The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-09-17

which will ever reconcile the whites 70
an extension OF the right of SUFFRAGE
to the free negro. And unless we ad0pt
our laws to the public feelings of the
country, they will forever constitute an
offence to the people. The government
of this State never rendered the free
negro a slave 1t found him in a state of
slavery, and reduced TO that condition
by The agency of others; but the govern
lnent of this State, in his emancipation.
has placed him in better condition traan
he had a right to expect. BUT because
it has relieved him from the yoke of his
master. and extended over him the aegis
of its protection does this furnish any
solid reason why the State should invest
him with the power of ruling over
others? The white portion of the pcnu-
lation OF this country constitutes lie
proper depo. itory CT political power. They
bled for it, they expended their treasure
for it: their wisdom and yalor has pro
served it; they have exercised it in jus.
tice and mercy over the white and over
the black. The right of suffrage is
founded not only ON the interests which
the voter presents for the protection OF
the law in the community in which be
with those who surround Trim, and the
lively interest he cherishes for the prescr-
walton of the existing institutions of the
country. No person can read the Vir-
ginia Bill of Rights without beng fCrci.
lily struck with the manner iii which
the essentials to the right of suffrage
are defined in the 9th Article. 1t is there
proclaimed, that all men having suffi-
L. e int
and attachment to the community. ara
entitled to the right of suffrage. There
is no State in the Union in which the
rights of man are more clearly cOmpre
blended than in Virginia. But the very
same instrument which defines what kind
of person a voter should be, excludes free
persons OF color from voting. He would
ask flf there was any solid ground for
the belief that a free mBllatto can have
any permanent interest with and attach
ment to this country lie finds the
door of office closed against l;m, by the
bars and bolts of public sentiment; he
finds the circle of respectable society
closed against him, let him conduct him
self with as mach prorriety as he may;
he finds himself suspended between two
classes of society-the white and the
black-contemned by one and despised
by the other; and when his fayorite
candidate i'm an election prevails, If COM
municates no qualification to his breast,
for the candidate will be Il white man.
and he knows full well the white
man eyes HIM with contempt. He eau
not. therefore, feel any prGfoCnd degree
of interest in the preservation CT the
existing state of things for he would
fare as we'll Tnsler any other system
If a foreign power invaded
the country. he would as soon take sides
with that power as with che citizens.
of Ibis State for he would still remain
free man, whether he fell into the hands
of the Irish, the French, the Scotch or
the Dutch.
1T is clear to my mind, said Mr.. Nc
Queen. that this class of persons ought
not TO exercise the right of suffrage, aud
he could not believe that it was contell-
plated by the trainers of the constitution
that they should enjoy the rislt under
that instrument. The current OF public
sentiment sets strongly against their ex-
ercise of this right; and their want of
education, the tame spirit of submission
with which they are moulded to the will
of an influential neighbor, renders it en-
tirely impolittc that they should exer
else the privilege.
'r1ne constitutional provisions of other
States of the United States are not o.
binding authority ON us in the reyaSions
of our fundamental charter; but in a NUT
ter of probable eXpedieney, like the ONE
now before us, the example Cf ether
States should fall with impressive weight
ON cur minds. In Connecticut, Il State
remarkable for its tenderness anil beney-
olence to this class of people, they are
expressly excluded from the right of suf-
frage. In New York. no free person
of color is permitted to vote, unless he
possesses a freehold of $3.50, free from
membranes. In Ohio, a commonwealth
Ixopled chiefly by New England, and
partaking largely of its benevolent feel
ings towards this class of people, they
are expressly excluded from voting; and
in the whole Southern and Western
and Northwestern range Of the country,
they are excluded in every State, except
two, land perhaps they are now ex-
Guided in those two,) Tennessee and
Maryland. Why then should we cou-
time this right to them, without the
return of a solitary benefitY'
The total vote of the whole State IF
North Carolina i'm 1880 was about 10000,
and the official returns show that there
were 26,171 votes cast for the "Ratifica-
tion," and p COG votes were cast for
Rejection" Of the amended constitu-
ton; the majority in favor of "Ratiiica-
ton being o,Ao5,
Among the small voting population of
that day, in certain localities TN the
eastern part of the State, the free negro
vote was of great Importance, and IN
close contests between the old WING
party and the Democratic party, the free
negro vote controlled the election for
they held the balance of power. 1t was
so in Fayetteville. for instance, for many
years prior to 1885, as some of the old
cluzens there still remember. In his
speech in the convention off 1885 Mr..
Wilson, of Perquimans county, said;
There are already three hundred color
ed voters in Halifax one hundred and
fifty in Hartford; fifty in Chowan; seven
ty-fiye III Pasquotank, etc, and if we
foster and raise them MP, they will soon