declines in relative strength in Congress and the
electoral college it will decline in relative importance in management
and leadership of the democratic party also. It will gradually lose its
controlling influence over that party, cease ultimately to dominate it
on the Negro question. The relative decline of the South in Congress and
the electoral college-means, of course, the relative increase of the
North in the same branch--means that in time the North will pay less
heed to the claims of the South, to its threats, and more to the claims,
to the case of the Negro. It means more. The relative decline of the
South as a factor in national politics means the relative increase of
the northern wing of the Democratic party in the control of that party,
in the shaping for that party of a more liberal policy on the Negro
question. For as the northern wing of this party gains in relative
strength, in numerical importance over that of the South, it will be
tempted more and more to solicit the support of the Negro vote of the
North. In close elections and in pivotal states the Democrats of the
North will thereupon make liberal declarations and positive bids in
order to win this vote from the Republican party.
This consideration brings me to a second consequence, which would follow
a reduction of southern representation. And that is this: It will put an
end to the present period of good will and peace between the sections,
so disastrous to the rights of the Negro. Such a measure will usher in a
period of bitter difference and strife between the two sections again.
These differences will not arise merely between the Republicans of the
North and the white South, but between democrats of the North and
democrats of the South on the Negro question as well. For the northern
wing of the Democratic party cannot bid for the colored vote of its
section without offending the South and therefore sowing seeds of
alienation and strife between them on the question of the rights and
wrongs of the Negro, as a citizen. There will follow such differences
and strife between the sections, a reaction at the North in favor of the
Negro. Public sentiment for juster treatment of the race will gain
thereafter steadily in strength. It will influence the Republican party
to give to the question a more radical treatment than it now gives it,
to take steps to enforce by appropriate legislation the 15th amendment
of the Constitution. Such growing public sentiment in favor of according
the Negro fairer treatment may do more, it may be able to reach even
that pro-Southern tribunal, the Supreme Court, and put like the bees of
the Bible honey for the race in its hitherto cold and unresponsive body.
Even it may be influenced in time to twist the law in favor of human
liberty, not against it, as now. And lastly, it will give the silent
South a chance to be heard on the Negro question. It will give it a
chance to appeal from those states drunk on the race question, to their
sober second thought, a chance to show them the folly and madness of
their disfranchisement and consequent degradation of their Negro labor
as an economic factor in their development and civilization. And so
liberal sentiment towards the Negro may be awakened in the South and be
made thus to spread slowly downward as a leavening influence.
And in the third place, reducing Southern representation in Congress and
the electoral college will not hurt the Negro. It will not take away
from him any right which he now enjoys down there. The doing so cannot
in any way change his actual status either in law or in fact. He is now
disfranchised; Congress will still have power to enforce the 15th
amendment by appropriate legislation and it will do so whenever it can
screw its courage to the sticking point. The reduction of Southern
representation will certainly break up the present apathetic state of
the country in respect to the Negro. With this breaking up there will
follow a reaction in favor of freedom, and there will arise in due time
a public sentiment which will bring legislation to enforce the right of
the Colored people of the South to the ballot well within the range of
the possible, yea of the probable, if the South persists after
reduction,--but it will not long persist,--in its present purpose to
nullify the 15th amendment, and to reduce its Colored people to a
condition of a permanently subordinate and servile class, without rights
as men or as citizens which southern white people are bound to respect.
Let southern representation in Congress be therefore reduced. The sooner
the better it will be for the Negro and the Nation.
The law department of the United States Government has at last moved
effectively against the meat trust. And I see that the Interstate
Commerce Commission is looking into the charge that certain railroads
are practicing by a system of rebates discrimination against shippers of
live stock, and in favor of packing house products and dressed meats.
But alas, how different has been the attitude of the national government
toward investigating that greatest of all discriminations in the
Republic, namely: the wholesale disfranchisement of Negroes in the South
because they are Negroes. A few years ago one of the bravest and most
far-seeing of the representatives of Massachusetts in either branch of
Congress offered a resolution to investigate the subject merely. The
administration, which was then, and they say is now opposed to meddling
in this particular manner with the Southern question, was found equal to
the occasion. When it failed to silence the voice of Congressman Moody
regarding the matter, it lifted him with masterly state craft from the
floor of the House, and landed him safely in the Cabinet where he is
still, and where his silence might the better be secured. Thus passed
the Moody resolution to dusty death, and the place which knew it once in
Congress hath known it no more, and will know it no more forever.
