The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-01

ALldHpd, 1d., July Zo.01ONCILoI SoA-
der has, since the cambridge series of
lynchings occurred, been asked 10y news
papers in various parts Of the country
tt give his opinion on the race ques-
ton in the south and in reply to one
of them the governor has fully ana
freely expressed his views as to the
cause of the conflicts and the remedy
therefor.
The governor believes the p~reSent-day
cause OF the ~uprisings is the informed
ding with the relations Of the whites
and blacks in the south by fools and
fanatics who know nothing about the
situation, but think the whole trouble
dates from the day Of emancipation"
Governor Gambler believes a restrict
ed suffrage will remedy the evil; that
the ballot be given only the intelligent
negro. AZ to the disposition to be made
of the large percentage OF iliterate ne
groes, the governor makes no sugges-
ton. The governor begins his paper by
referring to the emancipation, contrast
ing the treatment Of negroes by the
white people or the south before the
war to that of the "carpet-baggers" i'm
mediately after. He says:
Before the ballot was thrust into
the hands of the negro, unprepared Tor
it and utterly ignorant OF its sanctlty
and of the responsibilities of citizenship,
Notwithstanding he was a slave, ne
was happy and we'll contented to Occu-
by that subordinate place in society
to which his nature and his condition.
assigned him.
Blu after his emancipation came MS
acknowledgements and with his enfran-
chisement came a hoard of carpetIbaS-
gers, penniless Adventures, without
principles or patriotism, who took
charge of him when his former master
and protector. with whom he had lived
for generations or the most friendly
and often on affectionate terms, was
de-citizenized by the partisan recon-
Struction laws.
These carpet-baggers, calling them
selves republicans, but really only a
band of marauders held together by the
cohesive power of public plumber,
sUarmed all over the south like the 10
Gusts in Egypt of old, and faslely
taught the negroes that the southern
white men were solely responsible Tor
their enslavement and were their worst
and only enemies, and that, therefore,
It was their duty and their interest to
vote against them and their party, and
oppose everything they were in favor
of and favor everything they were op-
uosed to-in a word, to hate them. They
IduS III llloL "
munitv from toll; that liberty meant
license and that they were the wards
of the nation and would be protected
by the general government, whose
bayonets glistened in every hamlet
whether they were right or wrong.
These evil teachings had but little
permanent effect upon the grown up
negroes, but upon the children, the
generation which has grown to man.
hood since that time, the effect has
IL f,I ThArn ynCn tho
prime causes of the alienation of the
negro.
"a more immediate cause is the per-
petual intermeddling with the rela-
tions of the races in the south by IA
natics and fools who know nothing
about the situation.
They call town meetings and dis
cuss imaginary wrongs of the south
ern negro which do not exist and de-
nounce the southern white people tor
crimes they have not committed; they
publish in the grossly eX-
aggerated account of such crimes as
are committed against the negro in the
south and omi any notice or the CRIME
against the white woman which provok-
ed the retaliation; they write 1ncendl-
airy letters to turbulent negroes all over
the south, advising them to arm them
selves with Winchester rifles, and for
every guilty rapist who pays the penal
ty for his crime, to shoot down the first
two white men he meets.
Thousands of such letters have been
written to Georgia in he last three
months. By such methods they call
into existence the vary state of things
they pretend to deplore-a condition OF
affairs tina did not exist and never
would have existed but for them and
their senseless, unjust and ~cendiary
conduct"
Governor Gambler says the informed
dlers of the north do not represent a
respectable minority and that the law
less and criminal negroes of the south
constitute less. He continues:
"a few abandoned, reckless, criminal
negroes are responsible for all the rapes
and lynchings that have occurred, and
their influence or those around them is
d~eplorably bad and far-reaching.
Still it is true that rape, the crime
which nine times out Of ten is the
cause. immediate or remote, Of lynch
ing. is as much deplOred by the better
class Of negroes as by the better class
of white men. Because some negroes
commit rape the whole race suffers; so
because some white men lynch ravish,
ers all the white people of the south
are abused.
1T is a singular fact that the phara'
saical fanatics who have most TO say
about 'Apaches, southern barparlaIs
cts. always stress the atrocity OF tn
lynching, but I have never yet heard OF
one of them saying or doing anything
to discourage the crime which provok,
cd it. Indeed, in some cases, instead
of ~denouncing his crime, they have as
sailed the character of the victim or tn
brute's lust, which not only
bad negroes, but e~xasperates h friends
of southern womanhood.
Another and a continually presen
cause which contributes to race friction
is corrupt politics. AS is admitted b!
all candid men, the ballot was put ii
the hand of the southern negro whel
he was utterly u~nprepared for it. HI
regarded it as only an article OF mer
chandise to be bartered way to tn
man who would pay him the most 70
it, whether a drink of whiskey or a dol
lar or two.
I'm many places his vote, while no
a majority, is a balance of power
Hence INSCRIPTIONS men of all partie
contend for this vote and hug the negr
around the polls and drink whiske