The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1898-12-01
RACE QUESTION SOUTH.
NORTHERN PEOPLE AND PAPERS
Do NOT UNDERSTAND
Observations of an Intelligent North
ern Man-Went to the CaroIinas an
Unflinching Republican, But Quickly
Learned That the Democrats Were
in the Right in Opposing Negro
Domination.
washington PoSt.)

(Washington Post.)
Editor Post:-Reading an editoria
in the Philadelphia Press of the It'll
instant, concluded to DO something
| have been contemplating for som,
time, and do it at once-that is
write an article on the situation IL
the Carolinas from the standpoint o
Northern man, and one who for The
past ten years has been a resident O
the Carolinas. and is thoroughly ac
quainted with prominent people o
both political parties. and also thor.
oughly acquainted with the status o
the negro in politics. Twas born a
Republican, being introduced to the
world in Massachusetts in the frs
year of the Republican party's exist
ence. | was strong Republican a.
boy and reached Republican man.
hood in the State of Kansas, which a
that time-1S75-was an almos,
unanimously Republican State. ]
was for many years publisher and
editor of Republican papers, and
would as soon have thought of selling
my birthright as of deserving the Re-
publican party. This state of mind
continued until ten years ago, tray
eled through the Atlantic coast
States and saw the condition of things
politically. Soon after that time
in 1861 settled at Florence, S. c.,
section of the State where the races
were very evenly divided, though the
white man ruled. I saw then, and
still see no way in which a self-re-
speeding, educated, or intelligent
white man can vote with the Repub-
lican party in the South, in local af-
fairs. The few white leaders among
the Republicans in the s.Black Dis
tricts" are leaders simply for office,
with no higher aim; no higher aspi-
rations than the money they can
make; the notoriety they can attain,
and the petty power they can exer-
else.
For some weeks prior to the recent
election l was in several counties
of Eastern North Carolina, and / can
honestly say, in my opinion, that any
man coming from the North or else
where, who could see what | saw and
keep his Republican proclivities in
local politics is either a fool or a
knave. There are many good men
who are Republicans in the Western
portion of the Carolinas, but they
have not been thrown into contact
with the results as have those of the
Eastern portion of the State. This
year, however, the condition had be-
come so rotten that the stencil from
the Eastern counties was waited like
great miasmatic cloud over the
Western counties, raising from the
borders of the ocean and ascending
even to the clouds which cap the
Blue Ridge, and response came
which swept the State of much of its
disease. The people of the Eastern
counties did not desire trouble; they
had nothing against the negro; they
give him employment; they educate
him paying about 50 per cent. of the
taxes; the whites build school houses
and tax themselves to. help him.
What then, is the cause for the great
feeling of the recent election? The
negro, in politics, is not unit in
dividually, but unit collectively. The
negro does not vote for principle or
upon party issues unless you call his
principle the talismanic word Repub-
lican. For this word he will sell his
best friend and benefactor; for this
word he will place in office drunk
en- sot or knave; for this word he
will turn over to rotton officials the
power to destroy the property of his
employer and make it practically val
ueless. The negro knows no such
word as gratitude when he is voting
will say that tits in gratitude
that he votes the Republican ticket,
but it is not so. 1t is because he is
petted, patted and cajoled by office
seekers, who are really his worst en-
emies.
There is another reason-he has
had a taste of Office holding. Ne
grOes who could not read or write
have held seats in the legislatures of
both North and South Carolina in
the past; they hold offices for which
they have no fitness, mentally.
Hundreds of them hold positions as
magistrates in the Eastern counties
of North Carolina. The negro has
not, nor ever will have, a judicial
mind: it is not given him by nature;
it is one great fault of his physical
makeup, and why should he, because
he is black, be put in a position for
which nature never intended him ?
There has been too much talk through
the press of all the faults of the negro
of his faults against the white race
due to his sensual nature; of the dan
ger from him to be feared by respect
able people, etc, etc. | did not be-
gin this letter to discuss these ques-
tions, but l will simply pause to say
that the negro of to-day is not the
negro of thirty years ago. The old
time negro is honored and respected
by his old-time masters, and need
never suffer if they have bread, but
the '.new negro" the boy and the
youth who have grown up in the
streets of the rapidly growing South
ern towns are to be watched and sup
pressed. 1t is the only hope of Sc
curity, the only hope Of civilization.
Give the ordinary negro IAN inch and
he will take an ell" He has been SO
cajoled that he honestly thinks, at
least many Of them do, that they are
superior to the white race. They
have gotten in North Carolina SO
that they dictate to the Republican
bosses and that is the reason they
have been given nearly all the local
offices in the Eastern part of the
State, not because the leaders desired
it, but because they were compelled
to give it. The tool was rising UP
against the artisan. and with power
to crush him.
The Press speaks of ''honest cleo
ton laws" The election laws o