The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-09-08
SAYS NEGnohs lust GO
Open Letter ON the Race Question from
GEN. N. c. Butler
(Po1fimoro SIM

Olat6S ScudlOI AAoAn 1ouIn No2o1Auor
has written for publication a letter
dealing with the rae problem It Is
called forth by the recent whipping OF
negroes at GreenviIle.
81 am no a~pologist for lawlessness
at the hands Of any class" he says,
"but public meetings and denunciations
will not cure this disease. It is in the
blood and will break out somewhere
else. You must strike at the root TO
eradicate it. The poor white men who
have to earn their bread by the sweat
OF their faces, cannot compete with
cheap negro labor. To attempt to do
SO, implies their degradation and ulti-
mate destruction or e~xpatriation. One
race must go to the wall, and with the
kindest feelings of good will toward
tie negro, I must side with my own
race. Two races cannot live together
in peace, on terms Of equal civil and
political rights, and the sooner WI re-
alize that, the better for both races.
1.-The separation of the races is the
only solution Of the terrible problem.
It is very easy for Tillman and Others
to denounce the lawlessness Of the one
gallus, wool hat crowd Lct y. IL
man and those who join him as the
guardians Of the negro put themselves
in the poor white mans place and walk
between pillow handles from sunup till
shutdown in competition with negro
labor at SIS a month, a peck Of meal and
three pounds of bacon a week.
Some justification for this lawless-
ness may he dug from the depths Of pow
erty in which cheap labor has plunged
many worthy whites. Cheap labor is
the curse of any country. The trials
Of white men for whitecapping would
be a farce and lawlessness would not
end. The government of the United
States ought to appropriate $1,000 600 900
and duplicate it as often as necessary
to assist the negroes in settling a col
ony to themselves. This was done for
the Indians when they could not live
at peace with whites. A temporary in
convenience by the negro leaving the
country might result, but the whites
would meet the emergency.
"The wild harangues Of men who
openly advise the murder of the Toll
berts and keeping the negro in a state
of quasi-slavery deserve the e~xecration
of right-thinking men. That is not the
way to bring peace and order into a
country.
"The methods of the negro do not
justify an attempt to lift him up by in
creased wages. So long as the races
are in immediate contact on present
terms lynchings, whitecappings, mob
law, every form of lawlessness will
constance menace society, Obstruct pro-
gress and keep UP a state of anxiety"
CRITICISM OF BUFFERS LETTER.
The Washington Post says %editorially
of the above letter:
We hardly recognize our old friend.
Hon. C. M. Butler, formerly senator
from South Carolina, in a recent pub
lished utterance which makes him say
that the only solution of the ace issue
at the south lies in a wholesale ex-
p%ortation of the negroes. If We had
been asked to name a man of General
Buffers class in the whole south likely
to cherish such a sentiment, we should
have thought of him last Of all. New
ertheless, he has spoken Cor he is so
reported), and that being the case, we
are bound to give him credit for sim
certify, however astounding the prop
osition may SEEM coming from such
a source.
1t is very certain that General Butler
understands the social, political, and
industrial conditions in his section as
profoundly as any man alive. 1t Is
true also that he is an honorable and
conscientious gentleman, who loves his
country and his people. We are bound
to assume, therefore, that there rave
been, in his state at least, transforma-
tions radical enough in their nature and
alarming enough in their promises for
the future to justify him in the atti-
tude he has now assumed. But we are
fairly familiar with these conditions
ourselves, and Notwithstanding General
Buffers melancholy postulate, we still
believe that there is a practicable way
out of the dificulty-fOr we do not re-
fard General Buffers scheme as practi-
cable. We do not believe that the ne
groes can be expatriated en- masse.
Thousands of them own their own
homes. Thousands of them are indus
trious, conservative, and prosperous.
should say hundreds Of thousands,
in fact. What right have we to tear
them from surroundings in which they
are happy and comfortable? They are
citizens, with equal rights before the
law, and SO far as concerns the element
we have in view, they are at as least de-
citizens as the "one-gallus,
wool-hat whites" who populate the
piney woods and mountain ranges of
the south. 1t may we'll be that quite
recently the situation has been alto
changed. We know OF no such
change, however, and we are not ready
to believe that the welfare Of the whites
north or south, demands such
heroic-may We say violent?-treat-
ment as General Butler has suggested.
1t is urged that the "one-gallus,
wool-hat" white cannot compete with
the negro because the latter will work
for lower wages that he can live upon.
That may be true Of certain parts CT
South Carolina, perhaps of Florida and
Georgia also but ON the greaser estates
Of Louisiana and Mississippi, maybe Of
Alabama, too, the industrious negro
very handsome profits on his
labor, and no poor white" should find
himself unable to exist upon the same
Among the large planters in