Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-10-01
THE COnVENTION-RE FOR
* THE EAST.

We publish eIs0Wnefe very sensi-
Bile article from the Albemarle Times
in regard to the condition of the large
negro counties of the State.
just before the election of delegates
to the Convention We had occasion TO
refer to this subject, which we reprint
herewith. hoping it will claim the at
tention O; the delegates in the Con-
vention who have this matter under
special consideration. We ask some
relief at the hands of our friends:
There are two propositions that can-
not be denied. The first is that no
trust Of so important character as
that involved in the government of a
free and intelligent people ought to be
confded to the hands of ignorant or
corrupt men. The second proposition
is that men of African birth o. descent
are as . race both corrupt and igno-
rant. Attempt to gloss it over, as the
most enthusiastic admirer of the negro
may, he cannot escape the palpable
fact that as race the negro is lacking
not only in mental but in moral edu-
cation. It is useless for our purpose
this morning to enquire into its causes,
it is sufficient that such is the fact.
This being SO, 1t needed not expert
ence to teach the folly of placing the
county governments in the eastern
portion of our State, where the negroes
most do congregate, in their hands.
There never was and never could be
any doubt "a to the result Fraud and
extravaganza follow ignorance and
corruption as surely as night follows
day.
In consequence of this immutable
law, the people, the intelligent tax
paying portion of the people, in other
words the white people of very many
of our eastern counties are laboring
under an intolsrable grievance. Their
county governments are in the hands
of men elected by tho ignorant. the
corrupt. the non-tax paying portion of
the population, in other words our
county governments are in the hands
of men put in Office by the negroes.
Gan this grievance be remedied and
can the county governments be placed
in the hands of men for whose intelli-
genoe and for whose integrity there
will be ample and abundant guaran-
tees? It can and the remedy is no
simply TO return to the old paths, the
old time-honored paths We used to fol-
low in North Carolins before the curse
of Reconstruction blighhted our fair
land. In the olden time when North
Csrolinians lived under Constitution
made by their freely chosen delegates
in lawful convention duly assembled,
the Legislature selected the magis-
trates and the magistrates conducted
the affairs of the counties. And was
there evee such q body of men IS the
magistrates of North Carolina? Who
then heard of ignorance in county gov
ernments and corruption in the expen-
diture OF their rsvenuesP Then Thomas
Rufin, the man whose judicial opin
ions had been quoted with honor and
with appreciation in the most exalted
tribunals of public justice in foreign
countries, thought it no degradation TO
resign the office of Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of North Carolina,
and become q magistrate in the county
of Alamance. Willie P. Nangum, who
occupied possibly a more prominent
position in the United States Senate
in its palmiest days, in the days when
Clay. Calhoun and Webster, made
that body so illustrious, and who held
that position for longer time than
| ev II did before or since any man from
North Carolina, hesitated not to be-
come q magistrate in the county of
! Orange. George e. Badger, too, he
who had adorned the bench of the
Superior Court of our State, and
whose gigantic intellect and whose
rare requirements placed him in the
front rank wherever he appeared, no
| matter whether at the bar, ON the
| bench or in thu Federal Senate, or in
| the Federal Cabinet, felt when he was
acting as magistrate for the county
Of Wake that he was performing the
| highest duty that could devolve upon
any North Carolinian. Henry T.
CLARK, than whom o purer patriot or
better man never honored the Office of
Governor of North Carolina, for many
years earnestly devoted himself, with
out reward or the hope Of reward, to
the performance of the duties of a
magistrate of Edgecombe. Surely the
| system that led to the selection, as
magistrates of such men as these and
the hundreds of others We could name
among the living and the dead, within
our recollection, was o system far pref
cradle to the one that gives us as mag
istrates, the negroes Jos. @. Hill, An
thony Howe and W. 81. Moore
Which is to be preferred, the sys-
tenn that gives us as q magistrate
negro 80 stepped in ignorance and su-
perstition as TO order q prisoner
charged With murder to be taken from
Jail. carried to the dead body of the
murdered man and forced to touch it
in order to test his guilt, believing
that if the prisoner was guilty and
should touch the dead body, the &C
cusing blood would gush from its
veins, or is that system to be preferred
that give US as magistrates such men
as Ruffn, Mangum, Badger and
Clark?
Let us then return to the old paths
and as soon rs the Convention shall
assemble, let the Constitution be
changed SO that the magistrates shall
once moro be elected by the Legisla-
! ture and when so eIecked Let them, ha