The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-12-24

We have not space to copy what the
witnesses said and Mr.. Campbell's
satisfactory and appropriate comments,
but we wish to write a few words a. to
one witness. Rev. "A. D. Belts, D. D.,
we have known well since about 1859.
He ds an a1umnus OF the University Of
North Carolina, and is one OF the most
religious men we nav a the pleasure
of knowing. He is without guile, or
hypocrisy, or evil speech. He Is as IN
capable OF lying or deliberately mis-
representing as any man we ever
knew. General Lee was so greatly I'm
pressed in the war with the devotion,
fidelity and purity of this good man,
that he spoke of him as that model
chaplain God pity the man and par
lon him who would speak evil OF such
a true disciple of the crucified and risen
Lord! We believe it may be said OF
DIR. Belts what is recorded of Stephen,
the proto-martyr, he is "a man full of
faith, and Of the Holy Ghost" DR..
Belts says:
Il am sorry to say that the young
man said it, I remember it well, for it
hurt me to think that a man in so high
a position hould so SANDER some of
the best people in the state"
Any man who knows the witness will
know how very potential that state
ment is. MI. Campbell makes refer
ence to Buffers affidavits, and asks,
and it is particularly pertinent:
'tNow as to the affidavits secured by
Senator Buffers private secretary.
Why did not the senator nav his
friends swear that he had not used the
words of The Argonaut charged him
with using? Why did he not use the
word outrages as was charged instead
of rape and 'nameless Outrages' which
were not charged? The reason is pat
ent-still at his old game of evasion.
1.-The senator's witnesses could easily
have been honest in their testimony.
We have no doubt that some of them
were, for some men who signed these
affidavits were of unimpeachable char
acter, others of them dodge the issue;
showing plainly that they did lear
Senator Butler say what we charged
him with, while some of them undoubt-
Gully III lllCy "S4S oOhCO W
do so, without knowing or caring what
they were signing or swearing to-"
There is one other point not TO be
overlooked, for it is cumulative and
important. Out of Buffers own mouth
he has been already condemned, but
the following will drive the nails in his
political coffin farther in and clinch
them inside. He has published the fol-
lowing in his own organ with the mar
vellous misnomer. He calls it The
Caucasian: it should he The African
Agrarian. Here it is, and it is his own
| version of what he said at Rocky
| Mount:
'FThat the class Of citizens, if there
| were SUCH, either white or black, win
attempted to stir up race prejudice for
the purpose of calling attention from
and defeating great reforms
that concern the welfare of nine-tenths
! of our population, were the worst and
most dangerous element of society,""
He calls the people who are urging a
| White Mans government-for practi-
! cally that is VIA his trace prejudice
| reference really means-''the worst and
most dangerous elements of society,"
He could hardly put it stronger. These
genuine Anglo-Saxons and descendants
of the Aryans, are as n dan
gerous as the negro convicts in the
p~enitentiary, according to his graceless
sIanderer. But this is. no all from
Butler. In a speech at Roxboro, as
given in The Argonaut of the 10th inst,
Butler said this:
"Any man who would endeavOr to
/ set the white man against the black
by raising the cry of rape in order to
side-track THE people, was none too
Igood to procure such crimes to be COM
mitted."
There it is even bolder and broader
in his devilish accusation of democrats.
Having in his minds eye the men who
are rallying the democrats around the
standard of a White Mans party, he
denounces them, one and all, as none
too good to procure"-mark that-"to
procure such crimes to he committed >
What is eaner more false? The cor
rupt slanderer? But there is one more
confirming, damning passage to be CIV
en- from this trucuTent defamer. The
Argonaut quotes from an editorial OF
Butler in his African Agrarian, Of the
Goth of September-a dirty sheet we
never handle even with tongs-as fol-
lows:
1.-The awful crime Of raj the con-
domination of which should be prompt
ed by sincere motives and honest pur-
poses, is used in a hypocritical man
ner for base and par
tisan ends, and all the time they are
condemning the nature of the crime
BABY'S SMOOTH, FAIR SKIN