Wilmington journal., 1876-08-18
THE CONVENTION AND COLOR
LRNE

the measures adopted for it's increase.
The first change made by the proposed
to this Article calls our
to the position taken by tho !
Convention upon what is called the
''col0r line." The second section of
this article reads as follows:
Sec. 2. The General Assembly at it's
first session under this Constitution,
shall provide by taxation and other |
wise for general aud uniform system |
of Public Schools. wherein tuition |
shall be free of charge to all children |
of the State between the ages of six |
aud twenty-one years.
The amendments now pending be
fore the people for ratification propose
to add to this section these words
Aud the children of the white race
and the children OF the colored race
shall be Taught in separate public
schools, hnt there shall be no discrim-
ination made in favor of or to the pre-
ludlce OF either race"
These amendments propose also to
add to the fourteenth article of the
Constitution, a liz W section, as follows:
Sec. 7. All marriages between
white person and a negro, or between
u white person and a person OF negro
| descent to the third generation inclu-
sive, are hereby forever prohibited.
It will be seen from these amend
menta, therefore, that the Convention.
| Controlled as it was by Democrats,
placed itself squarely upon the color
line, aud declared i'll unmistakab'e
terms that the two races must be kept
separate and distinct. Was this right
or was it wrong? Ought the law to
permit white children and negro chill
dren to sit side by side at school, upon
| terms of perfect social equality :?
| Ought marriages between whites and
blacks to be perm tied by the law If
so, let the amendments be voted down.
and let the Candy Constitution remain
as it is. If, however, these things be
shocking to the sentiment and feeling
of the white race, let the amendments
efficient educational system in North
Oarolina-any public educational sys-
tenn, we mean, that will be in reach OF
the great mass of the white children in
the State-so long as under the organic
law of the State 1T is possible to force
white children and black children to
associate together upon terms of equal
ity. White men will not send their
boys to school with negro boys. AS
to sending their daughters to such
schools, the land will run with blood
, before they will do it. They cannot
be forced to do so even at the point of
, the bayonet. White men everywhere,
certainly Southern white men regard
themselves as belonging to a race
different from and superior to the
negro race, and so believing they nat
: urally find themselves in the ranks of
> the Democratic party. The Demo
cratic party is the white mans party,
and rightly so too, for while it seeks to
do no injury to the negro, 1t is almost
, entirely composed of white men. On
the other hand, the Radical party is
, composed in almost equal degree of
, negroes. "Birds of a feather will
flock together" 1t is but natural fOl
, white men to go together, and it Ii
natural for negroes to do so, and those
. who think themselves upon an equality
with the negroes.
the few white men in the Radical
f party are obliged to yield to the de-
mands for whatever equality their more
numerous negro allies may make upon
them. The Convention that frame
the Candy Constitution passed an ordi
nance under which a white man named
: hnd wife. Radical Governor Holden
. made a negro, named Hood, Assistant
| Superintendent of Public instruction
The last Radical Congressional Con
!, vention in this District by forma
+ resolutions declared itself in favor
= of sending children to school with
out regard to race or color
: The white delegates to that Con
| | vention ate at the same table at the
same time and from the same dishes
! with the negro delegates. In Jones
county under radical rule we have the
revolving spectacle of public auctions
at which negroes bid off white people.
Negro magistrates and negro consta.
bles, negro Legislators, and even negro
| Inbk re
among negro constituencies.
But it needs no argument to prove
the practices and the precepts, the ten
denotes ind the teachings of the Radi-
cal party on this question. There is
not Radical newspaper, there will not
be Radical candidate or a Radical
speaker in North Carolina who will
dare say that negro men and negro
women are inferior to white men and
white women save in the matter of
education-a temporary inferiority be-
cause of white mastership and one that
may be overcome by a few years study
at school. They will none of them dare
assert that the negro is not the equal
of the white man in any rexpect save
in such matters as grow out of educa-
ton. The reason of all this is plain
the small white minority must obey
the large negro majority. That is the
whole case, but it is no mitigation
for the conduct of white men who
join that party. They all know fall
we'll before they make the bargain
what the terms ara.
Do you believe that the Convention