asylum, or institution wholly or partly supported at public expense or by charity; nor while confined in any public prison. and election laws. § 4. Laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the Registration citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established, and for the registration of voters; which registration shall be completed at least ten days before each election. Such registration shall not be required for town and village elections except by express provision of law. In cities and villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, according to the last preceding state enumeration of inhabitants, voters shall be registered upon personal application only; but voters not residing in such cities or villages shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first meeting of the officers having charge of the registry of voters. § 5. All elections by the citizens, except for such town officers as may by law be directed to be otherwise chosen, shall be by ballot, or by such other method as may be prescribed by law, provided that secrecy in voting be preserved. boards. § 6. All laws creating, regulating or affecting boards of officers Bi-partisan charged with the duty of registering voters, or of distributing ballots at the polls to voters, or of receiving, recording or counting votes at elections, shall secure equal representation of the two political parties which, at the general election next preceding that for which such boards or officers are to serve, cast the highest and the next highest number of votes. All such boards and officers shall be appointed or elected in such manner, and upon the nomination of such representatives of said parties respectively, as the Legislature may direct. Existing laws on this subject shall continue until the Legislature shall otherwise provide. This section. shall not apply to town meetings, or to village elections. 163. The Exclusion of Negroes from the Suffrage This section from the Virginia constitution of 1902 illustrates some of the many ways which have been devised in Southern states to exclude most of the negroes from the suffrage without Who may register as voters. The preservation of the roll. at the same time disfranchising any considerable number of white voters. There shall be general registrations in the counties, cities and towns of the State during the years of nineteen hundred and two and nineteen hundred and three at such times and in such manner as may be prescribed by an ordinance of this Convention. At such registrations every male citizen of the United States having the qualifications of age and residence required in section Eighteen shall be entitled to register, if he be: First. A person, who prior to the adoption of this Constitution, served in time of war in the army or navy of the United States, of the Confederate States, or of any State of the United States or of the Confederate States; or, Second. A son of any such person; or, Third. A person, who owns property, upon which, for the year next preceding that in which he offers to register, state taxes aggregating at least one year have been paid; or, Fourth. A person able to read any section of this Constitution submitted to him by the officers of registration and to give a reasonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read such section, able to understand and give a reasonable explanation thereof when read to him by the officers. A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered, sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall be filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk's office of the circuit court of the county, or the clerk's office of the corporation court of the city, as the case may be. Persons thus enrolled shall not be required to register again, unless they shall have ceased to be residents of the State, or become disqualified by section Twenty-three. At the close of the Louisiana constitutional convention of 1898, Hon. Thomas J. Semmes, chairman of the judiciary committee, made the following defense of the policy of restricting political power to the white population of the state. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: Now we have gotten through with our work. It is about to go the Democratic party. forth throughout the length and breadth of this State to be sub- The state is mitted to the criticisms of the people. This is the work of a Democratic Convention. This is the work of the Democratic party of the State, represented by its selected agents appointed to do that work. If we have done any thing wrong, any thing which will involve the dissolution or disintegration or defeat of the Democratic party, then we ought to be condemned. It has been stated in some quarters that we have been actuated to a certain extent by party spirit. Granted. What of it? What is the State? It is the Democratic party. (Applause.) What are the people of the State? They are the Democracy of the State, and when you eliminate the Democratic party or the Democracy of the State from the State, what is there left but that which we came here to suppress? I don't allude to the fragments of what is called the Republican party. We met here to establish the supremacy of the white race, and the white race constitutes the Democratic party of this State. There is, therefore, in my judgment, no separation whatever between the interests of the State and those of the Democratic party, and if we are to be subjected to criticism because our ordinances may have been colored, with the view, in some instances, of promoting the interests of the Democratic party, as those interests are not separated from the State, I feel no hesitancy in saying that we have done no injury to the State. It is said that we sought to establish our party in power. Wher- The Demoever there were political questions involved, of course, we looked to the interests of the party, because they are the interests of the State. Whoever heard of a political party being in the ascendancy, and in power and undertaking to do any act to remove that ascendancy or to impair their power? Look throughout the nations of Europe. In all of their political matters; in all of their statesmanship; those who are in power seek to maintain it, and, with that power to promote the interests of the State which they govern. If it is so as to nations, it is so as to parties. Does the Republican party throughout the United States ever do any act without looking to the interests of the party, as well as to the interests of the cratic party must main tain ascendancy. White manhood suffrage established. No former voter to be disfranchised. The exception made on account of illiteracy. nation? And have they not remained in the ascendancy for years? Do we, who have obtained the ascendancy but recently in this State, wish the Democratic party to do any act by which its ascendancy shall be impaired? It is absolutely absurd. Now then, what have we done? is the question. Our mission was, in the first place, to establish the supremacy of the white race in this State to the extent to which it could be legally and constitutionally done, and what has our ordinance on suffrage, the constitutional means by which we hope to maintain that ascendancy, done? We have established throughout the State white manhood suffrage. A great cry went out that there should be a poll tax; that there should be an educational test; that as a qualification for a voter, he should be a property owner. We have in the ordinance established those qualifications which are necessary to be possessed in order to entitle these citizens to vote. . . . Very few people under But a hue and cry has been raised by people who are entirely ignorant of the fact which we have shown, against what is called section 5 of the ordinance on suffrage. Now, what is section 5? Very few people know anything about it. stand its effects. They have taken their ideas from outside criticism and suppose that we have committed some very great wrong. I repeat, what is section 5? It is a declaration on the part of this Convention, that no white man in this State - that's the effect but not the language that no white man in this State who has heretofore exercised the right of suffrage shall be deprived of it, whether or not he can read or write, or whether he possesses the property qualification. That is the meaning of it; nothing more and nothing less. It declares that every white man between now and the 1st day of September next, although he may not be able to read and write, although he does not possess the property qualification, may, notwithstanding, if he register himself pursuant to this ordinance of the Constitution, be thereafter entitled to vote. Now, why was this exception made? Because, and I am ashamed to say it, Louisiana is one of the most illiterate States in the Union. It is more illiterate than any other State except North Carolina. We, therefore, have in this State a large white population whose right to vote would have been stricken down but for the operation of section 5. And all of these men had aided the white people of the State to wrest from the hands of the Republican party, composed almost exclusively of negroes, the power which, backed by Federal bayonets, they had exercised for many years. Now can we go to them, these men who stood side by side with us in the dark days of reconstruction and say to them that a convention of Louisianians has deprived them of the right to vote? Could we face these men who have always been Democrats; who have always aided us in achieving the ascendancy of the Democratic party in this State with such a record as that? 164. Arguments on Woman's Suffrage The question of woman's suffrage was debated at length in the New York constitutional convention of 1894, and in the course of the discussion, Mr. Hirschberg made the following argument against granting the vote to women. Now, Mr. President, I have listened to the speeches which have been delivered here by the supporters of this movement, and on the merits of the question remain unconvinced. The burden of the case rests with those who would disturb the existing order of things, and to my mind, nothing has been urged by them which should carry conviction. There has been considerable inflammatory declamation, a great deal of emotional sentiment, some rhetorical denunciation, a little good-natured poetical and trenchant buffoonery, but of pure and powerful argument calculated to satisfy the sober judgment that the State is ripe for female government and control, there has been nothing. No advocate of the measure has demonstrated that active participation in the affairs of the State can be assumed at this time by our female citizens without injury to both. Until that is done until it is shown that woman may become a politician without losing something of the precious charm of her personality, and that the State may exact her services Granting the injury to the state and to suffrage an women. |