The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-21
Ghe Wessemger.
TAKING A SECOND THOUGHT.

IDENTIFY learning something as to negro
suffrage. Others in the north, We are
pleased to know, are also learning.
Sambo is being better understood "up
there" and is seen in his true colors.
1t has taken a very long time to open
the eyes Of ever the more intelligent
northern whites. Prominent writer's
in newspapers, in magazines and on
platforms now and then have given ex-
preston to opinions unfavorable to
the franchise as used by the negroes,
and some have not hesitated to say
right out hat making the negroes
voters was a great blunder which has
resulted disastrously.
The Interior drops out a few SEN
fences that indicate that the scales
have to some extent fallen from it's
blinded eyes. The Charlotte n. c.
Presbyterian says this with reference
to the editorial of the Interior:
Glow the south is coming into her
own! Southern people have always
commended for the ability to govern and
TO vote before privileges of Office and
of franchise were eve granted. But
that was "heresy," especially in
northern Presbyterian circles. The
government that gave the bullet to the
Indian gave the ballot to the negro.
The Interior has enough to see
the drift of opinion now and the cour-
age to face the issue. Just substitute
the millions of ignorant slaves upon
whom the suffrage was bestowed for
the Philippines and the Porto Ricans,
and southern principles are INDICATED.
But-shade of Abraham Lincoln!--is
not government without the consent
of the governed"-human slavery?
And is not the 'heresy of slavery" one
SO great as to deprive nj holding it
from the communion except upon
confession and repentance"
In a spirit of bitterness and revenge
Che victorious north sought to visit
pains and penalties on the south after
the war had ended disastrously to the
latter. So the northern politicians
gave the right to vote to the recently
freed negroes, although without a
semblance of qualification for the exer-
else Of such a great power and privi-
Iege. Utterly ignorant, unlettered,
with no knowledge whatever Of gov
eminent they are enfranchised while
many of the ablest men in the south
were disfranchised. The army took
charge of the ballot at first with such
results in the south as vas to have
been expected. The southern states
were bankrupted by the thieving and
abuses of the carpet-baggers, aided by
the hungry, c~onscienceless scalliwags,
some of whom linger s%uperfuous and
vicious on the scene, and backed up
by the negroes who in 1866, drew the
deep, dark race ditch where it stands
uncovered and untitled to this hour.
North Carolina had $27, 900, 900 of debt
piled upon her in her recently despoil-
ed and desolated condition by the
thieves and bummers. The evils OF
negro voting have extended all through
the wears. There has not beer a viii
famous deed, or a rapacious act, or an
unWarranted usurpatiOn, or a dellber-
ate assault upon the liberties of the
people by robbing them of Home Rule,
the priceless heritage and imminent
of patriots and freemen, or a gross
display of ignorance and incapacity in
officials that does lie at the door of
the negro voters. They have done the
evil wrought, so deadly and calamitous
and d~isgraceful, through the white men
they forced upon the state. All the
Dad legislation, all the expressions and
wrongs, all the waste and extravaganza
of officials, all of the increased taxes,
all of the attempts to degrade n af-
Hict the great white race, born to rule,
have come from the votes of the ne
o They have for thirty-three
years shown that they were unfit to
vote, much less fit to rule, and in
1898, are as s~ervile, as obedient, as
anxious to serve their white bosses
who get the fat offices as they were in
the sixties when they had been fresh
~ clothed with the voting power.
The northern religious paper, the
Interior, says this, and it is worth ON
-tsidering, for it reveals some awaken
ing:
Zone result of our capture of the
Philippines, not to say our occupation
OF Puerto Rico, will be the necessary
abandonment Of Jul French revolution
philosophy that all men are fitted for
self-government. From the cutlery of
certain journals one would suppose
that we must extend the suffrage to
all dependent races or throw up our
republican form of government. When
our forefathers asserted that authority