The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-30
THE ARD DICAL
SCHEME UNCOVERED.

SSAAh ONSO
There is a new turn on the wheel or
politics in North Carolina. 1t is the
ignorant white man who must be made
to suffer at the hands Of the republi-
cans. We do not see the Asheville
| Register, reported the special organ of
Jeter Pritchard, the Tennessee adven-
| turer who so unfortunately misrepre-
sents North Carolina in the United
| States senate where Badger and Ora
ham and Bragg and Haywood and
| Strange and Vance once sat. The fol-
lowing is copied from the republican
negro organ into the Raleigh Post:
But why does the desire to elimi-
nate ignorance extend only to the ne
gro? If ignorance is a constant men
ace to the state, certainly it ought to
be wholly e%radicated, and not stop at
the least offensive part. The ignor-
ance which disturbs the peace in this
state is found among the whites in the
democratic party, and not among the
negroes. If the negro is unfit for the
ballot by reason of his lack of learning,
certainly the white man who is equally
as ignorant is also unfit for the ballot.
No amount of sophistry can destroy
the force Of this argument"
So it is not the ignorant negro but
more offensive" of the two. It is the
poor white mans Ignorance which
disturbs the peace in this state'-they
are the law breakers and of course fill
the jails and penitentiaries, and not
the sable race. The Messenger has Of
ten mentioned that prior to the war the
white illiterates were very often among
the best of citizens and voted as wise
ly, discreetly and periodically as the
educated whites. We have known such
men Of the highest character for
honesty, common sense, uprightness
and virtue. But when did any n
ever know IN ignorant negro who was
a man of virtue, of truth, of honor. of
intelligence, and who voted like a free
mar instead Of a slave lashed by his
political boss and master? The amend
ment must be defeated because it falls
short-because it does not relegate the
good and true white citizens who hap
pen to be unlettered to the company of
ignorant, stupid blacks who vote with
out any proper responsibility OF citi-
zenship and always as they are per-
suaded or commanded by white lead
ers who use them for their own par
ticular and selfish purposes. If the
amendment would only "disfranchise"
all of the. best of white voters who are
classed as .lliterates it would make
Jeter and his gang Of i~mplacables so
very happy. The Post, edited by a
man who lived for a decade or two in
western Carolina, writes this:
I'm western North Carolina there are
as many ignorant whites we will say
relatively, in the senator's, as in the
democratic party. We know some of
them, and WI will also say we know
them to be honest, we'll meaning citi-
zens. And yet the Register and it's as
sociates in opposition to the amend
ment, would d~isfranchise these white
men along with the ignorant negroes,
the latter being, it says, the least Of
fensive part Contrast the ignorant
negroes of Asheville, who constitute
several hundred of the voters Of that
city, with the ignorant white members
Of the Registers party in western
North Carolina; and ask those white
republicans if they consider themselves
more offensive as voters than those
negroes"
You may expect to see a great deal
of such stuff as that of the Register for
campaign purposes, and to hear b
demagogue vociferate and reiterate
through the months the same blarney,
meant to bamboozle, and 'rot" uttered
to fill out the appeal to prejudice, but
all will fail we must believe. We must
believe that the true white men of
North Carolina-true to their lineage,
their blood, their race, their families,
their state-will stand together and
vote for the adoption Of the amend
ment that will alone satisfy the de-
mands of the White Race, meet the
necessities engendered of the past, and
restore fully the public peace, the pub