The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-02

THE ONE QUESTION.

whites as to the possibility of unbroken
peace between the races. Some think
the prospects of terrible race conflicts
increase steadily, while perhaps a large
majority think the danger of disturb
ance is entirely local, and that but few
negroes and whites comparatively Will
be engaged in conflicts. Governor
Northen's views in Boston are wise,
most timely and sound He knows
more about the race question in the
south than all the eastern editors com
blinded. He says the races are living
or as friendly terms as possible n
progressing to a peaceful solution as
rapidly as may be, though he does not
limit his time to inc short decade, in
which, as a rule, nothing happens"
There is one thing very noticeable in
the New England sheets. They are
sensitive when you turn back the pages
of history and show up the bad and
cruel conduct of the Yankees and the
New Workers in dealing with negroes
heretofore. The Philadelphia Ledger,
ready to jump On the south, calls this
bringing to light such disgrdceful and
.devilish deeds as barking back" to
the past they would most gladly blot
out or absolutely deny. The north is
not in any fix to be "chunking rocks
at the south. There are far more house
breakers, burglars, ~incendiaries, muir
derers, and SO on in that great section
among the whites and according to the
population, than are to be found in the
south among the whites. 1t is a fact
present conditions are not of recent
creation. They are a growth. They
from bad to worse under the bad con-
duct of the north that poisoned the ne
gro mind by telling it that the south
ern whites were their enemies and
would always be, and by giving them
the suffrage, by making big promises
to them and treating them not as citi-
zens or self-reliant %toilers, but as
Wards of the Nation" with a great
big w and N. The Griffin (Ga.) News
says timely that "even since the war
things have been going on pretty much
as they are today, and it is only once
awhile that a fiery outbreak shows the
volcano upon which we are living,
which excites discussion for a day and
then dies down, and a destructive erup-
ton may never come. There are just
as dangerous classes in the north in its
foreign and native elements, as in the
south, and just as many pistol toters.
Each section has it's WI troubles-the
garden of Eden was not without them
and each may as we'll confine itself to
looking after it's own" 1t has been the
forbearance, the long-suffering, the
uniform kindness of the whites that
have prevented hundreds Of outbreaks,
and have postponed SO long time the
Shnlr Of conflict. The constant inter-
meddling Of the north, and it's lgnor-
4 &c and blowing, it's lies and ISLANDERS,
have made the negroes far worse than
they .Ioull have been. The present
generation of negroes in the u Is
as unlike the generation that was freed
in 1866 as the half civilized African
under British rule in Africa is unlike
the native savage of the jungle. The
"old lime negro" with his kindness,
his love, his f~aithfulness, his patience,
his gladness to oblige, is gone forever,
with the exception of some tens Of
thousands who still survive and are
scattered throughout the south. An
old white man is delighted to meet One
of these faithful, affectionate old men
or women.
1t is noticeable that New England
squirms under the charge Of Governor
Northen that some years ago a negro
was burned for suspicion Of
murder, but they bear with philosophi-
cal equanimity the historic record that
white women were burned because
they were suspected of "conjuring.
There are some northern newspapers
that appear to have some II and
fairness. The old democratic Brooklyn
Eagle says:
1--WE may say whatever We choose
about the virtues Of law and order, but
there are some offenses which arouse
so bitter a feeling of resentment that
mob law for the moment takes the
place of statue law. OF course, this
must be regretted. But if We remember
that the men of the north and of the
south belong to the same human family
and are influenced by the same funda-
mental emotions, we shall refrain from
hasty judgment and conclude that re
form in the south, as we'll as every
where else, must be preceded by the re
moval of the cause of the abuse"
The north has no moral or legal
right to throw the first stone at the
south Let it sweep clean before its