But there is another Congressman who for years has watched keenly the
growth of this threatening evil, the growth of this wrong so subversive
of the rights of the blacks at the South, and so harmful to the
interests of our industrial democracy at the North. Five years ago he
thought it was high time for the general government to address itself to
that subject, and accordingly proposed from his place in Congress
suitable measures for that purpose. Unfortunately for Congressman
Crumpacker's proposition the presidential election of 1900 was at the
time approaching and which, in the opinion of the McKinley
administration, called loudly then for silence and oblivion on this
vexed question. In obedience to this loud call of the Moloch of party
success at the polls, Mr. Crumpacker's bill suffered death by
asphyxiation in committee.
The matter was, however, revived by Mr. Crumpacker in a subsequent
Congress in the form of a resolution which provided for the appointment
by the Speaker of a select committee of thirteen "whose duty it shall
be, and who shall have full and ample power to investigate and inquire
into the validity of the election laws of the several states and the
manner of their enforcement, and whether the right to vote at any
election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of
the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and
judicial officers of any of the states or the members of the legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of any of the states,
being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in
any way abridged, except for crime." This resolution so reasonable,
moderate, and just, fell a victim, so it was reported at the time, to a
shrewd bargain struck between the Southern oligarchy on the one hand and
the Republican managers of Cuban reciprocity on the other. The
Crumpacker resolution was put to sleep amidst the dust heaps of old
congressional documents, where it has slept without waking until the
present session of Congress, when its profound slumber has been
disturbed by renewed attempts made in both branches of the National
legislature to revive the subject, and to do what the Republican
national platform of 1904 pledged that party to do in the event of its
triumph at the polls, according to the plain meaning and purpose of the
following plank in that platform.
"We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether, by
special discrimination, the elective franchise in any state has been
unconstitutionally limited: and if such is the case we demand that
representation in Congress and in the electoral college shall be
proportionally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United
States."
And while the Republican party hesitates to redeem its solemn pledge
made to the people before the elections last November, the tide of
intolerable wrong, of imminent peril:--of intolerable wrong to the
blacks and of imminent peril to the Republic, is advancing nearer and
rising higher and higher toward the point where to ignore it much longer
will mean widespread and far-reaching disaster to our industrial
democracy, to Republican institutions in America. On its crest I see
approaching forces strong enough to subvert the Constitution, not only
in the South but in the North--forces strong enough to uprear on its
ruins the vast fabric of plutocratic empire and despotism.
The warning is sounding in our ears, it is sounding in the ears of the
people all over the land. Do we heed it, will they?
The Penning of the Negro--_CHARLES CHAUVEAU COOK_
*[The Negro in the States of the Revised Constitutions]*
The following States have revised their constitutions for the purpose of
excluding colored voters, and in the following order:--
(1) MISSISSIPPI.
Section 241, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, defining who are
electors:
"Every male inhabitant of the state, except idiots, insane
persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United
States, twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided in
the state two years, and one year in the election district * * *
in which he offers to vote and who is duly registered as
provided in this article, and who has never been convicted of
bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under
false pretence, perjury, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has
paid on or before the 1st day of February of the year in which
he offers to vote, all taxes which may have been legally
required of him and who shall produce to the officer holding the
election satisfactory evidence that he has paid his taxes."
Section 242 of Article 12, further provides that persons offering to
register shall take the following oath:
"I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I
will have resided in the state two years and (this) election
district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am now
in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not
disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of
any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state as
a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly answer
_all questions propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far
as they relate to my right to vote_ and also as to _my residence
before my citizenship in this district,_ that I will support the
constitution of the United States and of the state of
Mississippi and will bear true faith and allegiance to the
same--so help me God.
Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or in
answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized
shall be perjury."
Section 244, Article 12, constitution of Mississippi, requires that:
"On and after the first day of January, 1892, every elector in
addition to the foregoing qualifications, shall be able to read
any section of the constitution of this state; or shall be able
to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable
interpretation thereof."
(2) SOUTH CAROLINA.
Subdivision (c). "Up to January 1, 1898, all male persons of
voting age applying for registration, who can read any section
of this constitution submitted to them, _or understand and
explain it_ when read to them by the registration officer, shall
be entitled to registration and become electors."
Subdivision (d). "Any person who shall apply for registration
after January 1, 1898, if otherwise qualified, shall be
registered: _Provided_ that he can both read and write any
section of the constitution submitted to him by the registration
officer or can show that he owns and has paid taxes collectible
during the previous year on property in this state assessed at
three hundred dollars ($300) or more."
(3) LOUISIANA.
