The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-28

JAAA%~r oAA ~ oil LIke elC&AApLA- Il
No danger of negro domination?
What is meant by negro domination?
Is is asserted that there is no danger
OF 1t a there are so many white
men in this department of the city
government and h county govern |
ment, n in that department, and the |
other department-and that the white
officials are in the majority. Is it sup |
posed that the people Of North Caro- |
lima are such fools a to accept that |
as conclusive evidence that there is
no negro domination in Wilmington?
Do not the negroes hold a large part |
of the offices themselves, and elect
nearly all those who hold the rest?
Who dominates" any corporation or
business, the agents appointed to car
ry it on, or the owners who select
them. 1t is the merest trifling with
words, and is an aggravated insult to
common intelligence to offer UGH a
plea as an answer to the charge of ne
gro domination, and it is doubly so
when this minati is directed and
controlled by the very men who deny
its existence while reaping it's fruits.
Nobody has ever asserted. or pre-
END hat the negroes hold all the
offices, or that they personally rule
over the white people. Such a state
of things would be impossible any
where, but that by their votes the ad-
ministration of public affairs is COM
mitted to the hands of negroes and
their allies cannot be disputed, and
that in such hands public affairs AN
not be safely administered has been
thoroughly proven wherever the ex-
pertinent has been tried. If anything
has been demonstrated by experience
it is that the negro is not competent
to participate in the government of
white people, and, therefore, ought not
to be allowed to do so. 1t is a notOri-
| 0IlS fact tina he is not allowed TO do
so, and has never been allowed to dc
so in the northern states, and I have
been told a hundred times by northern
men, who were republicans, and par
ticularly within the last ninety days
by one holding high office in a north
.ern state, that they would not permit
it in their section of the cOuntry and
these men expressed indignant aston
iShment at the condition of things in
eastern North Carolina, not unmingled
with a f1avor of contempt for our peo-
pie for submitting to it. Even if the
effect of office-holding by negroes was
the opposite of hat it is-even if it
improved the tanners and stimulated
the self-reSpect of the race generally,
it would still be an insufferable evil in
this country. But when we have seen
with our eyes and know it to be true
that the mere announcement of a re-
publican victory at the polls, with the
consequent hope and expectation of
seeing some of their color in office,
produces an immediate and marked
change in their bearing towards the
white people, and develops an insOlent
and aggressive spirit which continually
increases until, as at the present time,
they organize and arm themselves and
speak defiantly of their determination
to retain such offices as they now
have, and get more in the future-then
negro office-holding ought at once, and
forever to be brought to an end, and
when it is brought to an end there will
also be an end to the office-holding of
their white allies, and decent govern
ment will be restored. You may de-
wise ten thousand remedies and think
they will be effective, but I tell you,
after considering this subject for
years, that there is but one-it includes
possible for a negro ever to hold office
in this state. They, and they alone,
have made the issue. From the day
when they were transformed into
American citizens to this hour, unlike
any other portion of the American
people, they have in all matters of
public concern acted, not as individu-
ais, or even as citizens of a locality,
but solely, and persistently, and unit
eddy, as a race. They drew the color
line from the beginning, and ave
stood on it SteadfaStly to this hour. l
believe it was PrOvidential, and thank
God for it, because it will permanently
settle the relations between the races,
which could not have been settled if
they had acted differently. l hope and
pray it may be settled peacefully, but
it must be settled, for we are now
menaced not only with a continuation
Of the negro domination under which
we live, but with the influx Of num-
berless thousands of negroes from the
other states who already regard east
ern North Carolina as a negro para
disc, to which they will flock in case
this election goes in their favor.
Oh! no, there is no danger of negro
domination-none whatever-it is a
democratic liza cruel Islander upon
the %virtuous, honorable, heightened,
and beneficent local government under
which we are now sweetly and calmly
reposing. Have you not all observed
in recent events reported in the press
of the country the extraordinary man
Hesitation of this race feeling among
the negroes, extending as it does even
to the negro soldiers in the regular
army Of the United States? Those SOL
diers are the only ones in the army
who have defed the civil authorities,
their race who had been arrested for
violating the law, and they have car
ried this conduct so far that, accord
ing to a telegram published a few days
ago, they actually used their guns
upon a military provost guard who
had arrested one of their number. Ii
is thus that these people show their
appreciation of the privileges Of Amer
lean citizenship bestowed upon them
by the government in al hour of mad
= ness and folly. They seem to have
become intoxicated with the idea that
they are really possessed of special and
peculiar rights as a race, and are ex-
empt from the restraints by which 9th
:, err people are bound. 1t is really a pity
, to see them thus inviting the destruc-
ton of all that has been so generously
, bestowed upon them, but it will conn
: as surely as the night after the day
unless they change their ways.
, believe that among the ~extraordi
g nary phenomena of this age n which
a will largely attract the attention Of the
, future historian will be the astound-
4 ing fact that the people of this and