The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-18
WILMINGTON. n. G.
A RAPID GLANCE AT CAUSES AND
RESULTS.

ONAANS
ordinary conditions. 1t has often mis-
understood and misrepresented the
white race in the south. The nortn
gave the franchise to the liberated ne
groes and practically gave them SUI
preme power although SO very ignorant
and incapable. The result was every
way disastrous both to the negroes
and the whites. The carpet baggers,
aided by certain white deserters and
traitors, got possession of the negroes
and by using them got into power. A
more d~isgraceful, reckless, thievlng
gang never assembled in any country
in any age of modern history. In a
few months the two CarOlinas were
stripped, pealed, dragOnaded, des-
poiled. The South Carolina debt ran
up into the tens of millions. In some
few months the corrupt North Carolina
negro legislature placed a new debt OF
$27, 900, 900 upon the whites, already
despoiled and ruined by the Unsuitable
ravages of war, and with a large public
debt created prior to the war upon
them. Half the counties in the state
were we'll nigh bankrupted by the low
whites and thieving negroes who got
into the offices. The scrip of the best
counties was hawked about the street
at % cents in the dollar and buyers
hard to find.
This is a mere glance at a time of
spoliation and misery and almost de-
spair. The whites have had a horror
and dread of negro supremacy from
that time until the present. The burnt
child breads the fire. A ruined and
outraged people are sensitive and easily
maddened at the very thought Of a re-
turn upon them of the ravages and
degradation of negro rule. The baleful
doleful, dark days of reconstruction
the whites shudder at the very thought
of having again to drink to the dregs
the cup of ignominy and sorrow and
ruin. Bad. remorseless legislation we'll
nigh brought the old commonwealth to
beggary. Prior to the great war its
bonds sold higher in Wall street than
those of any other state. After carpet
bag negro rule and ruin control they
were almost worth nothing. The noble
and able Vance said they would not
sell for enough on Wall street to buy
one mint julip.
The time came, a few years ago,
when a most unfortunate fusion of the
black radicals, who meant plumber, the
sincere populist, who sought redress
of grievances, but in a most
way, and the 10000 negroes helping
on unanimously in the greedy work OF
wrong doing and rapacity, succeeded
in carrying the state. Without stop
ping to recount the great miscarriage
of wisdom and tact and patriotism by
which much harm was done to the
silent but uneasy IA payers, we come
to the election of 1896. A body was
elected by the same combination Of ne
groes and whites and a reign of chaos
began. A work of destruction dlstln-
guished much that was done. Among
the many unwise acts passed were two
that should curse for all time the men
who voted for them. The first is the
election law that is simply an ingenious
arrangement for wholesale frauds on
the part of negroes, and was so design
ed. 1t opened wide the fiood-gates OF
rascality and invited negroes from
other states to come in and help bur-
den and despoil the white men of pro-
Derty and the white burden-bearers
and bread winners. No such unmiti-
gated assault Upon a pure ballot was
ever before made, o even in Boston,
New York, Philadelphia and chicago.
The other tremendous outrage that
was consummated upon a free and en-
lightened people was to rob them OF
the right of local self-government-to
snatch from them the great basic prlncl
pie, the priceless fundamental privilege
of freeman in a free country, the rightof
Home Rule-to deprive the taxpayers
and white voters of the power to select
their own public servants in Whining
ton. This devilish deed aimed at free
white men, free born and patriots, was
worked out and for nearly two years
the white race here have been living
under an usurped government, in
which the negroes are vigorously to
the front, there being in all nearly loo
negro office holders.
Remember that the negroes pay 50