A Mississippi View of Race Relations in the South

by Dunbar Rowland

The avowed and confessed object of the convention was to eliminate the ignorant vote whether white or black. Every thoughtful man in the convention knew the terrible results of placing political power in ignorant, incompetent hands.

Universal suffrage could not succeed where there was an electorate of sixty per cent. who were illiterate. The experiment had been tried with terrible results in other nations. In 1793 France founded a Republic based on universal manhood suffrage. It went down in a sea of blood and became a military despotism in 1800. The experiment was tried again in 1848. In 1852 they returned to a despotism of military power. There could be no other result when more than one-half the voters could not read their ballots. Spain has passed through the same experience. The Republic of Castellar, built on an ignorant white rabble, passed away in a few months to give place to the old ruinous rule of the Bourbons. South America is full of little republics resting on an ignorant suffrage. They are in a perpetual state of revolution, and such conditions will continue until they have an intelligent ballot.

The franchise section of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 provides an educational qualification and requires payment of all taxes for two years before the election, and it eliminates all ignorant votes regardless of color, who cannot measure up to the test. The educational test is not exacting and only involves the power to read. It places the right to vote as a reward in the reach of the negro, which may be gained by effort. The negroes are slowly qualifying themselves to become voters, and there is no disposition anywhere to prevent them from doing so. If the negro is made to earn his full citizenship by his own efforts it will teach him to take pride in it.

Under the Mississippi system the disfranchisement of a few whites was unavoidable, but it was thought that they should pay the penalty of ignorance rather than endanger the safety of the State. The whites who were disfranchised accepted the situation without a murmur.

Five other Southern states have followed the lead of Mississippi in framing a new organic law for the purpose of disfranchising the ignorant voter. These states are South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and Virginia. These states adopted the Mississippi plan of an educational qualification, and in addition incorporated in their constitutions the famous "grandfather clause," which prevents the disfranchisement of any whites whatever. That clause of these constitutions provides that all male descendants of those who were voters before 1868, shall continue to exercise the right to vote regardless of the required educational qualifications.

Here are the franchise sections of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890:

Sec. 241.—Every male inhabitant of this State, except idiots, insane persons, and Indians not taxed, who is a citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old and upwards, who has resided in this State two years and one year in the election district, or in the incorporated city or town 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 pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, or bigamy, and who has paid, on or before the first day of February of the year in which he shall offer to vote, all taxes which may have been legally required of him, and, which he has had an opportunity of paying according to law, for the two preceding years, and who shall produce to officers holding the election satisfactory evidence that he has paid said taxes, is declared to be a qualified elector; but any minister of the gospel in charge of an organized church shall be entitled to vote after six month's residence in the election district, if otherwise qualified.

Section 242 relates to registration of voters.

Sec. 243.—A uniform poll tax of two dollars, to be used in aid of the common schools, and for no other purpose, is hereby imposed on every male inhabitant of this State between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, except persons who are deaf and dumb or blind, or who are maimed by loss of hand or foot; said tax to be a lien only upon taxable property. The board of supervisors of any county may, for the purpose of aiding the common schools in that county, increase the poll tax in said county, but in no case shall the entire poll tax exceed in any one year three dollars on each poll. No criminal proceedings shall be allowed to enforce the collection of the poll tax.

Sec. 244.—On and after the first day of January, A. D. 1892, every elector shall, in addition to the foregoing qualifications, be able to read any section of the constitution of this State; or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof. A new registration shall be made before the next ensuing election after January the first, A. D. 1892.

It will be observed that the foregoing does not disfranchise the negro any more than it does the white man. It simply means that the citizen—black or white—who will not pay all taxes, including the "uniform poll tax of two dollars, to be used in aid of the common school," on or before the first day of February in which he offers to vote, and who is not intelligent enough to read any section of the State constitution, or to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof, shall not be allowed to vote. In other words, he voluntarily disfranchises himself for the period named. In the case of the poll tax, it will be noticed that no "criminal proceedings shall be allowed to enforce its collections." The only penalty is that the delinquent cannot vote. And the registration statistics of the several counties show that there are thousands of whites as well as blacks who thus disqualify themselves. And the fact that the poll tax is a school fund, and that it cannot be otherwise applied, makes this delinquency all the more to be regretted.

The new suffrage departure of Mississippi was the subject of much discussion in political and legal circles in Washington during the winter of 1890-91. It was made the subject of violent partisan attacks in the Senate. Senators Hoar, Spooner, Hawley and Edmunds denounced it as in conflict with the amendments of the Federal Constitution clothing the negro with the right of suffrage. Senators Hoar and Edmunds were generally regarded as autocrats on questions of constitutional law, and they brought all the resources at their command in their attacks on the new organic law of the State of Mississippi.

Senator George was in his seat in the Senate as the defender and champion of the new charter of white supremacy. He was equipped for the forensic battle. He was ready with the truth. He was armed with courage to meet all comers. He began his celebrated speech in defense of the Mississippi Constitution on the 31st day of December 1890. He had been a member of the Senate nine years and was known to be an authority on questions of constitutional law. While his ability was recognized, the reserve force of the man was unknown to his associates in the Senate. There was great responsibility resting upon him. He was the chosen champion of the Southern crusade against ignorance at the ballot box. He had been the chief agent in the construction of the organic law which lifted the fatal shirt of Nessus from the shoulders of the Southern people. If he failed, the people he loved would suffer. If he gained the victory, future generations yet unborn would rise up and call him blessed. His defense was conclusive. It was overwhelmingly convincing. The great Senator showed a more intimate knowledge of the constitutions of Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut than did the Senators who represented those states. It was one of the great constitutional law speeches of the Senate, and will take rank in the future with Webster's superb speech in defense of the Constitution. All of the contentions of Senator George were afterwards crystalized into law by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Williams v. Mississippi. The decision of that case forever settled the question of negro suffrage. It was decided April 25, 1898.