CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION . 381

English language as their mother this Convention had not been adopted , tongue . In the South you have the I fail to see any that could have been descendants of the old Acadians , many adopted to solve this problem , and I of whom would be unable to meet the do not believe that there was any solu requirements of a constitutional suf | tion for it , but that we should have frage provision which should demand been forced to return to those meth an educational qualification as a pre - ods which have prevailed in the elec requisite to the right of voting . You tions in the State of Louisiana for the have the sugar districts , the rice dis I past twenty years . We have left those tricts , the cotton districts , the piny methods behind us . We have placed woods districts , all differing in their it within the power of the people of local interests . How can you compare this State to have elections as fair and the problems which confronted us with as pure as those in the State of Mas those which confronted the old Anglo sachusetts herself ; and I say to you Saxon populations of South Carolina that we can appeal to the conscience and Mississippi , who have lived in of the nation , both judicial and legis those States for the past hundred lative , and I don ' t believe that they

cars but all Americans , for three , or will take the responsibility of strik four , or five generations back ? Now , ing down the system which we have confronting these difficulties , we have reared in order to protect the purity attempted to solve the difficult prob - 1 of the ballot box , and to perpetuate lems which confronted us , and I can I the supremacy of the Anglo - Saxon only say to you , my fellow - deputies ,

race in Louisiana . If they do , their ' s that we have come nearer solving be the responsibility for bringing back them than I ever believed possible the methods which have prevailed in when we met here , or during the first

the past - not ours . We have laid them few weeks of our session .

aside . We have reared a perfectly Time presses , and the hand on the clean structure , and we intend to have dial warns me to hurry on and dwell , a clean electorate , if the rest of the only in a hurried manner upon the I nation will allow it , and believe that various subjects under consideration , they will . ( Applause . ) especially as the details given by the So much for the suffrage . gentleman who preceded me renders Now , the gentleman who preceded it unnecessary for me to 30 into as me , went at some length into the much detail as I otherwise should question of the judiciary , but in my think necessary .

opinion that question , which was sec

ond : ury only to the suffrage in Ine first and foremost , and most

the

minds of the people of this state , when important , problem which confronted us was that of the suffrage . The gen

they sent us here , has been solved in

the Constitution which has been laid tleman who preceded me . the Nestor

before us , with a success far beyond of the bar of this State ; its leader

my most sanguine hopes . I have gone during the whole of my manhood , and who has been chosen by the American

over the figures carefully , and I be

lieve that the figures have been given Bar Association as its president , has

wit , absolute accuracy by the gentle . stated to you that , in his opinion ,

man who preceded me , but I have that plan was a legal one , and one

never believed in low - priced judges . I which could not be attacked on the grounds of unconstitutionality ; and , have never believed that the judicial after he has spoken , I think it would expenses of the State were dependent be a work of Supercopation for me

upon the question whether a judge to add my voice to his ; but I go fur - should receive a salary of $ 2300 ) or one ther , and say that even if our plan be of $ 3000 . I have always believed that

judge open to any constitutional objection , I it was economical to pay a defy any one to state to me any plan who was receiving . perhaps , $ 8 a day . by which the question can be brought $ 10 a day , if by doing so you obtained to a practical solution before any an efficient administration of justice . forum in this land . I say that we will under which the State would save in solve it in this State by the 1st day costs and expenses $ 40 or $ 50 a day . of next September , untrammeled and I say to you that the saving in the untroubled by any exterior force what expenditures of the judiciary depart soever . I say to you that up to that ment , which have been stated by the date there is no court in this coun gentleman who preceded me , are tri try that can meddle with it , and after fling as compared with the saving that date we are free from any mea

which will be made in the administra sure , except from the mere brutal in tion of the country courts . I must ad . terference of threatening to cut down

mit that upon this question I am not our representation , and Congress could familiar with the course of criminal do that under the South Carolina , Mis I procedure , nor with its expense in the sissippi or any other plan that you country parishes , and the most that might devise . ( Applause . ) I would I have to say has been learned from say further , my fellow - delegates , if contact with delegates up on the floor the plan which has been adopted by of this Convention , in whose judgment