Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-02-21
Registration.

| r.s Registration.
| We have frequently been asked by those
who have heretofore neglected to register
for one cause and another, how that right
can now be exercised. We are glad to
know that there does exist interest In
this matter While there are but few
negroes unregistered in the State, and
many fraudulently SO, there are thousands
of white men entirely competent, under the
Reconstruction acts, who have not regis
| tered.
| In the Plan of Organization adopted by
| the Conservative Convention, one of the
duties desired of county committees was to
ascertain, as far as possible, all such as have
not availed themselves of the privilege, and
induce them to register And this is q
most important matter. We have no doubt
there are enough white men in the State,
in all respects eligible under the acts OF
Congress, whose names are not on the regis
tration lists, to hold q balance of power
between the whites and the negroes and
their ignoble confriers, and upon their
action will doubtless hang the result in the
State.
There will be no excuse for these men
election, for it is made imperative upon the
Boards of Registration to revise their lists
and permit the registration of such as have
not heretofore done so. Section seventh
of the final Supplementary Reconstruction
Act reads rs follows
I,.d be il further enacted, That the time for
completing the original registration provided for
in said act may, in the discretion of the COM
mander of any district, be extended to the LIST day
of October 1867; and the boards Of It gistratiOn
shall have power, and it shall be their duty,
commencing fourteen days previous to any etec-
ton lt7adeT said act, and upon reasonable public
notice of the time and place thereof, to revise for
a period Of three days the registration lists and
upon being satisfied that any person not entitled
thereto has been registered to strike the name of
such person from the list. And such board shall
Also during the same period, add to such registry
the names OF all persons who at that time pos
sesses the qualifications required by said act who
have not been already registered, and no person
shall at any time be entitled TO be registered or to
vote by reason of any executive pardon or am
nesty for any act or thing which, without such
pardon or amnesty, would disqualify him from
registration or voting.
It will thus be seen that fourteen days
prior to any election under the Reconstruct
ton Act, the registration lists must he open
for revision for the space of three days.
AS due notice of the time and place must
be given, every qualified person will have
ample opportunity for entering his namc
upon the registry lists.
We hardly deem it necessary to urge
upon our citizens the overpowering neces-
sity of performing this duty Thousands
of your fellow citizens have been disfran-
chised and are denied voice in questions
which affect their property and their lives
for 10 other fault than for performing their
duty faithfully in civil and military posi-
tons to which your partiality and the
necessities of the State called them. Tens
of thousands of ignorant and debased ne
groes have been armed with the ballot to
work out tue political and social ruin of
this section. Hundreds of ignoble adven-
ticians at home, are using these enfranchised
blacks for their own advancement and the
certain destruction of the country. It rests
with The white men of North Carolina, not
to check the downward pro
gross of affairs. They must meet it, and that
boldly too. Do not think to avoid the re-
sponsibihties of defeat by failing to regis
ter. The consequences of such q course
must bring a failure, which will oyerwhelm
as well the non-actor IS the active partici-
pant. There can be no halfway ground.
North Carolina and the other Southern
States must be controlled by white men or
by negroes, and he who does not actively
cooperate with his own race or color in the
struggle must stand or fall with that of the
negro. The issue is too important, the
stakes too high. failure too fatal, to bear
with negative friends. He who is not with
us is against US.