552 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



for the State of North Carolina under the 

 reconstruction acts of Congress, met at Raleigh 

 on the 14th of February, and proceeded to the 

 work appointed for it without delay. Some 

 little sensitiveness was displayed at first in a 

 resolution, adopted on the second day of its 

 session, that "no reporter for any newspaper 

 be allowed upon this floor, who treats the 

 convention or any of its members with dis- 

 respect, but that they shall, in case of offence 

 in this respect, be excluded from the floor of 

 the hall, and from the galleries." The "dis- 

 respect" which called forth this rule consisted 

 in designating the colored members by the 

 word "negro," placed after their names in the 

 reports of the proceedings. The only impor- 

 tant discussions which arose during the sittings 

 of the convention were connected with the 

 subject of equal rights for whites and blacks. 

 In the constitution, as framed and adopted, no 

 distinction of races is in any way recognized, 

 though attempts were made, by the members 

 opposed to the enfranchisement of negroes, to 

 introduce provisions looking to various dis- 

 criminations to be made by future Legislatures. 

 The principal debate on this topic occurred on 

 the consideration of the article regulating the 

 suffrage, and on that making provision for the 

 organization and management of public schools. 

 One member made an elaborate speech to 

 show "the physical and mental inferiority of 

 the African race, which rendered it unfit to 

 live on a footing of social and political equality 

 with the whites." 



In the Bill of Rights are these declarations : 



SEOTIOK 4. That this State shall ever remain a 

 member of the American Union, that the people 

 thereof are part of the American nation ; that there 

 is no right on the ^art of this State to secede, and 

 that all attempts, from whatever source, or upon 

 whatever pretext, to dissolve said Union, or to sever 

 said nation, ought to be resisted with, the whole 

 power of the State. 



SEO. 5. That every citizen of this State owes par- 

 amount allegiance to the Constitution and Govern- 

 ment of the United Spates, and that no law or ordi- 

 nance of the State, in contravention or subversion 

 thereof, can have anv binding force. 



SEO. 6. To maintain the honor and good faith of 

 the State untarnished, the public debt, regularly con- 

 tracted before and since the rebellion, shall be re- 

 garded as inviolable and never be questioned ; but 

 the State shall never assume or pay, or authorize the 

 collection of, any debt or obligation, expressed or 

 implied, incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion 

 against the United States, or any claim for the loss 

 or emancipation of any slave. 



SEO. 33. Slavery and involuntary servitude, other- 

 wise than for crime whereof the parties shall have 

 been duly convicted, shall be, and are hereby, forever 

 prohibited within this State. 



The elections for members of the General 

 Assembly are hereafter to be held on the first 

 Thursday in August of alternate years, com- 

 mencing in 1870, and that body is to meet on 

 the third Monday in November. There are to 

 be 50 Senators and 120 Representatives, each 

 holding office for two years. The term of of- 

 fice of all the executive officers of the Govern- 

 ment is four years. 



The only oath, prescribed for every person 

 on his induction into office, is the ordinary as- 

 severation that he will support the Constitution 

 and laws of the United States and of the State 

 of North Carolina, and that he will perform, 

 to the best of his ability, the duties which he 

 assumes in accepting the official position. 



The article on the judiciary abolishes the 

 distinction between actions at law and suits in 

 equity, and provides for the establishment of a 

 supreme court, superior courts, courts of 

 justices of the peace, and special courts. The 

 Supreme Court consists of a chief-justice with 

 four associates, and exercises in general mat- 

 ters only an appellate jurisdiction. The judges 

 of both the Supreme and Superior Courts are 

 to be elected by the suffrages of the qualified 

 voters of the State, and hold their positions for 

 a term of eight years. 



The elective franchise is conferred upon 

 every male person, twenty-one years of age and 

 upward, native in the country or legally natu- 

 ralized, who shall have resided in the State 

 twelve months next preceding the election, 

 and thirty days in the county in which he of- 

 fers to vote. No exception to this rule is made 

 whatever, but "no person shall be allowed to 

 vote without registration, or to register with- 

 out first taking an oath or affirmation to sup- 

 port and maintain the Constitution and laws 

 of the United States, and the constitution and 

 laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent there- 

 with." 



The only persons disqualified from holding 

 office are : " First, all persons who shall deny 

 the being of Almighty God. Second, all per- 

 sons who shall have been convicted of treason, 

 perjury, or of any other infamous crime, since 

 becoming citizens of the United States, or 

 of corruption or malpractice in office, unless 

 such persons shall have been legally restored 

 to the rights of citizenship." 



On the subject of the right of suffrage and 

 of eligibility to office, two minority reports 

 were submitted by different members of the 

 committee which had those subjects under 

 consideration. One of these was in favor of 

 introducing restrictions which would exclude 

 a large portion of the blacks who had " recent- 

 ly emerged from slavery, and were unfitted, by 

 previous education and habits of thought and 

 self-reliance, for the intelligent discharge of 

 the duties and responsibilities which would 

 devolve upon them ;" and the other proposed 

 such limitations as would deprive those, who 

 took a prominent part in the cause of the 

 South in the late civil war, from participating 

 in the rights of citizenship. Neither- of these 

 reports had any influence in shaping the pro- 

 visions of the organic law of the State, and no 

 reference is to be found in that instrument 

 either to a distinction of races or to the loyalty 

 or disloyalty of any class of citizens. 



On the subject of education, ample powers 

 are given to the Legislature to establish and 

 support an effective school system, and pro- 



