Part 2

SEC. 12. Elector in municipal elections shall possess the qualifications and be subject to the disqualifications herein prescribed. The production of a certificate of registration from the registration officers of the county as an elector at a precinct included in the incorporated city or town in which the voter desires to vote is declared a condition prerequisite to his obtaining a certificate of registration for municipal elections, and in addition he must have been a resident within the corporate limits at least four months before the election and have paid all taxes due and collectible for the preceding fiscal year. The general assembly shall provide for the registration of all voters before each election in municipalities; provided, that nothing herein contained shall apply to any municipal election which may be held prior to the general election of the year 1896.

SEC. 13. In authorizing a special election in any incorporated city or town in this State for the purpose of bonding the same, the general assembly shall prescribe as a condition precedent to the holding of said election a petition from a majority of the freeholders of said city or town as shown by its tax books, and at such elections all electors of such city or town who are duly qualified for voting under section 12 of this article, and who have paid all taxes, State, county, municipal, for the previous year, shall be allowed to vote, and the vote of a majority of those voting in said elections shall be necessary to authorize the issue of said bonds.

SEC. 14. Electors shall in all cases except treason, felony or breach of peace, be privileged from arrest on the days of election during their attendance at the polls and going and returning therefrom.

SEC. 15. No power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage in this State.

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.

“There shall be assessed on all taxable polls in the State between the ages of 21 and 60 years (excepting Confederate soldiers above the age of 50 years) an annual tax of $1 on each poll, the proceeds of which tax shall be expended for school purposes in the several school districts in which it is collected.”

Claflin College was advocated for colored students, taught by Negroes; the best, wherever they could be found, should be secured.

The committee on order, style and revision had the work ready, and all that was needed was the signature of the members to make the Constitution final. The members went up in county delegations and signed the new organic law.

President Evans and Vice President Jones signed the new Constitution as the officers present, and then came Abbeville and the other counties on down. When Beaufort was reached, Delegate Smalls asked to be excused from signing the Constitution, as he would not sign a Constitution with such an article on suffrage. He was unanimously excused. He was the only member of the Beaufort delegation present.

Some one during the progress of the signing sent up a resolution that members not signing the Constitution should not be paid. Gen. Smalls said he would walk home rather than sign the instrument. President Evans did not press the resolution, and members generally thought lightly of the matter, and it was not even put to the Convention.

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EDITORIAL FROM THE (N. Y.) PRESS, OCT. 5, 1895.

We can recall no more brilliant moral victory of a parliamentary minority than that gained on Thursday in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention by the representatives of the race about to be disfranchised for lack of intelligence wherewith to vote. In so characterizing the attack of these black delegates we have in mind the extraordinary ends accomplished with minorities by Mr. Randall, Mr. Blaine and Mr. Reed, the chief parliamentarians of our generation.

In this case the white majority laid themselves open to the flank movement, which Robert Smalls had evidently meditated throughout the session, by introducing a quite supererogatory article for the amendment of mixed marriages. The black leader instantly moved an amendment providing that illicit as well as legal unions between the races should be prohibited. He proposed to disqualify all men--and this of course would mean only white men--who were parties to such unions. He proposed that the offspring of such unions should take their fathers’ names.

Senator Tillman, who seems, though the author of this new secession of South Carolina, to be the only man in the Convention who appreciates in the slightest degree the effect of its actions upon outside public opinion, proceeded at once to save his record by espousing the Negro cause. He cut himself loose promptly from the majority in the course into which he knew its provincial ignorance would direct it. He went so far as roundly to berate his own chairman for his attempt to choke off the plea of the black men for the integrity of black women.

It was hardly a debate that followed. It was an arraignment which culminated when Mr. Smalls, after approving the punishment which lynch law has meted out to the worst offenders of his race, said:

“If the same rule were applied on the other side and white men were treated likewise, I fear this Convention would have to be adjourned for lack of a quorum.”

The “burst of laughter” which followed this threw an interesting light on the morals and manners of South Carolina. It showed the state of civilization depicted in “Tom Jones.” A Convention composed entirely of Squire Westerns would have met such an impeachment in a precisely similar way. Having satisfied their sense of humor the delegates killed the amendment and passed the mixed marriages article.

