The times., 1898-11-12
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 70, 1898.
The Race War.

In no other community of its size has
negro municipal administration been on
trial as at Wilmington, in North Caro-
lima The current news from that
place in the past few days indicates
its failure not only to satisfy the white
inhabitants but to Withstand the usur-
patton of the functions of local govern
ment by white minority. At crit
ical moment when an armed body of
white men took possession of the offices,
the negro mayor, aldermen and police
men vanished, leaving the self-consti-
tuted authorities to curtail the liberties
of a free colored press by dumping the
cases into the street, smashing the ma
chinery and inadvertently burning the
office The hitherto aggressive editor,
adviser to the city officials, decamped
without ceremony. The few white men
who had profited most by negro rule,
quickly absconded when violence was
foreshadowed, leaving their dupes to
get out of their trouble as best they
could.
The immediate or exciting cause of
the first hostilities was an editorial ar
ticle in the Record, edited by a negro.
in which the honesty of the white wives
and daughters was attacked. 1t was a
challenge no white man was ever built
TO refuse. But it matters little what
may have been the direct cause of the
first collision. If there had been no
provocation, the whites would have in
vented one. They had fully made up
their minds to end the political DOM
ination of the negroes, and the only
wonder is that they waited as long as
they did. They bore the appointment
of negro postmasters in some of the
towns, though reluctantly; but when it
came to a negro mayor and council and
police, who were less discreet than for
merly because of their belief in the
prompt intervention of the Federal
Government In the event of a clash,
they considered it intolersble. Wheth-
er, as in the carpetbag days, the public
money was squandered for trifies, and
whether ignorance and corruption COM
bined TO infuriate the whites, we do not
know. In any case, the determination
to restore white supremacy at any cost
would have been reached, just the
same.
The white men do not prefer to use
violent means. Before they allowed
themselves TO attack anybody, they sent
a committee to the negro officials
stating their purpose to prevent
negro voting and asking for a
promise that all the negroes would
retire from politics. The only an
swer, we are told, was shots fired
at some white men. Probably the
reports of the proceedings are not
strictly accurate. but that is imma-
terial. The essential thing is that If
the negroes at Wilmington and at
Phoenix, in the adjoining State, attempt
to vote or to exercise official authority,
they will be shot or hanged. That it
would come to this, any man of the least
foresight must have known. Whatever
time may do toward banishing the op-
position of Southern white men to ne
gro domination, il is certain that within
q quarter of century after the eman-
cipation of the slaves, the latter will
not be allowed TO hold authority over
tisElr lofIler OWutfS Inc pcOpic VI
New Orleans found it necessary to
shoot many negroes in order to free
the municipality from the results of
their political activity. Wherever they
are in a majority and take advantage
OF it to elect the local officials. the same
thing will happen. The white men
who led them into the exercise of
their political rights knew this, but they
consulted their own self-interests, only
&c abandon their tools in time of trou-
BILE, as they did at New Orleans.
This attitude of the white people Of the
South is in violation of the fundamental
law of the land. which in all other re-
spects they venerate. But they main
tain that there are natural laws an
terror to all Legislative, enactments.
They profess to foresee condition far