d a registration act which, amended
in 1893 and 1894, compelled registration some four months before
ordinary elections and required registry certificates to be produced at
the polls. Other laws made the road to the ballot-box a labyrinth
wherein not only most negroes but some whites were lost. The multiple
ballot-boxes alone were a Chinese puzzle. This act was attacked as
repugnant to the State and to the federal constitution. On May 8, 1895,
Judge Goff of the United States Circuit Court declared it
unconstitutional and enjoined the State from taking further action under
it. But in June the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Goff and
dissolved the injunction, leaving the way open for a convention.

The convention met on September 10th and adjourned on December 4, 1895.
By the new constitution the Mississippi plan was to be followed until
January 1, 1898. Any male citizen could be registered who was able to
read a section of the constitution or to satisfy the election officers
that he understood it when read to him. Those thus registered were to
remain voters for life. After the date named applicants for registry
must be able both to read and to write any section of the constitution
or to show tax-receipts for poll-tax and for taxes on at least $300
worth of property. The property and the intelligence qualification each
met with strenuous opposition, but it was thought that neither alone
would serve the purpose.

The Louisiana constitution of 1898, in place of the Mississippi
"understanding" clause or the Alabama "good character" clause, enacted
the celebrated "grandfather" clause. The would-be voter must be able to
read and write English or his native tongue, or own property assessed at
$300 or more; but any citizen who was a voter on January I, 1867, or his
son or his grandson, or any person naturalized prior to January 1, 1898,
if applying for registration before September 1, 1898, might vote,
notwithstanding both illiteracy and poverty. Separate registration lists
were provided for whites and blacks, and a longer term of residence
required in State, county, parish, and precinct before voting than by
the constitution of 1879.

North Carolina adopted her suffrage amendment in 1900. It lengthened the
term of residence before registration and enacted both educational
qualification and prepayment of poll-tax, only exempting from this tax
those entitled to vote January 1, 1867. In 1902 Virginia adopted an
instrume