The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-09-22
THE DUTY OF WHITE MEN T0-DAY.


Carolina where the negro is the aggres
sor without trembling for the future OF
the State. There have been more as
sauts upon white women by negro
brutes in one year and half of Repub-
lican rule than in twenty years of Demo
cratic rule. There have been more in
suits to white girls, more wrongs to
white men, more lawlessness and more
crime committed by negroes in North
Carolina during the last twenty months
than during the previous twenty years
More than this: In all those com
trolling political factor the influence Of
the old-time religious negro, who loved
peace and concord has been supplanted
by the influence of the A. l.. Manlys,
the Lee Persons, the Jim Youngs, and
the like, who control the votes of the
negroes for their personal ends by ap-
peals to their prejudice.
The difference between Eastern
North Carolina of six years age
and today is marked. Then the
white men had control of public af.
fairs, and the government was admins
tered with justice to both races, and
peace and concord prevailed. Wherever
the negro and his allies have obtained
power, the politicians have become Of
fensive and the brutal have become law
breakers.
There is a cause for the change. The
time was when a public officer was Il
public servant The fact that public
office pays better than private service
has converted public officers into public
leaders, and, in the Republican party.
into public masters. 1t is the public Of
ficers who are responsible for the change
in the negro. Senator Pritchard has
given them big Federal offices, Governor
Russell has foisted them upon the State
government, the eastern counties are
honeycombed with them, and so power
full have they become that they dictate
nominations in nearly half the counties
in the State.
These office-holding negroes, instigat-
ed in part thereto by white pie-eaters, re-
sort to every scheme to prevent any in
dependence in the race and with rare
exceptions the negro votes absolutely
as the pie-eaters dictate. He votes near
ly always to put the worst men of his
own race as well as the worst men Of
the white in power and is the agent of
every combination that robs white and
the bidding Of the bosses, what do we
see? Listen to Lee Person. the negro
Republican and Fusion candidate for
the Senate in Edgecombe county:
$50 to the elections well armed, with
rocks in your pockets, clubs in your
hands and carry your pistols And don't
allow any officer to arrest you after you
have registered until the day after the
election, unless you have stolen some
thing or killed somebody. Come to me
if they get after YOU"
Mr.. William Ell. FELTON, makes affidavit
that in a speech made by Person at Old
Sparta he said in substance that 1.-THE
poor white man and the negro were now
equal; that the poor white man had
already begun to invite the negro into
his house, and soon the poor white man
would invite the negro to eat and sleep
with him. Also in the course of his
speech Person declared that any negro
who voted the Democratic ticket should
be lynched, and he for one would walk
from Rocky Mount to Old Sparta to help
lynch him. There were present during
this vindictive speech probably fifty or
more people"
In the face of such advice by the
chosen leader of the Republican party
in Edgecombe county, what is the duty
of the white people Of the State?
1t is, not to return railing for railing,
not to make or permit an infraction of
the peace, not to make infiammatory
speeches, but to appeal to the white men
of the State, regardless of party affilia-
tons to be true to their race and to their
State. No such appeals will have weight
with the pie-eating brigade, who have al
ready sold their birth-right for a mess
of pottage, but they will have great
weight with all honest voters if they are
made acquainted with all the facts, and
shown that Lee Persons inccndiary
speeches are the result of present politi-
cal conditions.
BERNARD STATED THE TRUTH.
In the Republican convention i'll Pitt