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 THE PROPOSED 
 
 SUFFRAGE 
 
 AMENDMENT. 
 
 The Platform and Resolutions 
 
 OF THE 
 
 People's Party. 
 

 
The Suffrage Amendment, 
 
 The Suffrage Amendment submitted by the Legislature of 
 1899, is as follows ; 
 
 Section 1. That Article VI of the Constitution of North 
 Carolina be, and the same is hereby abrogated, and in lieu thereof 
 shall be substituted the following Article'of said Constitution: 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 SUFFRAGE AND ELIGIBILITY TO OFFICE — QUALIFICATIONS OF 
 AN ELECTOR. 
 
 Section 1. Every male person born in the United States, and 
 every male person who has been naturalized, twenty- one years 
 of age and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article 
 shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people in the State, 
 except as herein otherwise provided. 
 
 Sec. 2. He shall have resided in the State of North Carolina 
 for two years, in the county six months, and in the precinct, 
 ward or other election district in which he offers to vote four 
 months next preceding the election : Provided, that removal from 
 one precinct, ward or other election district to another in the 
 same county, shall not operate to deprive any person of the right 
 to vote in a precinct, ward or other election district from which 
 he has removed until four months after such removal. No per- 
 son who has been convicted, or who has confessed his guilt in 
 open court upon indictment of any crime, the punishment of 
 which now is, or may hereafter be, imprisonment in the State 
 prison, shall be permitted to vote unless the said person shall be 
 first restored to citizenship in the manner prescribed by law. 
 v<? Sec. 3. Every person offering to vote shall be at the time a 
 5* legally registered voter as herein prescribed and in the manner 
 9 
 
 
 ri 
 a, 
 
4 
 
 Hereinafter provided by law, and the General Assembly of North 
 Carolina shall enact general registration laws to carry into effecfe 
 the provisions of this Article. 
 
 Sec. 4. Every person presenting himself for registration shalS 
 be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the 
 English language; and, before he shall be entitled to vote, he 
 shall have paid, on or before the first day of March of the year 
 in which he proposes to vote, his poll tax, as prescribed by law, 
 for the previous year. Poll taxes shall be a lien only on assessed 
 property, and no process shall issue to enforce the collection of 
 the same, except against assessed property. 
 
 Sec. 5. No male person, who was on January 1 7 1867, or at 
 any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under the laws of any 
 State in the United States wherein he then resided, and no lin- 
 eal descendant of any such person; shall be denied the right to 
 register and vote at any election in this State by reason of his 
 failure to possess the educational qualifications prescribed in sec- 
 tion 4 of this Article : Provided, he shall have registered io 
 accordance with the terms of this section prior to Dec. 1, 1908, 
 
 The General Assembly shall provide for a permanent record 
 of all persons who register under this section on or before No- 
 vember 1, 1908, and all such persons shall be entitled to regis- 
 ter and vote at all elections by the people in this State, uuless 
 disqualified under section 2 of this Article: Provided, such per- 
 sons shall have paid their poll tax as required by law. 
 
 Sec. 6. All elections by the people shall be by ballot, and all 
 elections by the General Assembly shall be viva voce. 
 
 Sec. 7. Every voter in North Carolina, except as in this Arti- 
 cle disqualified, shall be eligible to office, but before entering 
 upon the duties of the office he shall take and subscribe the fol- 
 lowing oath : " I, , do solemnly swear or affirm, that 
 
 I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the 
 United States, and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, 
 not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge 
 the duties of my office as So help me, God." 
 
 Sec. 8. The following classes of persons shall be disqualified 
 for office : First, all persons who shall deny the being of Al- 
 
mighty God ; secoud, all persons who shall ha\ r e been convicted 
 or confessed their guilt on indictment pending, and whether sen- 
 tenced or not; or under judgment suspended, of any treason or 
 felony, or any other crime for which the punishment may he 
 imprisonment in the penitentiary, since becoming citizens of the 
 United States, or of corruption and malpractice in cffice, unless 
 such person shall be restored to the rights of citizenship in a 
 manner prescribed by law. 
 
