The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-02-10
FRIDAY. 5000. February 10, 1890.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND
MtNI--N ECESSAIt 40 MAIN
TAIN WHITE SUPREMACY.

We published on yesterday the full text
of the constitutional amendment regu-
lating suffrage which will be submitted
to the voters of North Carolina at the
next regular election. The committee
is authorized to make any necessary
change in the verbiage, but the bill as
printed is substantially the one that will
be voted upon.
The purposes of the amendment may
be stated briefly to be:
1. To allow all people to vote who
can read and write and who pay the
poll tax, where they are subject to poll
tax.
2. To allow all white people to vote
who cannot read and write, provided
they register prior to 1908.
Under the amendment no white man
can be DISTINGUISHED. There was not Il
single member of the Legislature who
would vote for a bill that denied suffrage
to men who have with their fathers al
ways enjoyed it. They have shown their
fitness. They will under the amendment
be more certain of the right to vote all
their lives than they possibly could be
under any election law that could be de-
vised. Not only is no voter denied the
right to vote, and given fuller protec-
ton in the exercise of the franchise, but
emf Up
without any restriction provided they
register by 1908, thus giving the guaran-
tee to every white boy over thirteen years
of age. This will work no hardship be-
cause in the nine years that follow from
the submission of the amendment the
white boys in the State will all learn to
read and write sufficiently to qualify
themselves to exercise the franchise. The
submission of the amendment will be the
signal for revival of education and we
may look for a spirit of interest that will
so envelop the State that by 1908 every
white boy in the State has taken advan-
tage of the opportunities to read and
write that will be afforded him.
In submitting this amendment the
Democratic party does not take any
backward step in its belief in manhood
suffrage. 1t would not submit any
amendment at all if it was not necessa-
ry to eliminate the vote of the hundred
thousand negro voters whose votes have
! been cast to debauch the State and 10
ILL the vote of one hundred thousand
white men. Last November it was only
by such a campaign as exhausted every
resource of the white men i'll the State
that White Supremacy was secured.
That victory was a signal one, but as
long as there are one hundred thousand
ignorant negro voters entitled to kill the
vote of an equal number of intelligent
white men just 50 long are we in danger
Of being remanded to the terrible condi-
tons from which we have escaped.
--
1T is condition and not theory than
confronts u.s." White Supremacy can
not be made permanent until the ire
sponsible negro vote is removed. 1t can
not be removed except by adopting the
constitutional amendment that viii be
shortly submitted When the people 90
to vote on the amendment the over
shadowing issue will be DO you desire
permanent White Supremacy or do you
desire return TO the Negro Rule that
cursed the State from 1895 to 1892
That issue will be clear-cut and plain.
and those who doubt the passage of the
amendment doubt the sincerity and earn
estness OF the determination of the white
people OF North Carolina to maintain
and perpetuate White Supremacy in the
State.
The amendment as submitted is con-
stitutional To that proposition there is
no difference of opinion among the many
able lawyers in the General Assembly
1t is based upon fundamental principles
of law that can withstand any attack
from any source. The amendment OF
Senator Justice to extend the time OF
registration of white voters without linn
it would have been adopted if the law
yers had not felt that it would make the
whole plan unconstitutional. The bill
as presented represents the best thought