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CHAPTER V

THE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE NEGRO

The Northern people, with their curious willingness to accept unwelcome results when they have given legal sanction to the cause whence these results flow, acquiesce in this subjection of the negro. They know that he does not suffer in person or estate, and if he is tricked out of his political privileges, well, it is only because he is not strong enough to protect himself. When he becomes strong enough, all will come right. To attempt to give him protection by Federal interference would involve evils far greater than the present.BRYCE'S American Commonwealth, vol. ii., p. 309.

WE

E have seen in the preceding chapter the result of forty years of continuous and effective opposition on the part of the South to the principle of bestowing the franchise upon the negro incorporated in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. This result is no

The Effect of

sion of the Negro Vote.

the Suppres- less than the complete disfranchisement of the race in the Southern States. For good or evil, this has come to be an accepted fact. In order that this result may have ocular demonstration, the table on pages 260 and 261 is submitted.

This table is based, by permission, on one of similar character contained in a powerful and illuminating speech on the subject of equality of representation, delivered by the Hon. J. Warren Keifer, of Ohio, in the House of Representatives, March 15, 1906. Congressman Keifer, by his masterly analysis of the figures contained in his table, conclusively demonstrates the evil results flowing from the

Table showing white and negro population and voters in each state, according to the census of 1900; present number of Representatives; also number each state would have if apportioned on white voters alone; also total number of votes cast in each state in 1904 and 1906, and average vote cast for Representative in 1904 and 1906 in each state.

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Table showing white and negro population and voters in each state, etc.-Continued.

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present violation by the South of the fundamental principle of representation. His eloquent plea for the disfranchised negro, however, fell upon unheeding ears, the common sense of Congress recognizing the absolute futility of any attempt arbitrarily to reduce the representation of the Southern States, as proposed by his measure, in proportion to their disfranchisement of voters, white and black.

The facts disclosed by the foregoing table reveal the startling extent to which the vote of the South, white and black, is suppressed. In the preceding chapter we examined the methods,-the present one discloses the results. It is but slight exaggeration to say that democracy in its true spirit has ceased to exist from Maryland to Mexico.

Take the following example drawn from the table: In the ten states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, in which are centred nine-tenths of the negro population of the country, after making allowance for natural increase of population since 1900, there were in 1906 approximately 4,250,000 voters, white and black. In the Congressional election of that year the votes cast were as follows:

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The remainder of the country, with 10,923,817 votes cast,

shows an average per district of 34,267.

It will be noted by reference to the table at page 55 that the small average vote follows almost exactly the large proportion of negroes in the population.

Now, the overwhelming preponderance of one party in any locality is likely to deter many voters in each party from undergoing the trouble and expense of presenting themselves at the polls in an ordinary election; but when there exists. an intelligent electorate, coupled with the unimpeded right to the exercise of the franchise, a fair proportion of the qualified voters will habitually avail themselves of the voting privilege. Witness those 20,000 Democrats who for nearly two political generations have, through good and evil report, annually attended at the polls to register an ineffectual protest against the doctrines of Republicanism entertained by the great majority of the voters of Vermont.

But where, as appears by the foregoing table, throughout an extensive section of the country, only one-sixth of those naturally entitled to avail themselves of the suffrage cast their votes, there must exist conditions demanding instant and remedial investigation.

Lest the foregoing deductions from the table should be deemed an overstatement of the gravity of the case, on the ground that in the years included in the table the elections were national in character and the results being a foregone conclusion in the states of the South, there was no inducement to the voters of that section to attend at the polls, whereas in a state election the interests involved more nearly concern the average citizen and a larger participation of the voters. would result, the following comparison between two typical states is presented.

The states of Georgia and Iowa are almost equal in population. By the Census of 1900 the figures were as follows:

Iowa..

2,231,360

Georgia...

2,216,107

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