The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-27
FIAT CITIZEN A FAILURE
THE ANGLO-SAXON WON THE
RIGHT TO VOTE BY SACRI-
FICE.
LAW MUST STAND OR FALL AS A WHOLE
The Proposed Constitutional Amendment Was
Not Intended to Work Detriment TO
the interests of the lncom-
petsnt Citizens.

peteHl ClllZenSi
To the Editor: 1t may be safely as
sumed that within every Commonwealth
there are three classes of citizens: The
incompetent citizen; the safe citizen and
the complete citizen. 1t may also be ac-
cepted without controversy that it is the
duty of a State to do all in it's power to
prepare all its inhabitants for complete
citizenship, and to guard itself against
the influence of the incompetent element.
Admitting that North Carolina is not
excepted from this rule of Common
wealths it hehooves every thoughtful
and patriotic man among ms to face the
facts. in order that we may meet the
issues which belong to this supreme
question question OF fitness for full
citizenship.
1t it impossible for even the politician
to whom the blindness of self interest
has happened in part-nay, even the
Republican politician of 1S9S--to hide
from himself the fact, that we have
among us, the incompetent citizen. Ii
this element existed among us as only
a small percentage of our population so
as to be capable Of political absorption.
by the intelligent and patriotic, who know
what the best interests of the State are,
and are willing to sacrifice to advance
these interests, we might have hope of
solving the problem by the ordinary
method. But this class is with lis in
force. They are organized to the ex
tent of being blindly subject TO bad
leadership. They are ignorant, mercen-
airy, and unpatriotic. They are hostile
to the commercial interests which fur
nish them sustenanee; to the civil order
which protects them, and to the process
ses which alone are capable of trans
forming them into safe and valuable
citizens. They came into civil existence
under an act as arbitrary as it was I'M
constitutional For more than thirty
years they have been under the binding
domination and debauching influence Of
a political party whose leaders at the
outset, so far as the South was concern
ed were possessed of but two things: a
carpet bag, and an aspiration for political
power at all hazards and for revenue
only.
SOURCE OF THIS ELEMENT.
This element is not the product of
.NOTln 1dIO1lDd 1HSLilullOliS. u W az
born out Of the ahysses of great revo-
luton. 1t derived its existence as a
civic and political force from an act of
supreme violence to the property inter-
ests of our State, and to the Constitu-
ton of the United States. President
Lincoln when he signed the Emancipa-
ton Proclamation called members Of his
Council to witness that the act was un-
constitutional, but he claimed with that
grim wisdom for which he was so justly
celebrated that the only right thing to do
under the stress of circumstances was
the unconstitutional thing. Then fol
lowed the 18th, 18th and 10th Amend
ments to the Constitution of the United
States, all of which were politically con-
ceived for the purpose of foisting upon
certain States Il citizen element which
was wholly without those qualifications
which each State alone had the right
under the Constitution to prescribe as
the conditions Of citizenship within its
boundaries. In view Of these things
there is something sublimely ridiculous
in the antics of certain Republican poll
tici,ans who try TO strain out the uncon-
stitutional gnat from the proposed Con-
stitutiona Amendment, and who at the
same time swallow the whole caravan Of
Amendment camels headed by the great
Emancipation Camel.
When this hoard of incompetent citl-
zens was thrust upon the STATE, ana the
act ratified by force of war preJudlces
and a reconstruction order, our State ac-
cepted the situation in good faith, and
from that time forward has done all
that was possible to develop this mass
Of ignorant and unaspiring people into
good and safe citizens. Through one en-
tire generation, the State has labored
at great costs to prepare this new ele-
ment for the discharge of the duties OF
citizenship with credit TO themselves and
with safety to the State. But after
thirty years of patient and costly eX-
pertinent we are compelled for once to
agree with the most brilliant leader the
Republican party ever had. and TO con
fess that the wholesale and indiscfinin-
ate conferment of suffrage upon men
who were not prepared for it, was
fatal mistake.
THE FIAT CITIZEN is A FAILURE
The National Government by whose
fat this man was made Il citizen de
lure has withdrawn itself wholly from
tbe problem as to how he may be made
a citizen de facto. This, which is by
far the most difficult and burdensome