The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-02
RaItimore Sun.l


a letter to the New York Press, ar
CUES against any~interference by the
federal government TO prevent the re-
striction of the negro vote in the
by constitutional methods. EI-Goyer-
nor Bullock is a northern man, who
settled in Georgia shortly before the
civil war, was active as a republican
politician during the reconstruction
period, and was elected governor of the
state principally by Ear of the negro
vote. Since then he has been engaged
in business enterprises in Georgia. and
has continued to affiliate with the re-
publican party on national issues.
From a republican standpoint, ex-
Governor Bullock declares that CON
gresional attempts to interfere with
our state affairs will react d~isastrously
on our party. The issues have been
put upon us here in the south and we
must be left TO work them out" Mr..
Bullock's position now is in sharp con-
trast to the attitude which he as
sumed during the reconstruction Pc
Rod in the south, but, like many other
intelligent northern men, he was not
familiar then with the dense igno-
rance of the recently emancipated and
enfranchised negro, and assumed that
they were capable of administering
government with a reasonable degree
of honesty and efficiency. His ex-
periences and observations have led
him to change his views, until today
he occupies precisely the anne position
as the southern democrats, who have
uniformly maintained that the negro
is incapable of administering govern
| ment. Hence, from an extreme repub-
lican of the reconstruction era, he has
been transformed into a conservative
republican who's convictions on the
inferiOIity Of the negro coincide at
every point with those whom he was
~antagonizing thirty years ago.
Ex-Governor Bullock's conclusions
are practically those of every northern
man who has acquired property in the
south and lived there in the past quar-
ter of a century. Of course this re-
mark applies only to such northern
men as have gone to the south to en-
gage in legitimate business pursuits
or in agriculture, and not to the pOlit-
cal adventures who seek only the Of
fees of the rewards which may be Sc
cured from the control of delegations
to republican national conventions.
In Wilmington, \. c., recently north
ern men who were property owners
| and engaged in business in that city
cO-operated with southern white men
in fOrcible resistance against a cor
rupt and inefficient government set up
and maintained principally by negro
votes. Ex-Governor Bullock, there
fore, voices the sentiments of the sub
stantial men of northern birth who
live in the south and know all the hOr-
OrS of negro rule when he gives his
full approval to the measure of the
southern states to protect themselves
against negro domination. Federal in
reference. he says, will only eXasper-
ate the south and still further consol-
idate it against the republican party
if it sanctions any attempt to "Afri-
canize the south" The methods which
have been adopted in three southern
states to restrict negro suffrage have
proved eminently successful, and al
the same time they have been in nc re-
spect in conflict with the fifteenth
amendment Of the federal constitution,
otherwise it is certain they would
| nave USou SET dSluo anu uulIl1ou Dy
the supreme court. During the pres
ent year, however, this august tribunal
has sustained the validity of the Miss
issippi election law, by which almost
the entire negro vote of that state has
been disfranchised. An educational
qualification, applying equally to white
and black voters, has insured white
supremacy for an indefinite period in
Mississippi and South Carolina, and il
is a significant fact that when the
Mississippi law was attacked in the SUI
preme court of the United States the
decision affirming its cOnstitutiOnality
was handed down by a republican, Mr.
Justice McKenna.
Ex-Governor Bullock insists that
laws like the Mississippi and South
Carolina statutes are not only just
but are also urgently required in the
south to give the control Of municipal
county and state government to the
whites. In SO far as the election OF
members Of congress is concerned
however, he maintains that congress
should protect itself by refusing tt
seat a cOngressman-elect from the
south when the total number of votes
cast for him does not bear a fair pro-
portion to the whole number of inhab.
itants in the district. He is strongly
opposed to seating contestants, but
would leave the district unrepresenteC
until a reasonably large and fair vote
a been pOlled. A more direc
method, however, would be to reduc,
the representation of the south in tn,
lower branch Of congress, a plan which
has been suggested before, but in sucf
a spirit and with such a palpable pur
pose to gain party advantage that tn.
proposition could not be considered
Ultimately, when the entire south ha
adopted measures to ~disfranchise tn,
negro vote, such a plan may be pre-
sented, possibly by way of retaliation
or to equalize the basis of representa-
ton in all portions of the country
The New York Sun says there mus
be logically and inevitably the loss t
the south Of the increased representa-