to those who would be disqualified under the property or educational tests. Be that as it may, the Southern States are more uneasy about the constitutionality of these provisions than of any others. For instance, at the last two sessions of the legislature of North Carolina bills were introduced to extend the "Grandfather Clause" of that State to 1812 and 1816 respectively. In each case the bill was defeated, the argument against it being that it was unwise to open up the suffrage question again, lest the amendment be brought into court.[67]
A leading thinker on constitutional law has given the unpublished opinion that the "Grandfather Clauses" are in violation of the tenth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States, which says that no State shall grant any title of nobility. His idea is that an order of nobility is created whenever a class of persons is granted exceptional political privileges, that the old soldiers and lineal descendants constitute such a class, and that the title of nobility is "Elector," whether expressed or not.
If the "Grandfather Clause" should be declared unconstitutional on the ground just suggested or on any other ground, the next question would be whether that would nullify the other sections of the suffrage laws, such as the educational and property tests. This depends upon whether the different sections of the laws are separable, whether the legislature or the people would have adopted the educational and property tests, etc., if they had thought the "Grandfather Clause" unenforceable.[68] North Carolina prepared for just such a contingency by inserting the following section in its Suffrage Amendment: "That this
