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

That for Years Has Gone up from q
Certain Class at the North Against b
White People of the south
(New York Mail and Expires

General Wesley Merritt is reported
to have stated, in London yesterday,
that but one thing is certain about the
Philippines-"'we must either take
them all or drop them altogether" Be
fore we decide upon the former alter
native it may possibly be worth our
while to consider carefully the ques-
ton as to whether we have not enough
missionary work on our hands in tam
ing and civilizing the white and black
a nearer at home. 1t is putting
outbreak between the two races in
North Carolina is a disgrace to the
whole country and a REPUTATION Of its
claim to a capacity for self-govern-
ment. The city of Wilmington, in that
state, a place of some twenty-five thou
sand inhabitants, has especially gone
daft on the subject Of white suprema-
cy, and yesterday ar attempt was
made to enforce that supremacy by
shooting down negroes they
made ever a mute protest against ex-
termination. The trouble began by a
demand hat the editor of an organ
of the colored people should leave the
town. This he did, n hundreds of
others fled, panic-stricken, with him.
But that did not satisfy h mob of
white ruffians; without taking the
trouble to find out whether their de-
cree of b~anishment had been complied
with or defed, they proceeded to
wreck and burn the office of the pa
per, n when the day closed it was
found that eight negroes had been
killed outright, while but three whites
had been wounded, and only one seri-
ously.
The publication of an article said
to have been defamatory of white wo-
men was made the pretext for this
complete overthrow of law and order;
but, however scandalous the article in
question may have been, it was but a
preteXt. For weeks past the state has
been in IN uproad and repeated scenes
of disorder and bloodshed attended
upon the clamOr for white supremacy,
which was the one issue raised by the
white democracy during the recent pO-
1itical campaign. A Wilmington paper
printed a list of the colored officials
in the different counties of the state,
numbering, all told, about three hun-
bred and fifty, but including chiefly
magistrates and school committeeman,
and wound UP its comments by de-
claring hat the number, relatively
S1ld1l lnOuSH II was, gave d pretty
strong indication Of what we may ex-
pect if the mongrel party which has
put these negroes in office wins" The
detested "mongrel party did not win
on Tuesday; it elected only two of the
nine congressman, whereas two years
ago the straight republicans carried
two districts and the republican-pOpu-
list coalition, which now controls the
state government, elected four men,
horr 1oo1 - hrf n cinn1a 1iotriof in
fact, to the democrats, who secured
that slight advantage only by outbid-
ding the republicans for an alliance
The democratic terrorism has fairly
redeemed" the state, but it could not
at once GUST the whole battalion of ne
gro office holders. That, however, will
be accomplished in good time if the
reign of terror continues.
The murderOus white democratic mob
in Wilmington yesterday was led by A.
M. Waddell, who was a member of
congress for several terms about twen-
ty years ago. After the mob had done
it's work h city ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ably made up entirely of white men,
as we do not find it included in the
black list-was forced to resign, mem
Der by member, each alderman as he
went u being replaced, under the
form of law, by a leader of the mob,
and then the chief leader was made
mayor of the city, one of his lieuten-
ants chief of police and his most
trusted followers policemen. Order now
reigns in Wilmington, but it is the
sort of order that reigned in Warsaw
once upon a time. Although clothed
with the prestige of lawful authority,
the new city government is a govern
ment by the mob, and the slightest
indication of protest on the part of
the "mongrels," whether white or
black, will be %sumnarily suppressed
by a return to mob violence. If there
is any danger that the Philippines may
prove as intractable and as incapable
of managing their local affairs as the
people of North Carolina, it would be
just as we'll for us to leave them to
the end mercies of themselves and
the SpaniardS.
Chicago News.)
1t is rather too bad that the grand
lessons in Self-gOvernment which are
now being inculcated in Wilmington.
N. c., will be mostly lost upon our
prOspectively new fellow-citizens who
cannot read English and are not serv-
ed regularly with American news.
The moral to be drawn from these
lessons is that the proud AnglO-SaXon
of a certain southern training will al
way maintain self-go%ernment when
hat consists in making somebody else
do as he wishes.
The leading citizens of Wilmington.
we read ministers of the gospel among
them), have wiped out the great wrong
of a newspaper conducted in the inter-
ests of the negroes. There were. II
appears, the incidental accessories in
the way of homicide which one has
come to loo for when white men OF
a certain class undertake to induct
their colored brethren into a higher
and purer way of living. The mere
grand larceny n arson involved in
the lOOting and burning of the news
paper office would not have sufficient
ly impressed the negroes with the idea
of white superiority. Besides, the
wrecking of the newspaper office COW
cred only half the case.
The negro is illiterate, b~enighted. SUI
perstitious. Therefore he must have nc