PEOPLE'S PARTY PLATFORM. 
 
 Adopted Unanimously in Convention, April 18, 1900. 
 
 The People's Party Convention assembled in Raleigh, April 
 18th, reaffirms the principles set forth in the People's Party Na- 
 tional platform adopted at St. Louis in 1896, and instructs the 
 delegates to the National Convention at Sioux Falls May 9th to 
 vote for the nomination of William J. Bryan for President. 
 
 We commend the present State Administration for its high 
 persona] and official integrity, and challenge a comparison of 
 its record with any and all of its predecessors. 
 
 Extravagance and Incompetence Condemned. 
 
 We condemn the Democratic Legislature of 1899 for its ex- 
 travagant expenditures of public money, amounting to $1,594,- 
 765.76 in 1899, as opposed to $1,283,971.11, expended by the 
 preceding Lfgislature, an excess of $310,794.65, not including 
 the sum of $100,000 for public education nor the $63,250 for 
 purchase of State farms. 
 
 We further condemn said Legislature for the careless blunder- 
 ing and careless legislation, including more gross blunders and 
 unconstitutional laws than ever before enacted by any General 
 Assembly in North Carolina. 
 
 Violation of Solemn Pledges Denounced. 
 
 We further denounce the machine leaders of the Democratic 
 party for laying the whip on the backs of the Democratic Legis- 
 lators and forcing them into enacting and submitting a disfran- 
 chising, constitutional amendment in violation of the solemn 
 pledges of the party, made not only officially in their campaign 
 handbook, but by members of the General Assembly and other 
 Democratic candidates for office in their canvass before the people. 
 
Unconstitutional Measures and Disfranchisement of 
 White Voters Opposed. 
 
 We denounce them not only fordoing this in violation of their 
 pledges, but also for submitting a measure most odious in form 
 and dangerous in effect. That General Assembly baing com- 
 posed of some of the best lawyers of the party, must have kuown, 
 or at least had a reasonable doubt, not only as to the unconstitu- 
 tionality of the monstrous provision of Section 5, kuown as the 
 " grandfather clause" in said amendment, but also of the great 
 danger of that unconstitutional section falling, leaving the re- 
 mainder of the amendment to stand, thus disfranchising by an 
 educational qualification fifty or sixty thousand white voters of 
 North Carolina, who in 1898 gave the Democratic party power 
 in the Legislature, and whose ignorance is no fault of their own, 
 but is chargeable to the neglect of the Democratic party, which 
 now seeks to disfranchise them aud make their ignorance a crime 
 alongside that of the felon. 
 
 Obnoxious Discrimination. 
 
 But even if the proposed amendment were not unconstitutional 
 (as it clearly is), still it is especially objectionable in the follow- 
 ing particulars : 
 
 (a) In that it dignifies with the right of suffrage the most vi- 
 c'iolh, troublesome aud obnoxious class of the negro population, 
 and completely disfranchises the most faithful, kindly and or- 
 derly element of that race. 
 
 White and Colored Voters Classed Together by the 
 Democratic Machine. 
 
 (b) In that, while clamoring for white supremacy and declar- 
 ing that no white man shall be disfranchised under this amend- 
 ment, they have so written their amendment that every white 
 boy becoming of age after 1908 stands on the same footing with 
 the negro, and cannot vote unless he is able to read and write. 
 
White Voters Discriminated Against. 
 
 (c) In that by the latter provision, they have made it possible 
 for the educated negro after 1908 to cast his ballot, while the un- 
 fortunate sons of the white men who have been the strength of 
 true democracy stand without a vote at the ballot box. They 
 slaughter the suffrage of the son whose father they dare not 
 openly attack. 
 
 (<l) In that this suffrage amendment does not remove the ne- 
 gro from politics or settle the negro question in North Carolina. 
 
 Payment of Poll Tax a Prerequisite to Voting. 
 
