It will be observed that the foregoing does not disfranchise the negro any more than it does the white man. It simply means that the citizen--black or white--who will not pay all taxes, including the "uniform poll tax of two dollars, to be used in aid of the common school," on or before the first day of February in which he offers to vote, and who is not intelligent enough to read any section of the State constitution, or to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof, shall not be allowed to vote. In other words, he voluntarily disfranchises himself for the period named. In the case of the poll tax, it will be noticed that no "criminal proceedings shall be allowed to enforce its collections." The only penalty is that the delinquent cannot vote. And the registration statistics of the several counties show that there are thousands of whites as well as blacks who thus disqualify themselves. And the fact that the poll tax is a school fund, and that it cannot be otherwise applied, makes this delinquency all the more to be regretted. The new suffrage departure of Mississippi was the subject of much discussion in political and legal circles in Washington during the winter of 1890-91. It was made the subject of violent partisan attacks in the Senate. Senators Hoar, Spooner, Hawley and Edmunds denounced it as in conflict with the amendments of the Federal Constitution clothing the negro with the right of suffrage. Senators Hoar and Edmunds were generally regarded as autocrats on questions of constitutional law, and they brought all the resources at their command in their attacks on the new organic law of the State of Mississippi.