"It has been supposed that this clause was a concession made in the interest of illiterate whites; but whether this be so or not, a general and indiscriminate requirement that all voters shall be able to read and write is, in my judgment, not contrary to the fundamental principles of American government, but in accordance with the principles on which such government must securely rest, namely, the intelligence and virtue of the people." I have heard attributed to a distinguished United States Senator, who would have been glad to have come to a different conclusion, that this constitution demonstrated that Anglo-Saxon ingenuity could accomplish anything; that the provisions of it on the subject of the suffrage was a practical repeal of the fifteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States, and yet the result was effected in such a way that its legality could not be successfully denied. The truth is, without reference to the designs of its authors, that we have under it in the state, to all intents and purposes, an educational qualification pure and simple. More negroes, the American Law Review and the Atlantic Monthly to the contrary notwithstanding, have registered under the alternate or understanding clause than white men. Only 2,672 illiterate, both white and black, had up to 1893 registered under it. I have not seen the figures since. The negroes who have taken advantage of it exceed the white men who have done so in a majority of the counties of the state. It seems that the illiterate white man shrinks from an application to be registered under the "understanding clause;" a refusal to advertise his incapacity, while the negroes as a rule have but little to lose; but another truth is that with scarcely an exception the negroes are thoroughly content with the constitution, and are satisfied to be measured for registration and voting by its standards. The writer, as a member of the convention which adopted the constitution, voted against the "understanding clause," but now that he has seen its practical workings he is prepared to say that the convention did the very best thing that it could have done under the circumstances surrounding it. This "understanding clause" is not without a parallel in the constitutions of other states; as was pointed out by Senator George of this state in the United States Senate, it is no more difficult of honest administration than are the provisions of the constitutions of other states: for example, the constitution of Vermont of 1777 provided that an elector "should be of quiet, peaceable behavior," and the constitution of Connecticut requires at this day that the voter shall sustain "a good moral character," and numerous other like instances that might be mentioned.