The state chronicle., 1892-08-24
NEGRO ADVOCACY OF THE FORCE

|
Thomas Fortune, has letter in Sundays
New York Herald, which should be care
fully read and considered by the white
people of the South. The spirit of the
letter is one of decided hostility to South
ern whites, and, being conceived in this
spirit, it was not surprising that the pre-
judce of the author should give false
coloring to what he wrote. This extract
is from the first paragraph Of the letter:
''The governments of the Southern
States passed out of the hands of those
who had fought to save the Union into
the hands of those who had fought to
destroy it,
A lament that negroes and carpet
baggers were ever driven from power in
the South; complaint because the
North did not, at the point of the bay
onet, pe1petuate the governments that
| were such curse to our people in 1868.
Again, as if rebuking republicans, it is
| asked: "What have been the fruits Of
home rule and white supremacy in the
South? And, continues the letter, ''we
have had sixteen years of these
and it ought to he an easy mat
ter to reacn an estimate of tue re-
suit" 1t is au easy matt or to show what
, sixteen years of white government in the
South has accomplished. Inc grand re-
suits are before the world, but T.
Thomas Fortune can see nothing that
will compensate for the. overthrow of
negro domination in the Southern States.
He would restore that domination, and
gives as his reason that if the black free
man ''undertakes to vote he is shot; if
strikes white maa he is shot; If he
looks at white woman he is shot; if
he is a w-abiding citizen, attending to
his own affairs and accommodating a COM
petence, he becomes dangerous and is
shot There is small chance of escape
for him, whether he be bad or good,
lazy or industrious"
Such an opinion, written down and
circulated among the negroes, is cscu-
5 lated to excite to acts of violence, foreign
= to them, when let alone by the agitator.
Ibis negro Fortune, who does not
q hesitate to lie to serve his v;udictive pur-
, pose, arraigns tbo press of the South in
i these works:
e 81 make the distinct charge that the en-
f tire press service of the South is co1ldp
! and vicious; that it is manipulated alway
in the interest of the mob, and that the
" correct reports of race collisions neve
S reach the North aud West"
d And now follows what the black ma
ligner of the white people of the Soutf
wishes to do
"Will there be a race war? Why
. there is race war to the knife now, bu
,. the 'home rulers" are doing most of tn
e. butchery. ''There is point at whicl
m patience ceases to be virtue" and q
which desperate men, murdered AM
robbed, will draw the line and defen'
g themselves. They are human, althoug
as treated as if they were brutes. 1T is
,k condition and not a theory that confront
CO u.s." 1t contains as many elements of il
Justice and of menance to the nation,
ne peace and dignity and honor as the cor
e. dition of slavery. The war amendment
an are dead letters in most essential in ever
# Southern State. 1t is the duty of the n,
ton to insist that every power in th
Us constitution is used to give force and e
feet to these amendments, the just fru
of bloody and costly war
tie The power invoked by Harrison, an
OF the negro agitators at his back, is th
ne force bill. This is the agent by whic
OF it is hoped to revive the 'war ament
en- ments," and Africanize the South agail
H. In North Carolina the ''war ament
r. ments" are to be enforced to substitut
IN for an honest administration of affair
nd the carnival of political devilry witnes
Id ed here when negroes and carpet ba
lys gers and native born traitors were votir
tor away the credit and honor of the Stat
we The political issues which confront Il
To- voters of the South are very grave Th
tic address themselves to the serious consi
OF Grafton of every white voter, and enjo
the united effort of us all in defense
the ballot-the very muniment Of cons
lou tutional government.
ich -..>
the THE taxpayers of the State shou
Ks not forget that with republican succ,
nix will come the question of taxing them
re pay over $40, 100000 of the special t
the bonds. Is it not better to decide tt