Speech #540103187

The speech of the Senator from Texas would seem to me to be a sort of apotheosis of ignorance. The Senator has argued that we ought not to undertake to require the immigrants into this country who are capable of reading and writing to learn to read and write before they come here. The Senator denounces this and waxes eloquent over it. at the very same time that his own State and the State of Mississippi have adopted an intelligence clause to keep the negro from voting. Mr. President it seems to me that the Senator ought to be willing that we should apply to immigrants coming into this country the simple test which the people of his State apply to keep ignorant negroes. as he would call them. from the ballot box. If the State of Texas is authorized in making that requirement as a condition of suffrage. it seems to me that the people of the United States have a perfect right to make it a condition of the admission of immigrants to enjoy the citizenship of this country.