The Republican party broke the shackles of 4,000,000 slaves and made them free.— William
McKinley.

THE NEW NULLIFICATION
Forty Electoral Votes Will Be
Given to Bryan From a
Disfranchised Class

The Progress Toward Suppression1 of Suffrage — White Republicans the
Latest Victims — Democratic Hypocrisy About Consent
of the Governed — What Might Have Been
Said at Indianapolis.
With the recent action of North Carolina four Southern States now have
constitutional provisions in effect disfranchising the negroes. , I
The other Southern States have election laws and methods which accom
plish the same general purpose — suppression of the negro vote.
There are now forty Representatives in Congress and ¦ forty votes in the
electoral college which stand for a disfranchised class having no voice in the
choice of them except in so far as colored men are allowed > to exercise the
right of suffrage north of the Ohio and in Texas.
In 1800 an attempt was made to strengthen the Federal election laws
to meet the movement to suppress negro suffrage. It was known as the
Lodge bill.' It passed the House and failed in the' Senate.
national election laws wiped, out.
In 1894, the Democratic Congress' wiped the national election laws from
the statute books. A minority report made by Republican Senators, recog
nizing the repeal as inevitable, contained this significant paragraph :
"It is not likely that this particular measure (reference being to the Lodge
election law) will ever be revived. The control of' national legislation in this
country will be for some' time beyond the reach of the Republican party, and
we believe that it is the desire of a majority of the people that the experiment
¦ should be fully tried whether- existing laws and an improving sentiment will
not cure the evils complained of; so that it is not probable that any legislation
having the same object will be proposed .again for many years to come, or
tha.t it will ever be ..proposed unless experience shall satisfy the people Of the
country, without political or sectional division, and with substantial unanimity,
that the existing instrumentalities for securing fair elections have failed."
Six years ago the republicans appealed from Congress to the American
sense of fairness to meet the. suppression of the negro vote. Enforcement
by legislation of the national power of the Fifteenth Amendment was tem-

ISO

porarily abandoned. The country has waited to see what public sentiment
would do.
, democratic disfranchisement.
The new nullification has been the answer to this Republican policy. One
Southern State after another has boldly completed and made permanent dis
franchisement of negroes by constitutional provisions. The others have in
vented election laws for the same object.
Successive steps have become more radical instead of milder. The North
Carolina amendment is far more sweeping than that of Misssissipp'i, with
which the movement started, The Goebel law of Kentucky goes far beyond
the statutes by which negroes were discriminated against earlier and applies
to white men. That is the latest development of the new nullification.
Starting in to remove the alleged danger of black domination these
Southern States, in complete control of the Democrats, have found it an easy
and a natural step to frame laws which would enable them to eliminate the
white Republican vote or considerable portions of it.
Mississippi's method.
The Mississippi amendment requires that every voter shall be able to
give a reasonable interpretation of any clause in the State constitution which
may be read to him. This makes the election officers the sole judges of the
voter's qualification under the amendment and they accept the white man's
interpretation while they reject the negro's. South Carolina suppresses tHe
negro vote similarly.
It was left for Louisiana to go a long step farther. There the nullifiers
make intelligence, the ability to read and write, the test, and provide that the
requirement shall only apply to negroes. They especially exempt the white
people. They do not say "white," but the constitution reads that it shall not
apply to those eligible to vote in 1867 and to their descendants. It might as
well read :
"Males above twenty-one who cannot read and write and are black shall
not vote; whites who cannot read and write may vote."
North Carolina, by the adoption of its constitutional amendment a few
days ago, repeats the Louisiana provision and even goes a little farther.
the goebel law and its provisions.
Of the Goebel law and its provisions and purpose to centralize election
machinery under the complete and exclusive control of the State Democratic
government, the country has heard so much that rehearsal would not be
profitable. In Missouri this Democratic tendency has shown itself in the
Nesbit law, applying the principle of Republican disfranchisement to the two
principal cities of that State.
Of this disfranchising movement in Tennessee so much has not been
heard, yet the progress made there is alarming. It takes the form of whole
sale suppression and perversion of the white vote of East Tennessee. This
movement obtained impetus a few years ago when the State government
threw out the votes which had elected the Republican ticket and gavje the
certificates to Democrats. boldness of democratic methods.
A letter recently received at Republican national headquarters shows the
boldness and extent of the white disfranchisement. The writer says;
"Tennessee, following the suit pf gUier Southern States, enacted elec-