 (e) In that every voter who has not paid his poll tax as much 
 as five months before the State election and eight months before 
 the national election, shall be disfranchised as much as if he were 
 convicted of felony or were an iguoraut negro. The purpose of 
 this provision is not only to disfranchise every good, honest citi- 
 zen who ^unfortunately cannot pay his taxes by the first of March 
 preceding the election, but further to try to bribe the voter to 
 surrender his suffrage at the expense of the public school fund of 
 the State, which is derived from the poll taxes. 
 
 Scheme to Defraud the Public School Fund. 
 
 There links behind this proposition a still greater danger to 
 the public schools of the State, for with the adoption of the 
 amendment the opponents of free schools in North Carolina will 
 at once raise the cry that every dollar raised for public instruc- 
 tion means the increase of the number of negro voters, and thus 
 the poor white man's son will be chained in bondage of iguo- 
 rance and disfranchised to prevent the education of the negro 
 voter. There is no white supremacy in this. 
 
 The Proposed Amendment Not a Party Question. 
 
 The constitutional question presented by the proposed amend- 
 ment is one that must be determined by the judgment and con- 
 science of each individual voter. Therefore we do not make it 
 a parly question. We state the evils and dangers and leave the 
 
9 
 
 voters of all parties to pass their verdict in the light of the facts. 
 The question is above party, and no one should be more active 
 and anxious, in our judgment, to defeat it than the rank and file 
 of the Democratic party. 
 
 Best Solution of a Vexed Question. 
 
 The People's Party is and has always been more distinctly 
 than any other party in North Carolina a white man's party, 
 and is more anxious than any other party to solve the race pro- 
 blem, and to force all parties to a discussion of the great econo- 
 mic issues so vitally affecting the welfare of all wealth producers, 
 of the State and nation, and decency in politics. 
 
 Therefore, we pro pose ^ in lieu of this dangerous amendment, 
 the best solution of the race question that is possible as long as 
 the 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
 stands — a solution which deprives no white man in North Caro- 
 lina now or hereafter of his right of suffrage, to wit : 
 
 Amend section 5, Article 6, of the Constitution of North 
 Catolina by inserting among the disqualifications for office enu- 
 merated therein, the following, viz: All negroes and all persons 
 of negro descent to the third generation inclusive. 
 
 If the Democratic Legislature which meets in June will offer 
 this safe, constitutional and wholesome amendment in lieu of the 
 present scheme, it will have our hearty support. If they will not, 
 we appeal to the people to rally to our assistance to elect a Leg- 
 islature pledged to support such an amendment. 
 
 Good Government for Every County. 
 
 We congratulate the people of North Carolina upon the de- 
 cision of the State Supreme Court in the case of Harris vs. 
 Wright. (121 N. C. R., 172), declaring that the General Assem- 
 bly has power to provide different systems of County government 
 for various counties of the State. Acting under this decision, 
 we pledge the People's Party to the maintenance of the system 
 of local self-government in all the white counties, towns and 
 cities in the State as established by the General Assembly of 
 1895, and at the same time to provide and maintain a legislative 
 system of county government for all the negro counties of the 
 State, so that there can never be auy question that the white 
 people t-hal I always have full and complete control of every 
 county in the State. 
 
10 
 Election Law of 1899 Denounced. 
 
 We denounce the Democratic Legislature of 1899 for passing an 
 election law, every provision of which is carefully and cunningly 
 planned and devised to thwart the sovereign will of the people 
 of North Carolina by wholesale fraud and debauchery of the 
 ballot box. We declare, without fear of sucessful contradiction, 
 that it is the most partisan, unfair, infamous and indefensible 
 election law that has ever disgraced the statute books of any 
 State in the Union. 
 
 Public School System. 
 
 We pledge ourself to increase the efficiency of the public school 
 system in North Carolina, and point to the fact that the People's 
 Party has done more for public education in North Carolina 
 than the Democratic party ever did in twice the length of time. 
 To the Populists of North Carolina is to be credited the first 
 great increase in the public school system. 
 
