The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-04

republicans may be contaminated and
all trouble in his particular locality
averted. If this should be the case.
and IL the passionate state OF feeling
over the race issue was confined to this
one city. the story might be ended. On
the contrary, the fame OF antagonism
to the blacks is burning fiercely all over
the state. in white as well as in negro
districts. The mountaineers of the
western portion of the state are being
urged to come to the aid Of negro-rid-
den hits brethren on the s%eacoast by
electing a democratic legislature.
STIMULATED BY DEMOCRATIC
PRESS.
Here in Wilmington the antI-negro
movement began with and was stimu-
lated by the business men as a matter
| of se1f-preservation. In the state. gem
orally speaking, the same movement is
largely political. 1t is being fostered
by the democratic press with per
! sistent vehemence. The of
the state are interesting reading. All Of
them publish daily a long editorial
which appeared in the Daily Record. a
negro paper published here, and in
which the editor, among other 'infa-
nous and horrid SANDERS say that
/ our experience among poor white peo-
I PIE III Tie COUNT ItdAAlCS Us llldt LIlc
women of that race are not any more
particular in the matter of clandestine
meetings with colOred men than are the
+, white men with colored women" The
whole editorial bristles with i~nsinua-
lions and charges against the morals of
white women, and naturally FLAMES
the already incensed state Of feeling
against the negro race. In addition to
presenting his editorial daily to their
readers, the newspapers collect and
print in large black type every case of
attempted outrage by negro men Dol
white women and then appeal 10 white
men of the state to rise in their
might and vote against every candidate
who cOnsOrts with a negro.
Afidavits from northern republicans
who have become democrats through
100 kuBu Ug OJS9u 9ul ul!M lSnSS!p
umns. Letters are printed from farm
ers' wives, who pray White voters to
save them from ruin, and items con-
Meeting negroes with all manner of
crimes are given daily prominence. The
utterances of republican c~ampaigners
which tend to intensity the feeling are
published in double column, with dis
play-type headings. In one particular
instance the stump speaker is credited
with having told the negroes that they
were the best race of people on earth,
and advised them to throw their arms
around white girls. According to the
printed account, the orator twas met
by 800 of our most determined citi-
Zens,' compelled to stand up in his
buggy and r~etract, and then driven out
Of town with short shrift.
AN EXAMPLE OF STUMP ORATORY
While the news columns of the pa
pers thus bristle with this kind of mat
ter the democratic spell binders go to
avtranon 1pnOthc in thair ia lie ,1ncn thl
stump. Here, for example, is an ex-
tract from the speech of e~X-COngress-
man Waddel1, delivered in this city:
1--WE are in the presence of a crisis
before which all such questions sink
into insignificance. The salvation of
society depends On the outcome of this
election, not the restoration of good
government only, or the protection of
property, or the reduction of taxation,
or OF the public expenditures, but all
these, together with the preservation of
peace and good order and prosperity
for all of both races. To uppos that
under such circumstances North Caro-
linians will fail to meet the issue
squarely and manfully is to attribute
to them an imbecility and a p~usilanim-
ity which they have never, in the POO
years of their history, exhibited, and
which would make them forever con-
temptible in the eyes of the civilized
world. Are we less intelligent or less
courageous, or more degraded, than the
people of the other states who nave
settled this question for themselves :?
What is the matter with US? I will
tell you. We are afflicted with an ex-
cess of the virtue of forbearance,
which, beyond a certain point, ceases
to be a virtue at all, Inc becomes a
want of self-respect.'
This speech was wildly applauded by
l thn ~ ,,r -
ed by the papers because "it is talk
straight from the shoulder, with no fool
ishness about it," Even the venerable
ex-senator and Ex-Governor Jarvis.
who is not given to wild exclamations.
INDUCES upon the stump in a series OF
excited i"nterrOgations. Shall North
Carolina be Cubanized?' he asks
Shall We have bayonet rule? Shall
we have negro domination? Shall we
have all the evils of bad government.
or shall we have the rule of civil law?
Shall we have white supremacy. OF
shall we not?" 1t is no wonder that
with this feeling in the air. the repub-
lican candidates for the legislature in
this county have deemed discretion the
better part Of valOr. and have with
drawn from their ticket. fastening at
the same time to assure their owns
people in public announcements thai
they are upon the white mans side.
Newspapers, campaign orators. and
frenzied poets are all stimulating the
feeling of antagOnism to the blacks.
The country citizen is doing his part.
He is wearing a red shirt. Democratic
meetings are now known as ''red-shirt
rallies" A widely distributed circular
advertising a campaign meeting at
Laurlnburg next Tuesday is headed:
FIFTY rounds of cannon and Loo
red shirts The local paper of the town
promises that the red shirts will be in
line. Red shirts" says the editor,
mean white supremacy" Process
sions of red-shirted men are the lat
est and perhaps most striking feature
Of this remarkable campaign.
Having used three bottles OF P. F. P
for impure blood and general