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XII: The Mississippi Plan as the American Way
- Louisiana State University Press
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C H A P T E R X I I THE MISSISSIPPI PLAN AS THE AMERICAN WAY A -ATE as 1879 three foremost spokesmen of the South, Lamar of Mississippi, Hampton of South Carolina, and Stephens of Georgia, agreed in a public statement that the disfranchisement of the Negro wasnot only impossible but undesired. Lamar declared that it was "a political impossibility under any circumstances short of revolution," and that even if it were possible the South would not permit it. Hampton, who claimed the distinction of being "the first man at the South" to advocate suffrage for the emancipated slave, remarked that the Negro "naturally allies himself with the more conservative of the whites."l These gentlemen obviously hoped for a good deal from this new ally of conservatism. The century had scarcely ended, however, before the prophesies of these statesmen were overturned throughout the South. Lamar's own state, famous for her "Mississippi Plan" of 1875, again led the way in race policy with a "Second Mississippi Plan," but this time by means "short of revolution." Disfranchisement wasaccomplished by a constitutional convention in 1890. Mississippi was the only state that took this step before the outbreak of the Populist revolt. South Carolina was next with a convention in 1895, Louisiana in 1898, North Carolina by means of an amendment in 1900, Alabama in 1901, Virginia in 1901-1902, Georgia by amendment in 1908, and Oklahoma in 1910. Over the same years Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas accomplished disfranchisement by means of the poll tax and other devices. i Asymposium, "Ought the Negro to be Disfranchised," in North American Review, CXXVII1 (1879), 231-32, 241-42. "He will never be disfranchised/' wrote Bishop Haygood in Our Brother in Black, 81. 321 ORIGINS OF THE NEW SOUTH The Second MississippiPlan stirred immediate interest throughout the South, and had the times been favorable the other states would probably have followed the example much more quickly than they did. Conservatives of neighboring states, grappling with powerful Populist opposition, eyed the results of the Mississippi Plan enviously. An Alabama journal remarked in 1892 that "we would do well to imitate the wise politicians of Mississippi."2 Ben Tillman boasted, after putting through a successful imitation, that South Carolina and Mississippi were the only Southern states to avoid a strong challenge from the third party. There were several abortive attempts at constitutional revision in the early nineties, but no further extension of the Mississippi Plan until after the collapse of Populism.3 For a number of reasons disfranchisementwas delayed elsewhere. In the first place, faced with a mounting tide of agrarian radicalism, "with the wildest Populist ideas so prevalent," conservatives hesitated to call conventions that might seize the opportunity to write into organic law clauses that "smacked of socialism and communism " and "Kansas ideas." 4 In the second place, once Southern whites were split into two parties both the Populists and the Democrats sought to win the Negroes to their cause. The Populists were engaged in a crusade to unite both races upon a platform of democratic reform in behalf of the common man. The conservatives at the same time found in the Negro vote the most effective means of defeating the Populists. And finally, the Lodge force bill of 1890 indicated that a Northern conscience had been reawakened on the subject of Negro suffrage, and that it might resist or overthrow disfranchisement measures of doubtful constitutionality. In 1898 these doubts and fears and constitutional qualms were largely laid to rest. In that year, for one thing, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Williams v. Mississippi, passed fa2 Mobile Register, quoted in Jackson Clarion-Ledger, June 23, 1892. 3 As noted above, page 275, Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia passed new election codes after 1892 which put new restrictions on the voters. * Southern press, quoted in McDanel, Virginia Constitutional Convention of 19011902 , pp. 9-10; in William A. Mabry, "Louisiana Politics and the 'Grandfather Clause,'" in North Carolina Historical Review (Raleigh), XIII (1936), 292; and in Malcolm C. McMillan,"A History of the Alabama Constitution of 1901" (M.A. thesis. University of Alabama, 1940), 58. 322 [3.230.162.238] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:27 GMT) THE MISSISSIPPI PLAN AS THE AMERICAN WAY vorably upon the new plan and adopted the views of the Mississippi court.5 By that time, also, conservatives had little to fear from agrarian radicals and the influence they might exert on new constitutions . Reaction was...