The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-07-22
THE NEW HANOVER USIPATION

well regulated minus. we suppose no
lawyer of ordinary sense will ques-
ton the fairness and justice of the
course pursued. 1t is not necessary to
rehearse the points at issue. They APP
peared in the report in yesterdays
Messenger. Judge Adams decision was
righteous and compulsory under the
circumstances. 1t will be recalled how
the supreme court of North Carolina
had decided in Barnhill VS.. Thompson,
that under the constitution of the
state no person could legally hold two
offices except magistrates, officers of
the militia, etc. 1t held if a person &C
cepted a second office hat the act
vitiated the first office, and without
ing, and the opinion was delivered for
the court by Chief Justice Faircloth,
who is generally regarded by the bar
and his acquaintance as an honorable
and decent man. The case that caused
the decision to be made was sent up
from Bladen county. The democratic
commissioners had elected themselves
members Of the board of education.
This was holding two offices, and the
court held the opinion referred to
above. The action was reversed in
New Hanover, the republican commits
sioners electing themselves the board
Of education. Sauce for the goose is
for the gander. The New Hano-
yer fellows must eat out of the spoon
prescribed by the supreme court to
the Bladen democrats. The conduct of
the New Hanover radical commission
ers is little short of infamous. They
sin against light and knowledge, and
their purpose is to hold and to have
for the benefit of the republican party
and allies in the county. The whole
procedure on the part of the gang has
been outrageous n even violent to
a degree. They persist in trying to
hold offices that they may not hold
under the plain decision of the high
est state judicatory. The Raleigh News
and Observer in reviewing the course
of the radical gang in New Hanover
says Of the usurping radical board of
commissioners:
The history of the state does not
show a more fragrant and outrageous
uSurpation of office, or a more infa-
nous attempt to defraud the voters
of New Hanover county. But for the
advice of Governor Russell or his
henChmen, the commissioners would
have vacated their offices which they
illegally hold upon the publication of
Chief Justice FairclOth'S opinion. They
cannot say it is a partisan decision be-
cause it was rendered by a republican
court and written by the intense par
tisan republican chief justice. The only
reason they are holding on in defiance
of law is because they are determined
to appoint the election officers in Sep
tember. After they have done this and
made it Easy for eX-cOnViCts and i'm
ported South Carolina negroes to vote,
these illegal officers will not care a
fig about their suits"
The tax payers and electors of his
county ought to love right and right
e%ousness, honor and justice enough to
turn out for all time the unprincipled
set of demagogues who have dominat-
ed the county ruling in sin and folly
and madness. We have been living
for years under al usurpins govern
ment, a venaI combine legislature
having deprived the people of the right
to hold an election and choose their
own city government. What has been
done in Wilmington in the last two
years would nave created a tremen-
dous disturbance prior to the war. Our
ancestors an hundred years ago or so
would have raised Cain and made it
very warm for usurpers.
The attempted usurpation and out
rage upon the people and in defiance
of law, is in keeping with the charac-
ter of the fellows who engage in the
dirty work, and is in harmony with
e previous most meinOuS crime and
outrage of the Legislature in wickedly
and designedly depriving the white
men of Wilmington of the legal right
to hold a city election. 1t was an out
rage of such a black and damning
kind that only the artful, malignant
Russell could have conceived and en-
gineered it. Before Judge Robinson was
heard from our Raleigh contemporary
said:
The good people of New Hanover
ought not to submit to this highland
ed outrage. To do so is to acQuiesce
in a gigantic scheme to defraud the
voters of New Hanover county in the
coming election. We have to submit to
wrongs innumerable and scandals
without numbe that are committed
under the form of law. but the usur-
patton of the New Hanover commits
sioners is as revolutionary as it is
h~igh-handed and illegal, and law-abid-
ing citizens ought no more to submit
to it than to the outrages they have
summarily avenged in NORTH Carolina
under the present rule of rapine. vio-
lence, dishonesty and outrages."
We are a very long-suffering people
down this way. But for that there
would have been "a rucus'' long ago.
Take out a half dozen white fellows
in this town nj let them live else
where and the r~ascalities an0 outrages
WOuld no longer be attamntad upon