National Republican., 1882-09-19
North Carolina's Struggle.

nation ofwhich they had no more power
than the Irish tenantry have in the Sc
lection of the English constabulary. The
right of self.government in county mat
ters was taken away from them on the
ground that some of the Eastern coun-
ties contained negro majorities, and that
it was better that the counties under
white dominion should be deprived of
their liberties than that negroes should
retain theirs. This is distinctive
Bourbon doctrine. Better that ninety
and nine white men should be slaves
than that one negro should be free.
Following is clear statement of the
existing system:
The justices of the peace for the whole State are
appointed by the majority of the legislature.
These justices are constituted the electors who
choose the county commissioners from their own
number. These county commissioners appoint all
the poll holders, school commissioners, and other
inferior officers, aud ais levy all taxes and con-
troll all disbursements of the county funds The
result ofthis system is, that county may be gov
erned directly against the Will of majority of its
citizens and the citizen who is dissatisfied with
his county or township government can secure a
change only by overturning the whole State ad-
mlD1StTutlOn. III Olncr WOrus, u county nuYlUB
ten thousand Republican majority can never be
under the control of Republican officials unless
there is also Republican majority in the legsla-
ture.
There are eleUen of these counties in
Eastern North Carolina containing negro
maiorities. If all the negroes had voted
and had voted for negroes, andif all their
votes had been counted as they were
cast, of course there would have been
negro rule in these eleven counties. This
would have violated no law nor infringed
upon anybody's rights. But the negroes
did not use their majorities in any such
way. We have before us statement
of the affairs of Halifax and North
ampton Counties during the period
from 1868 to 1874. In Northampton
County, where the colored population
was in 1870 in majority of 2,271, there
were seventy-eight justices of the peace
elected. OF these forty-six were Demo.
y . -t'uio hepubiIcaris, Dut two
were negroes. In Halifax County, with
n colored majority of $500 in the whole
population, no negro was ever elected a
magistrate. These two counties are fair
representatives of the eleven having
black majorities.
But there are eighty-seven counties in
the whole State. Seventy-six white
counties are enslaved to small State
ring, and robbed of all share in their
own affairs under the false pre-
tense that this was the only
way to protect the white minorities
in the remaining eleven counties from
negro rule. We say false pretense be-
cause the black voters did not put men of
their own race in control. They did put
good many white Republicans in office,
but even the North Carolina Bourbons
have not yet openly declared that this is
a white Democrats government, or that
white Republican is not white man.
What, then, did prompt the Bourbons
to abolish voting on county home affairs
Why, plainly in order to render entirely
nugatory the voting of Republicans on
State and National affairs. Thus: The
appointment of poll-holders election
oiiicers) could not be left to magistrates
-ch osen by the people, because in Repub-
lican counties there would be Republican
magistrates TO appoint them. Poll-hold-
ers thus appointed would count the votes
cast for Republican candidates as well as
those cast for their opponents. This
would never do, because the Bourbons
would not dare to stuff in votes enough
in their counties to overcome the legiti-
mate Republican maiorities of the East
1t was this difficulty which the Bourbons
removed by abolishing the peoples
rights. They struck down seventy-six
white counties in order to reach eleven
black counties having white govern
ments. Now, when State and National
elections are held the citizen puts his
ballot into that great dark void where
Bourbonism decides on which side it
shall be counted.
The Bourbon caucus in the legislature
dictates who shall be the justices of the
peace in every one of the eighty-seven
counties. OF course those men only can
be chosen who will obey their creators.
The justices of each county then choose
for that county three county commits
sioners from their own number, being
the three to whose election they had
bound themselves to the caucus of the
legislature. These county commissioners
are, of course, the picked men of the
Bourbon crowd. They may be men who
could not get hundred votes from their
fellow-citizens. Those over whom they
rule have to submit just as convicts in a
penitentiary are obliged to submit to
whatever turnkey is appointed to insure
their confinement.
The county commissioners designate
every pair of hands which are to handle
ballots and ballot-boxes. They may be
said to guide the very pens which are to
make the election returns. The admitted
swindle in Halifax County in 1880 shows
how abjectly these political slaves can
serve their masters. 1t was to obtain
possession Of the election mill, and to so
adjust it that it would yield Bourbon re-
turns no matter how many Republican
votes went into tho hopper, that the out
rage of 1874 was committed by which
Bourbons and negroes were alike made
political slaves Of small and arrogant
ring at the State capital.
The parents of white children, in