The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1900-07-26
HENDERSON, N. c., THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1900

tell you this is an awful thing that
they have undertaken. 1t is hard to
realize the audacity Of such an at
tempt to distort and stitie the will OF
the people. Nothing but madness,
nothing but the knowledge on the
part of those who tried it that they
were beaten, that their cause was
lost, and lost forever. can account
for it," tremendous applause.)
Senator Ransom then spoke OF the
progress this country has made in tn.
last century, and asked: How was
it done? 1t was done through free
government, made free by the ballot
box. Each man voted his will and
now in this closing year of the nine.
teenth century shall this system be
broken down by Federal officers, who
tell us who shall vote and who shall
not9
"Who discovered this country, re-
claimed it from the forest and the
savage, then from a tyrannical ruler ?
Who since then has built it and
cemented it with their blood? Was it
not the white man, your forefathers
And these men come here and say
their descendants shall not rule Who
built this city and made it that which
you behold to-day? The white man,
but they rise up here and declare by
| their meddlesome interference that
the white man cannot rule it. l will
not call their names. (Applause.) }
| will not even call them men. (Re-
newed applause.) They are midnight
conspirators, black allies of the negro,
seeking to control the election that
they may perpetuate negro rule.
Will they succeed? Voices: mo!
No! Wen show themn)
"And how do they propose to rule ?
BY union of $4,000 negroes and
10000 white men. And how would
they rule? Not by force, but by cum
ming, by fraud, if possible; if not.
then, by corruption.
"Did your forefathers follow Wash
ington and La Fayette for this? Did
you and l, my old soldier friend, fol-
low Lee and jackson for this? Voices:
''No, and We'll not have itr0
"You are right, and l thank God
that August 2nd will end it." Great
applausc.)
Senator Ransom then gave the rea-
sons why the negro was unfit to rule,
telling Of his mental inferiority to the
white race, showing his degraded
moral condition and his physical ina
bility to progress when left alone
Then he reviewed Radical rule in
North Carolina, comparing it with
the conduct of public affairs under
the Democrats.
Coming to the question of the Con-
stitutionality of the amendment, he
said: They say it's unconstitutional,
but they don't believe it. If they did
they would not be arresting registrars
to prevent its adoption"
Touching the XVIII amendment to
the Constitution of the United States,
he said: "There never was a more
cruel wrong committed against a peo-
pie. 1t was war measure put upon
us and it can no more live than can
the foulest abortion survive through
life. 1t is doomed. 1t is gone already
in Louisiana, in Arkansas, in Missis-
sippi, in Alabama, in South Carolina
in sixty days it will be gone in Vir-
ginia and on August 2nd it will end in
North Carolina"
Senator Ransom declared that the
amendment would not be declared
unconstitutional and gave among his
reasons the following: 1.-The North
ern people are with us on the negro
question. They have learned lesson
or two recently; there is hundred
millions of Northern capital invested
in the South. Do you suppose they
are willing to leave it in the hands Of
negroes? They want it entrusted to
white people. No matter where men
live the time has come when they will
stand together when it comes to a
question of the white race against the
black race
"When Worth Bagley poured out
his blood in the Spanish war for the
flag, when Shipp died fighting in the
jungles of Santiago, when Lemley was
shot down on Chinese soil, | tell You
all sectional feelings died. We are
one again and neither the bloody
shirt nor the negro question can
divide us. The amendment is Con-
stitutional and will stand and its op-
ponents know it."