 Charitable Institutions. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to the care of the unfortunate class in 
 North Carolina and to an increase in the necessary facilities for 
 the same. As an earnest of our sincerity, we point to our past 
 record in this particular, and say that no " Legislature in which 
 Populists have had a controlling voice has ever turned a deaf 
 ear to the demand of the unfortunate, or been followed by an 
 urgent appeal for additional provision as has been recently issued 
 by the Board of Public Charities, because of the failure of the 
 Democratic Legislature to make such provision as was seen and 
 urgently needed at the time they were consuming their time in 
 enacting political legislation and creating new offices during the 
 session of 1899. 
 
 Labor and Capital. 
 
 Labor is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of 
 capital. Capital increases the efficiency aud value of labor. 
 Whoever arrays one against the other is an enemy of both. 
 That policy is wisest und best, which harmonizes the two on the 
 basis of absolute justice. 
 
11 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 Adopted by the State People's Party 
 Convention, April 18, 1900. 
 
 Unjust Provisions of the Election Law, 
 
 Whereas, The present election law, enacted by the last Leg- 
 islature, contains many glaringly unjust provisions, among which 
 may be noted the following: 
 
 1. The provision in section 10 giving the County Election 
 Board the power to put more than a thousand voters in one elec- 
 tion precinct. 
 
 2. The provision in section 11 giving to the registrar, an offi- 
 cer who is not even sworn or required to be sworn by the law, 
 unlimited power and discretion to deny registration to almost 
 any voter, aud at the same time deny to the elector the right of 
 appeal, no matter how grave and glaring an injustice may be 
 done him by that registrar. 
 
 3. The provision contaiued in section 23, requiring even the 
 illiterate white voter to deposit each one of the six ballots, 
 to be used in the next election, in six different boxes, aud to be 
 deposited in the right box or else lose his vote; without making 
 it the duty of the judge of the electiou to deposit his ballot for 
 him upon his request, thus disfranchising, at this election, thou- 
 sands of white voters. 
 
 4. The provision of section 17 denying to opposing political 
 parties the right of representation of their own selection on elec- 
 tion boards. 
 
 5. The provision in section 25 providing for the appointment 
 of three election bailiffs or constables, with full authority to sum- 
 mon an unlimited number of others to assist them to not only 
 overawe aud intimidate, but also to arrest without warrant and 
 in their discretion, any elector, and to hold him under arrest for 
 twenty-four hours without trial, thus depriving him not only 
 
12 
 
 of his liberty, but also his vote, and which is more odious and 
 damaging than the uotorrious Federal Election Force Bill. 
 
 Purposes of The Election Law. 
 
 And, whereas, the purpose of such provisions in any election 
 law can only be for stealing votes and overturning the sovereign 
 will of the people, preventing its expression at the ballot-box — 
 
 Amendments Demanded at the June Meeting of the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 Now, therefore, be it 
 Resolved by the People's Party in State Convention assembled, 
 that in order to remove some of the most glaring provisions of 
 this election law, aud to prevent some of the most odious abuses 
 that would be perpetrated under it, we appeal to every honest 
 citizen of North Carolina to demand of the Democratic Legisla- 
 ture, when it meets in June, to adopt at least the following 
 amendments to said law, viz.: 
 
 (a) Amend section 17 by inserting after the words "political 
 party " in the end of line 6, the following : 
 
 " Provided, that the State Chairman of the Democratic, Re- 
 publican, and People's Parties, respectively, shall have the right 
 on or before the first Monday in July to nominate to the said 
 County Boards of Election in every county iu the State, one 
 person with above qualifications for judges of election in each 
 precinct, and if such nominations are made bvauy or all of said 
 chairmen, then said County Boards of Election shall appoint 
 said judges of election from the names so nominated to them 
 respectively. 
 
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 (b) Amend section 10 by inserting in line 11 after the word 
 "altered," the following: 
 
 Provided, that no election precinct shall contain more than 
 four hundred electors. 
 
