The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922 Page: 42
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42 The Southwestern, Historical Quarterly
dians who were taxed to vote, the committee had considered a
similar provision because there were many Indians living in Texas
who were "intelligent men and good citizens." However, at Rusk's
suggestion the motion to strike out "not taxed" was withdrawn,
for the term was used in the United States constitution, and he
desired to avoid "all conflicting jurisdiction."
The delegates from the west wished to strike out "white," as
they believed the committee intended by that to exclude the Mex-
icans. H. L. Kinney said that this would be injurious to those
people, to ourselves, and to the "magnanimous character which the
Americans have ever possessed." Besides, it would greatly de-
crease their representation. There were objections raised to giving
the Mexican Indians an equality of "rights and privileges" with
the, European races, but Runnels said that by no "inference or
construction" could the Mexicans be excluded, if, as by the courts
of the United States, all except Africans and their descendants
were considered white. Nevertheless, a majority of the convention
thought that, if the word was retained, the right of many citizens
would be abridged by the construction of arbitrary election judges,
so it was struck out.45
On July 23, when the convention resolved itself into a com-
mittee of the whole for further consideration of the basis of rep-
resentation, J. M. Lewis of Montgomery county proposed to amend
section thirty by striking out "according to the qualified electors"
and inserting "free white population" or "free population," for
otherwise the counties on the western frontier and those contain-
ing the cities and the large plantations "would have a much larger
representation than the rest of the state." In offering this amend-
ment, he said:
. . . In the city of Galveston, according to the general pop-
ulation, there is certainly a greater number of electors than in
any of the counties, and in some of the planting counties the pro-
portion of the electors to, the general population will be much
greater than in some of the rest of the counties; for there, as in
the cities, you find an unsettled population, a great number of
persons without families. In the cities there is a large number
of clerks and adventurers, also without families. If then you
make electors the basis of representation, you will be unjust to
this large population. . . . In planting counties the propor-
4"Jo'rnal of the Convention, 156-159.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, July 1921 - April, 1922, periodical, 1922; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101082/m1/48/?rotate=270: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.