The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-04
The @fssflwm.
A COLORED kEPUBLiCANs's SUR:
VEY


North Carolina colored men. It is in
teresting and suggestive, and helps to
illuminate the ugly record of the re-
publican party with which the author
of the article has been identified ever
since he could vote. He was o
made a rather close study of the say
imgs and doings, the vexations and
lodges, the misleadings and false teach
fngs, the dazzling promises and poor
performances Of the black republican
gang. The production ought to be
generally read for it is evidently the
result eff reflection, observation and
candor. We fear that the author Is
one i'm a thousand among his race in
North Carolina. He has seen the easy
gullibility and receptive nature of the
older part of the blacks-how readily
they received the gilded pledges of the
white bosses and how eagerly they
gulped down the unconscionable, reck-
less Misrepresentation andd ~eceptive
promises of the carpet bag gentry and
the sca1lawags-the white natives who
swapped character and principles as
easily as they could their coats, and
who forgot nature and race and the
past in identifying themselves for
pelf and plumber with the enemies Of
their race and tine south. Nothing in
history is meaner more disreputable
and blistering than h deseTition of
the south amid the storm and stress of
gang of deserters are as hungry and
reckless and self-seeking as the dc
set were. S. NJ. Hill understands that,
and Ire shows in the scope and tenor
of his paper.
Read his analysis of past operations.
His retrospect ds not without instruc-
tion of it is amenable to criticism
perhaps in one or two places. What he
writes is the expression of an indie
pendent thinker who has studied the
situation with closeness, n writes of
it with the courage of conviction. He
asks this question:
Now, sir, to me, one of the new ne
groes, the question is vastly different.
1t is why should I vote to keep a gang
of shameful White carpet-baggers,
thugs-and God knows What-all in
office? l know as well, sir, as any
man in the STATE tLAt the democrats
make no possible voting test to
get me that would not at the same
swUop get half the democrats. L
know tina with all their weakness the
state was r9uaged better under them
than under the present gang with Rus
sell at the head"
He believes the Intelligent portion of
his race would vote With the democrats
if nothing was said as to a white mans
party in North Carolina. We would
be glad to know that in this he is cor
rect. But facts are against him. 1t is
NEARLY tN'r years since the negroes
were ell.anchised, became voters.
From the casting of their first ballot to
their last ballot, the negroes in this
state have, with the feweSt exceptions
i'm all North Carolina probably not
to exceed two hundred-have uniformly
steadfastly voted with the white re-
publicans. Russell despising them in
his heart branded them as "savages."
He said they could De ''whoOped" up to
vote the republican ticket in fority-eiStht
hours. And yet after treating them
with contempt and as dumb driven
cattle "N,ey followed his fortunes and
but for tnum North Carolina would
mot be cursed and afflicted today with
his presence as governor of North
Carolina. The colored voters have
rallied around the black flag of the
white radicals with ~unflinching fidelity,
and have invited and compelled by
their unwise and unfriendly course the
democrats to get together to save u
civilization and prevent the ruin of
the state and to sound the ringing n
echoing bugle blast that the white race
must rule America, and that those who
fought for North Carolina in the dark,
troublous times of blood and iron,'
and their worthy descendants must
continue to have control of the destl-
mics of the noble old commonwealth.
The Aryan race mas never Hdu d iHdS-
ter or submitted TO alien rule. If all
the colored voters were as intelligent
and rejecting and self reliant as S. NJ.
Hill is, there would he no need of the
cry for white supremacy. But unfor-
tunately, the MOST active henchmen
and t~ireless heelers Of unscrupulous
demagogues and party maripulators
are generally found among the strictly
colored element who are found light
ing the white democrats as IL they
were boil their deadly and personal
en- The Intelligence OF the negro
race ought to be able to perceive that
white republican bossing is the rue OF
demolition, of decay, of disturbance.
of anarchy. Give the men in charg5 OF
North Carolina now and for the last
three years, unbridled sway for twenty
years to come-the time of democratic