Section 3. "He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and
shall demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
registration, by making, under oath administered by the
registration officer or his deputy, written application
therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
application shall contain the essential facts necessary to show
that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be entirely
written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of the
registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
form of application hereinafter set forth: _Provided, however,_
That if the applicant be unable to write his application in the
English language, he shall have the right, if he so demands, to
write the same in his mother tongue from the dictation of an
interpreter; and if the applicant is unable to write his
application by reason of physical disability, the same shall be
written at his dictation by the registration officer or his
deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The application for
registration, above provided for, shall be a copy of the
following form, with the proper names, dates, and numbers
substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to wit:
"I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is ----. I
was born in the State (or country) of ----, parish (or county)
of ----, on the ---- day of ----, in the year ----. I am now
---- years ---- months and ---- days of age. I have resided in
this State since ----, and am not disfranchised by any provision
of the constitution of this State."
Section 4. "If he be not able to read and write, provided by
section 3 of this article, then he shall be entitled to register
and vote if he shall, at the time he offers to register, be the
bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a
valuation of not less than $300 on the assessment roll of the
current year, if the roll of the current year shall not then
have been completed and filed and on which, if such property be
personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid."
Section 5. "No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any
date prior thereto, entitled to vote under the constitution or
statute of any State of the United States, wherein he then
resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less than
21 years of age at the date of the adoption of this
constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was
naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1898, shall be
denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason of
his failure to possess the educational or property
qualifications prescribed by this constitution: _Provided_, He
shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding
the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall
have registered in accordance with the terms of this article
prior to September 1, 1898; and no person shall be entitled to
register under this section after said date."
(4) NORTH CAROLINA.
Section 4. "Every person presenting himself for registration
shall be able to read and write any section of the constitution
in the English language; and, before he shall be entitled to
vote, he shall have paid, on or before the 1st day of May of the
year in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax for the previous
year as prescribed by Article V, section 1, of the constitution.
But no male person who was, on January 1, 1867, or at any time
prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any state in
the United States wherein he then resided, and no lineal
descendant of any such person, shall be denied the right to
register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his
failure to possess the educational qualification herein
prescribed, provided he shall have registered in accordance with
the terms of this section prior to December, 1908.
"The general assembly shall provide for the registration of all
persons entitled to vote without the educational qualifications
herein prescribed, and shall, on or before November 1, 1908,
provide for the making of a permanent record of such
registration, and all persons so registered shall forever
thereafter have the right to vote in all elections by the people
in this State, unless disqualified under section 2 of this
article: _Provided_, Such person shall have paid his poll tax as
above required."
(5) ALABAMA (in effect Nov. 28th, 1901.) entitled to register:--
These sections of the Alabama constitution were before the Supreme Court
in the case of _Giles v. Harris_, (189 U. S. 475,) and the general plan
of voting and registration was summarized by Mr. Justice Holmes,
delivering the opinion of the court as follows:
"By section 178 of article 8, to entitle a person to vote he
must have resided in the State at least two years, in the county
one year and in the precinct or ward three months, immediately
preceding the election; have paid his poll tax, and have been
duly registered as an elector. By section 182, idiots, insane
persons and those convicted of certain crimes are disqualified.
Subject to the foregoing, by section 180, before 1903 the
following male citizens of the State, who are citizens of the
United States, were entitled to register, viz: First. All who
had served honorably in the enumerated wars of the United
States, including those on either side of the 'war between the
States.' Second. All lawful descendants of persons who served
honorably in the enumerated wars or in the war of the
Revolution. Third. 'All persons who are of good character and
who understand the duties and obligations of citizenship under a
republican form of government.' By section 181 after January 1,
1903, only the following persons are entitled to register:
First. Those who can read and write any article of the
Constitution of the United States in the English language, and
who either are physically unable to work or have been regularly
engaged in some lawful business for the greater part of the last
twelve months, and those who are unable to read and write solely
because physically disabled. Second. Owners or husbands of
owners of forty acres of land in the State, upon which they
reside, and owners or husbands of owners of real or personal
estate in the State assessed for taxation at three hundred
dollars or more [...] [By section] 183, only persons qualified
as electors can take part in any method of party action. By
section 184, persons not registered are disqualified from
voting. By section 185, an elector whose vote is challenged
shall be required to swear that the matter of the challenge is
untrue before his vote shall be received. By Section 186, the
legislature is to provide for registration after January 1,
1903, the qualifications and oaths of the registrars are
prescribed, the duties of the registrars before that date are
laid down, and an appeal is given to the county court and
Supreme Court if registration is denied. There are further
executive details in section 187, together with the
above-mentioned continuance of the effect of registration before
January 1, 1903. By section 188, after the last-mentioned date
applicants for registration may be examined under oath as to
where they have lived for the last five years, the names by
which they have been known, and the names of their employers."
(6) VIRGINIA. (in effect July 10th, 1902.)
Article II, Section 18. "Every male citizen of the United
States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of the
State two years, of the county, city or town one year, and of
the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next
preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been
registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter
required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General
Assembly and all officers elected by the people; but removal
from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town
shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the
precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of thirty
days after such removal."