13 
 
 (c) Amend section 23 in line 20 by inserting after the word 
 "enclosure," the following : 
 
 Provided, that it shall be the duty of the judges of election 
 upon the request of any voter to take his ballots and deposit 
 them in the proper boxes. 
 
 Unlimited Power to Registrars Opposed. 
 
 Whereas, the only excuse that the Democratic party has ad- 
 vanced for the unlimited power and discretion given to the reg- 
 istrars in section 11, is what they claim to be the danger of col- 
 onization, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, that section 1 1 be amended by adding the following 
 proviso, namely : 
 
 Provided, that the above qualifications for the registering of 
 an elector shall not apply to any elector offering to register who 
 can prove on the oath of himself and one other elector, if re- 
 quired to do so, that he has been a citizen of the State for twelve 
 months, a citizen of the county in which he offers to register for 
 ninety days, and is an actual and bona fide resident of the pre- 
 cinct in which he offers to vote. 
 
 (d) Provided further, that any person denied registration shall 
 have the right of appeal from the decision of the registrar de- 
 nying him registration to the resident or presiding Judge of the 
 Superior Court in the district wherein he resides, and on such 
 appeal the hearing shall be de novo. 
 
 Any person denied registration and desiring to appeal must 
 within ten days after the decision of the registrar is made, file 
 with the said registrar a written notice of his intention to appeal 
 therefrom, and thereupon the registrar shall certify all papers in 
 the case within twenty-four hours from the filing of the notice to 
 the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county wherein he resides, 
 who shall in turn forward the certified papers in the case to the 
 resident Judge or the Judge presiding in the district, who shall, 
 without unnecessary delay, hear and determine the matter and 
 certify his decision to the registrar from whom the case was 
 brought; and if it is the decision of the Judge that the appli- 
 cant is entitled to register and vote, and if said decision shall be 
 
14 
 
 delivered to the registrar at any time before the closing of the 
 polls on election day, it shall be his duty to register the name 
 on the books, and the applicant shall be entitled to vote. 
 
 If any Registrar or Clerk of the Court shall neglect or refuse 
 to send up the appeal as herein directed, or comply with the de- 
 cision of the court in respect thereto, he shall be guilty of a mis- 
 demeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not less than fifty 
 dollars or imprisoned not less than thirty days, or both, in the 
 discretion of the court. 
 
 Partisan " Constables " and " Bailiffs " at the Polls 
 
 Opposed. 
 
 That Section 25 be repealed. 
 
 (MsST Section 25 reads as follows : 
 
 "Sec. 25. The registrar and judges of election may appoint 
 as many election constables or bailiffs, not to exceed three, as 
 they may deem necessary for each precinct or ward, to be pres- 
 ent during the election to keep the peace and to protect the voting 
 place, and to prevent improper intrusion upon the voting place, 
 or the booths or railed or roped space provided in this act, or 
 interfering with the election, and to arrest all persons creating 
 auy disturbance about the voting place, and to enable all persons 
 who have not voted, and who desire to vote, to have unobstruc- 
 ted access to the polls, for the purpose of voting when others are 
 not votiug, and to keep clear the open space, hereinbefore pro- 
 vided, at all times during the election. It shall be the duty of 
 the election constables or bailiffs to be present at the voting 
 place, and to take such steps as WILL ACCOMPLISH THE 
 OBJECT OF THEIR APPOINTMENT, and they shall 
 HAVE FULL POWER TO DO SO. And they may sum- 
 mon to their aid all persons present at the voting place, and may 
 arrest offenders against this section, AND HOLD THEM IN 
 CUSTODY as long as may be necessary, not to exceed twenty- 
 four hours. And for the purpose of carrying out the powers 
 herein conferred upon them, the registrar and judges of election 
 shalt be and are hereby constituted conservators of the peace.") 
 
15 
 
 Partisan Election Board and Unnecessary Offices 
 Denounced. 
 