tion laws intended primarily to get rid of the negro. They have served their
purpose in this respect, and now the Democratic machine in this State is
applying these laws to the white people of East Tennessee with an impudence
and boldness that temporarily staggers our people. The laws are being grad
ually extended until the whole scheme will soon cover the entire State.
"The governor, 300 miles away from us, appoints three county commis-
sipners, one of whom is nominally a Republican. To be plain all such Re
publicans ought to be in  . These three appoint all of the election officers
in the precinct and make final returns. The power to name the county elec
tion officers rested with the sheriff. for 100 years. The sheriff was a servant
of the people elected by the people. The election officers are now either all
Democrats or two-thirds Democrats with so-called Republicans chosen by
Democrats who control them absolutely. They are Republicans who will
turn their backs while the Democrats do their work. This county is 3,000
Republican. Enough ballots at the recent- county election were stuffed into
the boxes to make the Democratic ticket run 1,500 ahead of Bryan's vote in
1896. Enough Republican votes were taken out to make the Republican poll
fall 1,000 short of the McKinley vote. This is fraud on its face. In Novem
ber the election will be held with the same Democratic election officers who
made such results. If we could find enough Federal law left on trie statute
books to arrest these criminals we would carry this county and perhaps
enough other counties to carry Tennessee."
XrKANSAS A LEADER IN 'DISFRANCHISEMENT.
Arkansas, perhaps, leads the othets in the extent to which the Demo
crats have gone in the disfranchisement of Republicans. This year will
furnish a striking object-lesson in the possibilities of the suppression of suf
frage in the South.
There -is widespread revolt in Arkansas among Democrats against their
nominee for Governor. Thousands are inclined to vote against him.
So well fixed is the machine, however, that although the Democrats
would furnish the votes to elect the Republican nominee if there could be a
fair election, disfranchisement will thwart the will of the better Democrats.
A letter from Little Rock calling attention to conditions there says :
"On the 3rd day of September our State election will come off. The
Republicans of Arkansas are better organized and are doing better work in
the State for their candidate for governor, H. L. Remmell, than has ever
been done before in Arkansas. There is a large element of, Democrats all
over the State, especially in the cities and towns, who will not support the
Democratic nominee, but are outspoken in favor of Mr. Remmell. If a fair
election could be had we have no doubt that Mr. Remmell would carry the
State by 15,000 majority, but our election laws make it impossible to have a
fair election. The Goebel law is a modified copy of the Arkansas election
law, some of the most drastic provisions of our law being left out of the
Goebel law for fear the people of Kentucky would rebel against it. The white
counties of this State where really the Democratic majorities have been here
tofore, will give Mr. Remmell, the Republican' candidate, good < majorities m
many 'instances. The black belt which should give him from 20,000 to 25,000
majority on a fair election will probably ,be returned as giving those ma
jorities to the Democratic candidate."
In his columns of protest against government of the Filipinos without
their consent, Mr. Bryan at Indianapolis asked:
"Is the sunlight of full citizenship to be enjoyed by the people of the
United States and the twilight of citizenship to be endured by the people of
Porto Rico while the thick darkness of perpetual vassalage covers the
Philippines ?" HOW BRYAN WILL GET VOTES.
Not a hint of reference did the long speech of acceptance contain to the
fact that the State?- which will give their electoral votes to Bryan without

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08937 3600

contest will do so through the disfranchisement of nearly 5,000,000 of people,
disfranchisement after the right had once been conferred by most solemn
constitutional provisions.
Allen Ripley Foote, editor of Public Policy, has written to the Republican
national committee suggesting certain inserts in Mr. Bryan's pledge to make
its sentiments and logic apply to conditions in the South. He would have
the pledge contain also the words in parentheses :
"If elected I shall convene Congress in extraordinary session as soon as
I am inaugurated and recommend an immediate ' declaration of the nation's
purpose: First, to establish a (Republican form 6f) government (in our
Southern States), just as we are now establishing a stable form of govern
ment in the island of Cuba; second, to give (the right of suffrage to the
negroes), just as we have promised to give (the right of suffrage) to the
Cubans; third, to protect the (negroes) frcrm (the white man's domination)
while they work out their destiny, just as we have protected the republics of
Central and South America, and are, by the Monroe doctrine, pledged to
protect Cuba." MORAL OBLIGATION OF THE NATION.
And it is further suggested that Mr. Bryan's definition of the moral obli
gation of this nation might also read, to paraphrase what he says of the
Filipinos :
"After the (negroes) had aided us in the war (for the preservation of
the Union and in the war) against Spain, we could not honorably turn them
over to their former masters ; we could not leave them to be the victims of
the ambitious designs of (unscrupulous employers) ; .and since we do not
desire to hold them as subjects we propose the only alternative, namely, to
give them (the right of suffrage) and guard them against molestation (when
exercising that right)."
It is surprising how greatly Mr. Bryan's speech of acceptance can1 be
improved by keeping in mind and including its application to the , disfran
chised people of the South. The Anti-imperialistic Congress at Indianapolis
last week embraced in its resolutions the negroes and their right to suffrage.
Most of the Bryan papers, as the files show, blue penciled the action of the
Indianapolis body in reference to disfranchisement in the South. Here is one
more extract from Mr. Bryan's speech as it might have been made effective
by the insertion of the words in parentheses :
"When (those who are opposed to negro suffrage) are unable to defend
their position by argument they fall back on the assertion that (to be de
prived of the right of suffrage) is (their) destiny, and insist that we must
submit to it, no matter how much it violates moral precepts and our prin
ciples of government. This is a complacent philosophy. It obliterates the
distinction between right and wrong and makes individuals and nations help
less victims of circumstances."

P 28