The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1899-06-08
CHAIRMAN SIMMONS ADDRESS
ISSUED ABOUT SEPTEMBER 25TH.-'ss
TO the VOTERS OF the STATE.

1t Was to Dsceive-Not Going to Disfran-
the Property and Educational OuaIifica-
tiOn In the State.
Below we give a few extracts of
what Chairman Simmons sent out
through the Democratic papers dur
ing the last campaign. What we do
not copy is on the same line of what
we do copy. Read it and decide
whether he lied or not. He said:
"For the past twenty years or more,
just before every election, the Re-
publican speakers, at their midnight
meetings, have been in the habit of
telling the negro if the Democrats
came into power their right to vote
would be taken away from them. At
ter the Democrats came into power
in this State, they always had some
reason to give these credulous beings
why the Democrats had not disfran-
chssed them as they had before pre-
dicted.
First, they told them if the Dem
ocrats got the State government they
| would disfranchise them. The Dem
ocrats got the State government and
did not disfranchise them. Then they
told them If the Democrats elected a
President they would disfranchise
them. The Democrats elected Presi-
dent and did not disfranchlse them.
Then they told them if the Democrats
got control of Congress they would
disfranchise them. The Democrats
got control of Congress and did not
disfranchise them. All along the
honest white men of the State laughed
at these lies, and marveled that the
negro did not have sense enough to
see that he was being duped.
"Finally the negro himself began
to see through the trick. He had
seen the Democrats in full power in
the State for twenty-five years, and
had learned through experience that
that party did not propose to dlsfran-
chise him, and he, too began to laugh
at these liars, and finally refused to
be frightened by their rot any longer.
So the old Republican scare-crow had
to be hauled down and put away.
"Now these same old demagogues,
aided by few pie-eating and pie.
hunting Populists who used to laugh
|; 1T this fraud upon the negro. have
again brought out the old Republi.
can scare-crow of disfranchlsement
but, strange to say, they are now
using it in an attempt to try and
brighten, not the ignorant negro, bu,
the poor and uneducated white men
of the State. But these willy schem.
ers will be disappointed. They viii
Rnd that the uneducated white men
/, If this State are not so easily fooled
| They will find that while they may
, not have any book learning, they
have the quick intelligence and har6
sense of the white race, and they
will fiud that they are not to be fool
ID, by bugaboo. There is not 6
| white man in North Carolina wht
will be frightened by this old Repub
lican negro bugaboO, and they vii
by their votes teach these fellow
who are presuming upon their igno
8 eance that their intelligence is not t,
be thus triflso with and insulted will
'mpunity They know the Democratic
party was the party that remove,
: the property and educational dis
3 qualifications to suffrage in Nortl
= Carolina. They know that the Dem
. ocratic party has always stood TO
!, manhood suffrage, and they kno,
that the Democratic party will never
under any circumstances under tn
sun, consent to the passage of an
= law which will take from them, how
- ever poor and ignorant they may be
. the right to vote. or which will i
any way diminish or lessen that eres
g privilege. They know that the Dem
ocratic party is composed largely Z
poor and uneducated men, and ths
~ it looks to this honorable class of on
- citizenship for its support, and tbs
1t will in turn protect them in a
their rights of cit zenship; and guar
them, their wives and their chlldre
?. in their homes, their reputation an
- their virtue.
cit must be remembered it is tt
70 Republicans who are circulating tn
20 20 silly story about the Democrat
= Even the Populist wing of that par,
- denounced the story as absurd. 4
barren of truth about some thinj
y as the Hand Book recently issued I
- DIR. Thompson and Hal Aver. 1t
20 frank enough to admit that there
no truth in the Republlcan CLAIM
about the Democrats disfranchisir
- the negro, much less any white ma
ia and that the history OF the pa
ch twenty odd years Of Democratic RI
in North Carolina urOvaa the NIT