The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-01-17

OF the Wilmington ReyOlutfoR-His
Yankee Audience Swallow Some Bic
fPra1idence .aournal.O

i%[AASC
Colored men and wemen-twe=thirds
women-nearly filled Music Hail last
evening to listen to "A. L. Manly. He
is the editor C The Record, who dur
ing the recent race war (the handbiAs
called it @-tmassacre"s was driven from
Wilmington, N. c.
Editor Manly spoke of the troubles
through which he passed in North Car
DINA and explained his at one-time ia
nous editorial.
Among the hearers were the mem
bers of the First Separate Company Of
the Rhode Islam militia, who were in
full uniform. Rev. w. H. Coffey, pas
tor of the First A. NJ. z. Zion church,
Winter street, presided.
1t. was nearly 9 o'clock when law
yer w. A. Heathman opened the meet
ing. Anna Grants piano solo,
Rev. w. s. Hollands prayer, OhveryJ.
Taylor's tenor solo and Rev. w. H.
Coffey's introduction as master ofocer-
emonies preceded >Manly's speech.
Rev. w H. Coffey said there was OF
thing that he wished to refute. he
does not, he said, believe that the
white men fear he olored man when
their wives or daughters are lear be
fore the war they trusted him and now
they trust him, but for pretext-to
secure political power-they claim they
are afraid of him. The colored manEhas
no need to seek the white women as
he has in his own race women OF all
shades and sizes and OF equal cultAre
with white women to Choose from. The
speaker offered two suggestions to his
listeners. He told them not to hang $50
tenaciously to one political party-be
like the Irish and the Italians, indie
pendent, to learn the better trades.
Then Editor Manly began his ad-
dress. In synopsis he said: "Intimida-
ton, arson and murder are the crimes
that the good people of Wilmington, \.
c., have been guilty of. The mayor
and governor were in eellusion with
them.
I'm March, 1897, the republicans car
ried the city. Instead of taking defeat
gracefully, the democrats tried to get
into the city hail to seize the public
records. The doors were barricaded,
and thus they were kept ouf. Then as
S~assinatiOn was talked OF.
Until June, 1898, there was good
government, and capital was begin
ming to seek opportunities IN invest
rment.
"In the convention of this time the
democrats tried to secure control. The
populists fused with the republicans
and thus came the first thought Of ne
gro domination. The white southern
press lHtH lIlSu W IL up lIS SAIlACiio
against the colored men. They drew
cartoons, they published stories of
crime, and they printed editorials that
tried to make out hat the cOloreu men
were beasts providing the streets in
search of white women.
"It was in reply to a speech of a
Mrs. FELTON, that I wrote my editorial.
She claimed that the negro should not
have been given the right to vote. 1t
made him arrogant and lifted him
above his proper position. She meant,
/ suppose. that Of the servant.
"The following Sunday, August 31st,
The Messenger printed only a part of
my editorial, and said that something
ought to be done to the negro editor.
A few knots OF white men gathered
near the office, but they did nothing,
and I continued to work.
"The democratic campaign opened in
September, and the whole basis for it
was negro domination Indecent lit
erature was scattered, and red shirt
clubs were formed.
Senator Tillman came into North
Carolina and made a speech in which
he said that he heard that they had
a big black negro editor who had in
suited the women of the south. He
asserted that if I were in his state,
I would be lynched before the ink was
dry on my paper. Then he said that
he. knew that the North carolinians
We're NdS UIdFc DIS II oOuth
ians. Bullets, he said, were better
than ballots in the case of negroes.
after that a meeting was held and
some colored men, among them myself,
were picked out as good persons to be
rid of.
"Then the white people called upon
the white republicans to stop their
campaign. Prominent ministers of
Wilmington went to the governor and
persuaded him to forbid Senators But
Ter and Pritchard to come to Whining
ton.
con the evening of October 21st, af-
ter a speech by Colonel A. M. Wad-
dell, a we'll known citizen, armed mobs
patrolled the streets. No stores would
sell the colored men any powder. Often
during these troubles I advocated
peaceful methods, and urged the coll
ored citizens to do nothing to excite
the whites.
"a friend came to me to tell me to
leave, for they had decided to put a
bullet through me. My mother finally
prevailed upon me to leave. I thought
that after a few days of my absence
that there would be no cause for any
crimes. Then I could come back. Men
stood about the house night and day,
waiting to see if I was going to leave.
The only thing to do was to disguise
myself and go on the train. So / bought
a ticket, and went to Washington,
there putting my case before the adj
ministration.
"I was told that the country was
powerless. Besides, it was too busy
settling questions in the Philippines,
n could not stop such pastimes as
shooting down 'niggers,' or words to
that effect. I said that I was sorry
that the nation had such a wide spirit
of humanity that it could fight for the
Cubans but let the negroes be massa-
cred at home.
November 9 the citizens commit
tee went to the city hall and had all
the officers turned out. Some of these
unfortunate republicans were negroes,
but most of them were white men. The
mob then organized itself. a commit
tee of protection and drew up resolu-
tions recommending hat the white
leaders of the republican party and the
colored men be banished, the Record
A<