This seizure of a parliamentary advantage in so sudden and effective a manner as to cause the majority leader to abandon his forces and leave them to expose their moral nakedness to the world was more than equal to Mr. Blaine’s rout of the Rebel Brigadiers in the famous Amnesty Debate. For those gentry managed to fan and sponge Ben Hill into the ring again, and these remained “out of time.”

And in no one other way could the Negroes have so convincingly proved to the world their right to the ballot than by this victory of black mind over white matter. It is now made plain, as it was made plain by the first laws passed by the unreconstructed Legislature of the same State after the war, that the fear of Negro domination is not born so much of a regard for the numbers as for the developed intellectual ability of the blacks. It is not Negro ignorance, but Negro intelligence, that is feared.

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EDITORIAL FROM THE NEWS AND COURIER, THE LEADING DEMOCRATIC PAPER OF CHARLESTON, S. C., Nov. 23, 1895.

The troublesome matter of miscegenation was settled finally by the adoption of the provision that “the marriage of a white person with a Negro or mulatto, or person who shall have one-eighth of Negro blood, shall be unlawful and void” hereafter. The provision would have been strengthened and improved by the adoption of Gen. Smalls’ proposed addition to it that “any white person who lives and cohabits with such persons should be disqualified from holding office of emolument or trust in this State, and the offspring of such living or cohabiting shall bear the name of the father,” but the Convention rejected the addition by the largest vote recorded recently. Its action was a mistake. The addition was a proper corollary to the section adopted, and should have been extended to disqualify from voting, as well as holding office, the class of offenders at which it was aimed. Of the two offences--miscegenation within the marriage bond and miscegenation without it--the latter is the greater social evil. It should have been treated accordingly. The action of the Convention in this instance and its action of the preceding day in reducing the age of consent to the limits of childhood will inevitably be construed together to the injury and reproach to the State. Both decisions should not stand. Taken together they offer a premium for a condition of affairs which is condemned alike by every dictate of sound morals and of the public sentiment of the State. Miscegenation is contrary to the law of nature.

TELEGRAM.

BOSTON, MASS., Oct. 16, 1895.

To the Hon. Robert Smalls, Columbia, S. C:

Dear Sir: A body of clergymen and laymen in Convention assembled in the City of Boston, Mass., congratulate you for the stand you took for virtue and chastity in the Constitutional Convention of South Carolina, on Oct. 2d, current. The Christian Churches are with you in the struggle, indeed, the civilized world indorses the sentiment expressed by you. May God save the State of South Carolina from its barbarism.

(Signed)

REV. WM H. SCOTT. CLIFFORD H. PLUMMER, Sec. P. L. PEMBERTON.

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

2121 NORTH 29TH STREET } PHILADELPHIA, October 30, 1895. }

Gen. Robert Smalls, Columbia, S. C.:

My Dear General--I am very desirous of procuring a copy of each one of the speeches delivered in your Convention at Columbia on the suffrage question. If you have within easy reach any or all of them in print, I shall esteem it as a favor if you will kindly forward to me here such of them as you can readily spare. And let me say to you, my dear General, what has, I presume, been said to you already, that the dignity, courage and signal ability with which you and your Republican colleagues at Columbia, have asserted and maintained manhood rights and the just claims of all citizens to fair play under the supreme law of the land as well as under the civilization of our times, have touched the heart of the great North and called forth its soberest approval and its high admiration.

Indeed, it is felt here that, in your statements, your arguments and warnings, you have covered the whole case and done lasting honor to the Negro race and to American patriotism. All hail to you and your noble band of Spartans at Columbia!

Yours very sincerely, E. C. BOSSETT.

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NEWBERRY, Oct. 28, 1895. Hon. Robert Smalls:

Dear Sir: I take the liberty of expressing to you and through you to your colleagues, Messrs. Miller, Wigg and Whipper my very great gratification and approval of your and their very able and eloquent addresses in behalf of sound Republican principles, of justice towards all classes, and of fair and honest elections. You all did credit to your race, to the Republican party, and as I hope and believe to the cause of justice, for I have no doubt your efforts will have great influence outside the State. The prompt voting down of everything proposed, however fair and moderate, looked very much like pre-concerted action, and was not creditable to the Convention, either Conservatives or “Reformers.” But I should say, keep up the fight at every point along the line. Propose amendments to every objectionable section, even if they are voted down.

