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Debate of October 19, 1893.Question: Resolved, That Congress should provide adequate protection for the free exercise of the suffrage by negro voters.
Brief for the Affirmative.H. C. WELLMAN and AVERY COONLEY.
Best general references: G. W. Cable, The Silent South. H. C. Lodge in Cong. Rec. 1889-90 pp. 6538-44. Forum, V. p. 517. (July 1888.)
I. The negroes are deprived of their rights of suffrage. North Am. Review, Vol. 151, pp. 593-600, 604-605 (Nov. 1890.) Forum IV. p. 271 (Nov. 1887.) Forum IV. pp. 376-382 (Dec. 1887.)
II. This deprivation is an evil. Contemporary Review, LIII. p. 465 (Mar. 1888.) Forum, V. p. 517. Cable's Silent South, p. 16.- (a) For the South; bad moral influence of a violation of the Constitution. (b) For the North: disproportionate representation. (c) For the Negro: loss of the educating influence of citizenship.
III. The evil should be remedied.- (a) Individual freedom is a right, not a privilege. (b) The evil is becoming more and more fixed. (c) It will not remedy itself.
IV. The remedy should come from the federal government. (a) It is constitutional. (b) It will not come from the states. (c) The United States should protect its own elections. (d) The United States alone can do it satisfactorily.
Brief for the Negative.E. C. BRADLEE and A. D. GREENFIELD.
Best general references: Bryce, N. Am. Rev., Dec. '91; Nation, vol. 51, p. 104.
I. Effective enforcement of such a measure is impracticable. (a) No measure would furnish protection beyond the polls. (b) The present federal law has never been effectively enforced. Nation, vol. 28, p. 113.
II. There are political objections to such a measure. (a) It would be a partisan measure. Harper's Weekly, Aug. 30, '90. (b) It would create a large amount of federal patronage. Am. Commonwealth, II, ch. 66; N. Am. Rev., vol. 151, p. 267.
III. It would not benefit the negro. (a) His ignorance incapacitates him from voting intelligently or independently. (b) It would render his position harder than at present. Hart, Nation, vol. 54, p. 207; Page, N. Am. Rev. vol. 154, p. 401; Nation, vol. 24, p. 54.
IV. It would injure the whites, for in several states an ignorant negro vote would hold the balance of power. Am. Commonwealth II, p. 25, 123, 306.
V. (a) It would revive sectional animosities. (b) It would arouse antag-
(Continued on third page.)
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