The Convention having under consideration the Legislative Department Ordinance, when Section 34 was reached, which reads:
“The marriage of white persons with a Negro or a mulatto, or person who shall have one-eighth or more of Negro blood, shall be unlawful and void;”
he proposed an amendment adding after the word “void” in the second line, the words “and any white person who lives and cohabits with a Negro, mulatto, or person who shall have one-eighth or more of Negro blood, shall be disqualified from holding any office of emolument or trust in this State, and the offspring of any such living or cohabiting shall bear the name of the father, and shall be entitled to inherit and acquire property the same as if they were legitimate.” He then spoke as follows:
“Mr. President: I hope this amendment will be adopted. Sir, there is not a colored man or woman of any respectability, not only in South Carolina, but in the whole country, that does not oppose the intermarriage of the races. There are very few, if any exceptions, in South Carolina, where a white man ever married a respectable colored woman or a colored man married a respectable white woman. The facts in the case are, that the white woman that marries a Negro man as a rule has been an outcast by her race, and the colored woman that marries a white man, has no standing with the respectable women of her race, and the white man no better with his. I cannot see why you want to prevent the intermarriage of the races, when they want to legitimize their actions, unless you adopt my amendment, prohibiting the cohabitation of the white men with the Negro women. Mr. President, and gentlemen of this Convention let me give you a little statistic, showing you, if it is possible, to do so, the wrongs you, or your fore-fathers have done to my race. Let us stop it, if we can; I fear not, but let us put it in the fundamental laws of this State.
“The number of Americans of African descent, wholly and in part, returned to the census bureau in 1890 was 7,470,035. These were divided as follows: Pure Africans, 6,337,980; mulattoes 956,987; quadroons, 105,132; octoroons, 69,936. The total mixed bloods, white and black, was 1,132,060 in the whole country, and a third of these are above the Mason and Dixon line.
“Mr. President, a careful perusal of the census, also history, shows that more than three-fourths of the mothers of this large number of mixed blood whom you seek to legislate against, are colored women, if so, who could have been their fathers? Do not any of you rise and deny this, because I am no lawyer, but know enough about it that I cannot impeach my own witness. A careful perusal of the census, also shows in the State, that this one-fourth that lives beyond Mason and Dixon’s line shows fully that three-fourths of the one-fourth of the mixed blood were born in the Southern States. So you see, gentlemen, you are responsible for the wrongs that have been done; let us in the name of God, and in behalf of virtue, try and put a stop to this cohabitation. I could but admire a few days ago, when the gentlemen upon this floor spoke so highly of the women of this State, I am mindful of the fact that when they spoke of the women of this State that they spoke of the white women. I can but echo their sentiment, and do say, that I believe them to be as pure women as can be found anywhere in the world. I have not been strongly in favor of female suffrage, but since your discussion on the Divorce Law I feel I shall have to vote for the suffrage in order that they may pass a law or laws that will make you as pure as they are. We have, sir, as pure colored women in South Carolina and in this country, as any race upon this earth. Sir, that evil, known as slavery caused all of this. This wrong was done by you all, owning them as your slaves. Sir, no act of yours will prevent a white man from marrying a colored woman or a colored man from marrying a white woman, who have the means to go in another State. There are many States in the Union, that do not prevent them marrying and they can go and get married and you cannot help yourself. I have in my mind distinctly, a colored man and a white woman who were in love with each other, and who wanted to get married, but this man recited to her the law on your Statute book that prohibited the intermarriage of the races. This lady stated that there were no such laws in the district of Columbia, New York or Massachusetts. She was as pure a lady as there is. I only cite this because it is a matter that you cannot control except directly in the State. This entire matter, sir, has no right in the Constitution of the State, if your women are as pure as you stated, and I have reason to believe that they are, they can be trusted; then why the necessity of this being placed in the Constitution? Can you not trust yourselves? Is it because that these wrongs have been perpetrated here, since the formation of the Government, that you feel that you can’t be trusted? When I say you, I mean the white men of the entire State. I fear not; hence I trust the amendment will be adopted. These wrongs have been done, and are still being done, it is not done by colored men, it is done by white men. If a Negro should improperly approach a white woman, his body would be hanging on the nearest tree filled with air holes before daylight the next morning—and perhaps properly so. If the same rule were applied on the other side, and white men who insulted or debauched Negro women were treated likewise, this Convention would have to be adjourned sine die for lack of a quorum.
“The gentleman called me to order stating that I had reflected on the Convention. I do not wish to reflect on the Convention. I do not wish to reflect on the Convention, but do say, that if he has clean hands he will keep his seat, because I do not mean to reflect on any man who objects to the intermarriage of a Negro or Mulatto woman with a white man, and is willing to prohibit the cohabitation, which is the root and branch of this evil. Stop this evil, and there will be no occasion for your intermarriage law. Sir, I oppose the intermarriage of the races as strongly as you do, and I feel that I echo the sentiment of the respectable class of both sides; because with few exceptions, we find these marriages are among the lower element of both races, and, therefore, they degrade and not elevate either race. But sir, don’t tell me that you will make a law to prevent lawful marriages and give full license to illicit marriages. Watch the census of each decade, you will clearly see that this vice is decreasing among our people; as they are progressing educationally they are raising themselves out of this degradation, that your race has placed upon them. Now sir, I say, prohibit intermarriage of the races, also make a law as binding against cohabitation. Then you will make your men as true as your women. And our race will be freed from a vice, that is as degrading as the system of slavery. Again sir, in behalf of my race, I hope that the amendment to the section under consideration will be adopted and become a part of the Constitution of the State.”
The introduction of this amendment caused a great deal of discussion, which showed plainly that South Carolina had no idea of punishing white men for wrong done to colored women, nor would she allow the wrong to be rectified, and the original Section 34 was adopted, and is now the fundamental law of the State.
On [page (20-22)] we have selected two editorials on this amendment, also a telegram on [page 23].
The following is clipped from Section 6 on Education. There are in this State several thousand soldiers who fought for the perpetuity of the Union, yet they are compelled to pay the poll tax ten years longer than these who sought to destroy it.