Very Respectfully, B. O. DUNCAN.

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ADELPHI HOTEL, } LIVERPOOL, Oct. 6, 1895. }

Mr. Robert Smalls, Beaufort, S. C.:

Dear Sir--We have read over here the telegraphic report about the metaphorical bomb you threw into the Constitutional Convention, with the greatest glee. But not only was it the best sort of fuse--it was loaded, too, with the most explosive truth, (it seems to have scattered the ladies.) Such jokes as yours make an entrance for the truth when cold logic slides off like water from a duck’s back. Gen. Ben Butler’s phrase about the contraband of war converted more Democrats than Seward’s great speeches. And so I doubt not your “little joke” will do more to make the scales drop from people’s eyes than even Douglass’ admirable tract “Why is the Negro Lynched;” (Of this I will try to send you a copy.) Butler’s “Contraband” prepared the way for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Your resolution, so aptly timed, I regard as one of those _immense_ things that influence destiny. I do not know how much it will be written about in the papers, but I believe it is only second in the importance of its influence to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, because of its _opportuneness_. _No occasion could have occurred--none can again occur_--when that truth wrapped up in the words of your amendment could have reached home to the American people--could have penetrated the harness and armor of the late Rebel master. More than that, you have prepared the way for one of the greatest books on the relations of the Negro and the mulatto to the white race. I speak, of course, of Mr. Keeper’s book, “Minden Armies.” At once on reading your action and its result in the Convention, I wrote an article, intended to be light and attractive, and took it to one of the great London dailies, but it was returned as the subject was hardly of enough consequence to their constituency, their columns being so crowded. I should be very glad to have the best report of that meeting that is published, as I want to see the details in full. Address me.

Yours truly, HORACE J. SMITH, 44 Grosvenor Road, London S. W.

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SPECIAL TO THE WORLD.

COLUMBIA, S. C., Sept. 30--Five of the six Negro delegates to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention, which proposes to disfranchise the blacks, have joined in the following address to the North, through The World:

To the Editor of the World:

The Seventh Constitutional Convention called in South Carolina is in session. It has been called for the purpose of dealing with the Negro problem. Those who have advocated its assembling have been explicit in their declaration of the purposes to be accomplished--the disfranchisement of the Negro and the elimination of him entirely, not from a participation in elections, for he has not since 1886 had any show at all in any of the elections held in the State, but of the possibility of the Negro uniting with the conservative Democratic faction and thus oust from place and power those now in control of the Government. The chief obstacle in the way of accomplishing what is desired is the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. This difficulty removed, there will be plain sailing.

The Hon. Benjamin Ryan Tillman, who is the head and front of the movement, has not been at all politic or hypocritical as to his intentions. He has said that his object is to disfranchise as many Negroes as he possibly can without disfranchising a single white man, except for crime.

WHAT THE CENSUS SHOWS.

In the State, according to the census of the United States, taken in 1890, there were: Negroes over twenty-one years of age, 132,949; whites over twenty-one years of age, 102,567; Negro majority, 30,292. Of these are illiterate, 58,086 Negroes and 13,242 whites. Now, it will plainly be seen that a purely educational qualification, honestly administered, would give the whites 89,415, and the Negroes 74,851 votes; white majority, 14,564 votes.

But the nut for Tillman to crack is how he can disfranchise the Negro without disfranchising the 13,242 illiterate whites, whose votes would be lost entirely to his faction should the conservative element nominate and vote an independent ticket. The highest vote his faction has ever been able to poll in round numbers is 60,000, and the Conservatives 35,000. If Tillman’s faction, therefore, should lose 13,242 votes it would leave him only 46,758 votes, and the Conservatives 35,000 votes, and Tillman’s majority over the Conservatives would be only 11,758 votes.

It will readily be seen that the 74,851 Negro votes or any considerable part of them uniting with the Conservatives would make that faction master of the situation, and that is what Tillman wants to prevent. He has thus far hypnotized the whites of both factions With the scarecrow, “White supremacy,” which he has shaken in their faces on every occasion, and which he is shrewd enough to know has the same effect upon the whites as a red flag has upon an enraged bull.

TILLMAN’S SUFFRAGE PLAN.