The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-18
(Richmond Dispatchl

About a week or ten DAVIS nrior 20
washington Post sent one OF the
brightest and most intelligent members
Of its staff 10 North Carolina To inves-
tigate and write up the situation in
that state in general, and in the eastern
counties IN particular. The work was
Wen n con~scientiously done. Tbs
picture or the evils of negro domina-
tlon was not overdrawn by The Posts
responder as was shown by letters
ana special kilograms from North Car
DINA TO many other papers outside
the state, The Dispatch included. and
taken by and through our Washington
write-up was in un-
qulVocal and intense ympath with
the white supremacy movement. More
over, 1t furnished an nanswerabl ar
gument to the effect that the whits
people OF North Carolina would be
justified in going to any lengths that
occasion might demand in prosecuting
their determination to throw off the
YOKE CT negro rule, protect their wives
and daughters from insult, and prevent
conditions in the future that would be
an aggravation of the horrors of the
reconstruction era.
But the assertion of white suDrema-
cy-the carrying out of the programme
winch The Post, through its CORE
spondent, misunderstanding been follow
by a clash of races at Wilmington-a
collision for which the negroes were
clearly reSpOnSible-The Post proceeds
edltorially, to moralize on the North
Caraollna question:, and read the Will
m~lnstonlans a lesson on what they
should have done after they found that
they had triumphed in the election. In
a tnlck-and-thin article, in which i'm
one breath 1t expresses sympathy with
the whites, and in the next INDUCES
IN back-handed condemnation of them.
IL tells them that there was no neces-
SHY lor resort to tragic methods
that they should have exercised more
patience and "f~orbearance. thai
even admitting that the negro was the
asgresSor, two wrongs do not make
a right, and that they were "tao
prompt IN the use of the rife. In less
IMAM two months, says The Post. he
new legislature would have assembled:
III three months, at most, obnoxious
laws would lave been repealed and
lneffclency and ignorance in municioaI
administration would have been re-
placed by intelligence and capacitv
Then The Post asks: WHY not have
waited, then, a few short weeks? Why |
have kept the fair name of Will |
mlngton free from the stain of bIood?'
1iIlS is a very good example of the |
treatment academic, but in view of the |
POSTS ante-electiOn series of North |
specials and letters. if puts
mat paper in a very inconsistent light !;
me logical deduction from the ohser- !
of The Posts o~rrespondent is
that failure to meet negro aggression |
on the threshold and delay in chang
ing the municipal government wouId
nave been to court incendiarism and q
race war at Wilmington horrible tn /
Moreover. any
on the part Of the whites of Whining
ton would have encouraged negro ag-
gression and increased the dangers Of
elsewhere in the state.
Ihat any blood was shed in Whining
ION is, indeed, to be dep1ored. but to
that the action of the white
oeople of the city on Thursday put
L stain upOn her fair name is grosStv
Unjust to them. Knowing what thew
no know. they took the onlv course |
hat afforded assurance that their far
'lty would not be drenched in blood in
he near future.
NO. The white people of Wilmingfon
put their hand to the work of
VerthrOWlng the negro regime. cOufd
lot look back. To have done so would
>rObably have involved a crime. NOT
'nly against themselves, but against
ne mass Of the negroes. whose minds
been 1nfamed by leaders of their
race and meaner white leaders.
md who, had they been given an inch
Would have presumed upon it to the
Jr01OSt