The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-10
The @lessengtr.
WHITE RADICALS AND A CLEAR
NOTE OF REVOLT.

The Messenger has referred before to
the Willingness OF the negro voters to
be used as cats paw to pull the cheS-
nuts out of the fire for the white rad
ical monkies. For thirty odd years the
submission has been complete. Presi-
dent Booker Washington, the able col
ored president Of an Alabama college
for his race, thinks he sees signs OF a
breaking away from the servility OF his
race from the old radical white gang
cades for their own mean, selfish ends.
We doubt the signs. The negroes In
North Carolina have been extreme In
their submission to the white bosses,
and nave hurrahed for the demagogues
in every campaign, and never 30 much
as when the bosses abused and WILL
fed the white men who gave employ
ment to the negro men and mn
That they will show more ~independ-
ence in the future, more OF maniinesS
and character, n strive to magnify
their privileges as freemen is to be
seen. We would be glad to see them
approaching opportunities and the self
sacrificing b~enevolences of the demo-
Gratis in their behalf, taxing them
selves for thirty years. and In their
poverty, to give educational advantages
to the negro children. 1t would indeed
he an auspicious event in the history
ro--o ~~nn IN tho Cnvrfh n fhQv
should cease to follow h blind lead
ership Of demagogues who are seeking
Office, and assert their manhood n
independence by striving to develop
their civic rights and to show their ap-
probation Of privilege and responsible
Ity by proving themselves worthy of
the right of suffrage n civic duties.
Let the negroes continue to
be educated and improved II possible
until they show by their works that
they are worthy of American citizen
ship. No man Of any color who is
practically owned by a party boss is fit
to exercise the right of the ballot The
educational test for all new voters
must be introduced as soon as posi-
BILE in every southern state. If the
whites will not avail themselves Of ed
vocational privileges and give their
sons schooling, let the d%elinquents and
ignoramuses be not clothed with the
high duties and powers of electors.
President Washington, possibly the
foremost man of his race in the south,
says that the indications are favorable
for an early breaking up on political
lines. I do not believe that politics in
the south will be divided on rae lines
much longer" We wish we could see
good signs pointing this a We
would like to see the more intelligent
colored voters manifesting something
of the spirit and manliness of freemen
clothed with the high power and re-
sponsibility of the franchise.
There is some sign here and there
in North Carolina that the intelligent
blacks are thinking of their servility to
the white fo%urishers n h horn
tooters of the white annex or contin-
gent. There is nothing truer as to pol
itics in North Carolina than the state
ment, that if there had been no fran
chise for the negroes there would have
been no republican party in the state.
The whites who lined the radikils" in
the ~nOrth-the enemies of the south
would have stood by the southern
whites in the dark days of pain and
doubt, of robbery n oppression, and
there would have been all through the
years but one united. strong. %invinci-
BILE democratic party in all southland.
But the "nigger was in the wood pile"
and the hungry, avariciOus, time-serv-
ing, unpatriotic white element saw
their opportunity, that there was to be
a wide distribution of official pap and
servient fellows who loved grub bet
ter than character, and money better
than race or state or party. and like
a pack of pursuing dogs they opened
after spoils of the party that had raw
aged and despoiled the south by a war
built upon jealousy, hatred Inc havoc.
This started the "radikil party in this
state and in the south.
We have never known but one man
in thirty-two years who was a gentle
man or real, decided character who
ever united with the deserving, plum
dering whites who did not seek office
and keep on seeking.
The negro votes AVE constituted the
sole power that made it possible for
these Dugald Dalgettys and moss-rid-
ers to get office without them. we re-
peat, there would have been no sign OF
a republican party in North Carolina.
The negroes rallied to the black flag
and were led captive at the will of the
unworthy, predatory white deserters
n enemies of the white people and of
the south, for such they have proved
themselves to be for three decades of