"A Senseless Resurrection.”
May 11, 1907
Summary
Florida tries to pass a bill abolishing the Fifteenth Amendment. Black people will no longer be allowed to vote if the bill passes.
Transcription
“A Senseless Resurrection.”
The legislature of Florida had decided to test the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and to that end has passed an amendment to the state Constitution:
Whether judicious or not, Florida proposes to bring the fifteenth amendment to trial and test its validity. To that end, the Legislature has adopted a joint resolution proposing the following amendment to the State Constitution:
“Every white male person of the age of twenty-one years and upwards that shall, at the time of registration, be a citizen of the United States, and that shall have resided and had his habitation, domicile, home and place of permanent abode in Florida for one year, and in the county for six months, shall in such county be deemed a qualified elector at all elections under this Constitution. Naturalized citizens of the United States at the time of and before registration officers their certificate of naturalization or a duty certified copy thereof.”
The amendment thus proposed will be submitted to popular vote in November 1908, and there is little doubt but that it will carry. If adopted, of course, a test case will be made up by some Negro citizen or citizens of Florida will admit that its provision is in direct conflict with the fifteenth amendment was unconstitutionally adopted, and is therefore without force and effect.
It will not be difficult to establish the truthfulness of that contention, but that the court will set the fifteenth amendment aside, after it has stood for a generation or more, with the acquiescence of the several States, is a contingency so improbable that we are at a loss to know how some men could have treated it seriously.
Everybody in the United States will entertain the opinion expressed by our esteemed contemporary, if a moment’s consideration is taken and the truths of history are considered in the light of past experiences. We do not include in this statement however the opinion that the Amendments were unconstitutionally adopted:
This journal continues:
The Times-Dispatch held from the first that the entire movement was ill-advised, and we fear that it will involve other States than Florida in serious difficulties. The only thing to be gained is that the facts of history will be threshed out and the outrages of reconstruction. The past has been buried and the grave which holds it is full of bitterness. In God’s name, let it forever remain a closed sepulcher.
The above expressions should be voiced by every patriotic citizen. But these rampant demagogues, Pharaoh-like will not be satisfied. They are rushing on to certain disaster, and so far as the citizen of color is concerned, it will prove a blessing in disguise.
It will force a crisis in the political affairs of this country and we see in it much harm for the Southland. It will open the eyes of the North to a realization of the true feeling, and present attitude of a large proportion of educated southerners, and will dispel the dream of a Roosevelt that the days of harmony are here and the complete unification of all sections of the country under his administration has been accomplished.
Let them test the Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has done much dodging, but this is one time that it will be forced to meet the issue squarely.
The legislature of Florida had decided to test the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and to that end has passed an amendment to the state Constitution:
Whether judicious or not, Florida proposes to bring the fifteenth amendment to trial and test its validity. To that end, the Legislature has adopted a joint resolution proposing the following amendment to the State Constitution:
“Every white male person of the age of twenty-one years and upwards that shall, at the time of registration, be a citizen of the United States, and that shall have resided and had his habitation, domicile, home and place of permanent abode in Florida for one year, and in the county for six months, shall in such county be deemed a qualified elector at all elections under this Constitution. Naturalized citizens of the United States at the time of and before registration officers their certificate of naturalization or a duty certified copy thereof.”
The amendment thus proposed will be submitted to popular vote in November 1908, and there is little doubt but that it will carry. If adopted, of course, a test case will be made up by some Negro citizen or citizens of Florida will admit that its provision is in direct conflict with the fifteenth amendment was unconstitutionally adopted, and is therefore without force and effect.
It will not be difficult to establish the truthfulness of that contention, but that the court will set the fifteenth amendment aside, after it has stood for a generation or more, with the acquiescence of the several States, is a contingency so improbable that we are at a loss to know how some men could have treated it seriously.
Everybody in the United States will entertain the opinion expressed by our esteemed contemporary, if a moment’s consideration is taken and the truths of history are considered in the light of past experiences. We do not include in this statement however the opinion that the Amendments were unconstitutionally adopted:
This journal continues:
The Times-Dispatch held from the first that the entire movement was ill-advised, and we fear that it will involve other States than Florida in serious difficulties. The only thing to be gained is that the facts of history will be threshed out and the outrages of reconstruction. The past has been buried and the grave which holds it is full of bitterness. In God’s name, let it forever remain a closed sepulcher.
The above expressions should be voiced by every patriotic citizen. But these rampant demagogues, Pharaoh-like will not be satisfied. They are rushing on to certain disaster, and so far as the citizen of color is concerned, it will prove a blessing in disguise.
It will force a crisis in the political affairs of this country and we see in it much harm for the Southland. It will open the eyes of the North to a realization of the true feeling, and present attitude of a large proportion of educated southerners, and will dispel the dream of a Roosevelt that the days of harmony are here and the complete unification of all sections of the country under his administration has been accomplished.
Let them test the Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has done much dodging, but this is one time that it will be forced to meet the issue squarely.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“"A Senseless Resurrection.”,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed April 24, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/494.