Evening star., 1898-10-31
This Is where the great majority Of

f166 This Is where the great ma 10T7ty OF
the voters are colored.
The plain meaning Of this, as fnteFprefed
by Governor Russell and other prominent
men, and admitted by many leading demo-
Gratis. Is that If they shall have enough ma
1orfty in the legislature to override the gov
ernors veto they will pass an election law
modelled after that of Mississippi, and 1t
Is worthy of note that the Supreme Court
OF the United States has rendered jacf-
sion sustaining its validity. The law de-
bars all flliterate voters and the Supreme
Court held that as 1t applies to whites as
well as blacks 1t is constitutional.
Right of the states.
A leading democrat, in speaking of the
decision on the Mississippi law said: This
means that the state has the right to inn
pose an educational restriction. among other
qualifications, and the decision opens the
way to an improved condition in the local
government of many southern communities
for 1t will not only bring about the relief
from peculiar and unjust system of fran
chlse, but will prove an educational stimu-
liant.
AT every election held in the south since
the war 1t has been the regular order for
the Intelligent vote to be killed by the VI
cious vote The man of property and inf1u-
ence, who has standing in his community,
VINO has an interest in good local govern
ment and who drops in the ballot of safe
and conservative citizen has always done
SO with i. consciousness that right along
trifing, iliterate character, who cannot
read the ballot in his hand. who is perhaps
just out of the penitentiary or off the chain
gang, yet whose vote annuls the one that
went before.
The south has endured t1is condition of
affairs so long that 1t Gds ceased to be
matter of comment ana has been accepted
as q matter of fact. Protests ceased years
ago, because 1t was found protests were
vain. But this decision of the Supreme
Court shows that there is relief ahead If
our people desire to secure ii in the way
Indicated.
"PeE Leg Willinms" Act.
As will be inferred, the present position of
the democratic managers seems to be that
they want to get rid OF the negro and his
influence, but, strange as it may appear,
there is law on the statute books of North
Carolina passed by a democratic legisla-
ture, which was aimed to keep colored la
borers in the state. This law is known
the Peg Leg Williams act, and its pas
sage was the outcome of a visit made TO
North Carolina in 1889 and 80 by man
named Williams Ia one-legged mani, who
induced a large number OF The negroes TO
go 10 states farther south, where a better
nent of their condition was promised. The
democrats had control of the legislature
which met during this exodus, IL
called, and among the first laws enacted
was one aimed directly at Peg Leg VIII
liams," and which declared that no one
should carry the business of an emf
grant agent in the state without having
first obtained a license therefor from the
state treasurer; that the term "emigrant
agent meant any person engaged in hiring
laborers in North Carolina to be employed
beyond the limits of the same; that the fee
for a license should be one thousand dollars
and should be good only in the county in
which the agent operated; that II violation
of the law would subject the offender. upon
conviction, to a fine of not less than five
hundred and not more than five Thousand
dollars, or Imprisonment in the county jail
not less than four months in the state
prison a hard labor not exceeding two years
for each and every offense, within the dis
cretion Of the court. A section OF the act
provided that the law should especially APP
ply to what is generally understood 10 be
eastern North Carolina. And thus 1t APP
pears that in 1891 the democratic leaders
invoked the majesty Of the law to keep
within the state something against which il
row processes to view with horror. J.T.H.