nd that it should be
submitted to the people for ratification, not promulgated directly by
its authors as was done in South Carolina, Louisiana, and later in
Virginia and Delaware, consented to a revision, which was ratified at
the polls November, 1901, not escaping censure for its drastic
thoroughness. Its distinctive feature was the "good character clause,"
whereby an appointment board in each county registers "all voters under
the present [previous] law" who are veterans or the lawful descendants
of such, and "all who are of good character and understand the duties
and obligations of citizenship."

In the above line of constitution-framing, whose problem was to steer
between the Scylla of the Fifteenth Amendment and the Charybdis of negro
domination, viz., legally abridge the negro vote so as to insure
Caucasian supremacy at the polls, Mississippi led. The "Mississippi
plan," originating, it is believed, in the brain of Senator James Z.
George, had for its main features a registry tax and an educational
qualification, all adjustable to practical exigencies. Each voter must
pay a poll-tax of at least $2.00 and never to exceed $3.00, producing to
the election overseers satisfactory evidence of having paid such poll
and all other legal taxes. He must be registered "as provided by law"
and "be able to read any section of the constitution of the State, to
understand the same when read to him, or to give a reasonable
interpretation thereof." In municipal elections electors were required
to have "such additional qualifications as might be prescribed by law."

This constitution was attacked as not having been submitted to the
people for ratification and as violating the Act of Congress readmitting
Mississippi; but the State Supreme Court sustained it, and was confirmed
in this by the United States Supreme Court in dealing with the similar
Louisiana constitution.

As a spur to negro education the Mississippi constitution worked well.
The Mississippi negroes who got their names on the voting list rose from
9,036 in 1892 to 16,965 in 1895. This result of the "plan" did not deter
South Carolina from adopting it. Dread of negro domination haunted the
Palmetto State the more in proportion as her white population, led by
the enterprising Benjamin R. Tillman, who became governor and then
senator, got control and set aside the "Bourbons."

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Benjamin R. Tillman.

So early as 1882 South Carolina passe