 We denounce the last Democratic Legislature for creating an 
 Election Board for political and partisan purposes, and forgiving 
 to said Board of Election the power to meet at will at any time 
 and place in the State and remain indefinitely in session, draw- 
 ing from the public funds of the State twenty-eight dollars per 
 day and expenses; and for requiring said Board of Election to 
 appoint a county board of election in each county in the State 
 for political and partisan purposes, and paying the chairman of 
 said county board $1.50 per day and traveling expenses out of 
 the county funds of the State. 
 
 We further condemn the said Legislature for creating 103 new 
 and unnecessary offices, for political and partisan purposes, at the 
 expense of the Counties and the State. 
 
 Goebel Election Law Con- 
 demned. 
 
 One of the Beneficiaries Declares that It Ought to be 
 
 Repealed — Party Machinery should be Sim- 
 
 lified in the Interests of the People. 
 
 All election laws authorizing unfairness and fraud are of a 
 similar character. There is no better evidence of the purpose 
 and plans of scheming and unscrupulous office-seekers to legal- 
 ize fraud and entourage dishonesty, than the enaction of such 
 laws. 
 
 The Goebel election law of Kentucky, which has been de- 
 nounced and condemned by every reputable paper in the country, 
 is of the same character as the present election law in this State. 
 
 Senator Blackburn of Kentucky (Democrat), though a bene- 
 ficiary of that law, has seen the " handwriting on the wall," and 
 is advocating its repeal. It is the kind of a law that inspires 
 
16 
 
 trouble and lawlessness, and none of the honest, reputable people 
 of an j State want any such enactment on their statute books. 
 
 Senator Blackburn recently wrote a letter to Kentucky in 
 which he said : 
 
 " The present election law was passed to prevent Republican 
 frauds through the mediation of the county judges and other 
 election officers appointed by them ; not, as some charge, to en- 
 able the Democrats to steal the election. It has failed of its 
 purpose, as is shown by the vote on final account at the last elec- 
 tion. Is any one so bigoted that he would refuse to amend a 
 law because the original framer could not fully anticipate all the 
 schemes and wiles of the ever-active agencies of force and fraud ? 
 Election laws are never perfect, and must be constantly changed 
 to meet emergencies as they arise. 
 
 " The convention should, therefore, declare for an amendment 
 to the present election law so as to give to each of the two lead- 
 ing political parties majority and minority representation upon 
 both the State and county boards of election commissioners, and 
 an equal division of election officers at each voting precinct, such 
 prec'nct officers to be chosen and appointed by the county boards 
 of election commissioners from a list to be furnished by each 
 respective party, and the law should be safe-guarded with fines, 
 penalties and otherwise as to protect both the election officers 
 and the voter from force, fraud, corruption and intimidation by 
 corporations and employers of labor, also the militia of the 
 State, the police force of cities and towns and all other public 
 functionaries, with adequate penalties to compel all persons upon 
 whom any duties are enjoined relative to the casting, counting 
 and certifying of the vote to honestly, faithtully, fairly and 
 promptly discharge the same. 
 
 " As auxiliary to this, and in order that the members of the 
 party, who are the people, may be satisfied with the action taken 
 by its representatives for the purpose of local self-government, 
 the convention should provide that rules be adopted authorizing 
 and empowering the members of the party organization in each 
 precinct to select their own committeemen, chairman and other 
 officers and change and remove the same at pleasure. This brings 
 the party organization as near the people as it is possible for the 
 conduct of these officers, who are likewise responsible to the peo- 
 ple. It prevents all centralization of power in a goveruiug com- 
 mittee and applies to our party organization the fundamental 
 principles of our government, a government of the people, the 
 power of the people to govern and control. We must build 
 from the people up if we would succeed." 
 
This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEEKS 
 ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FIVE 
 CENTS a day thereafter. It was taken ,.©ut on 
 the day indicated below. 
 
 2} 198(1 
 
 FEB 2 ; !0 
 
 Lib. 10M-Ap'34 
 
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