The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-09
Editor Messenger:

Representative government is or
ganized to express the will of the peo-
pie in the law, and to faithfully inter-
pref the same by the judiciary and en-
force il by the arm of the executive
power.
According to the theory, at least, of
our government, the expression, in
depreciation and execution are all en-
trusted to those whom the viii OF the
people designates.
Everything therefore depends upon
the intelligence directing that will; its
moral and intellectual forces. The diff
ference lies just here, between license
and liberty, between the tyranny Of
the mob. which is anarcy enthrOned,
and the independence and order secur-
ed by the just distribution of the
greatest good TO the greatest number.
The miracle in political history is
the survival of representative institu-
ti0ns in this country of the southern
states. weighed down by an immense
mass, a mountainous bulk of ignorance
and prejudice, incapable OF intelligent
thought, or wise decision, q mOnStrOus
weight to be rolled in any direction
that it's willy controllers and managers
may see fit to dictate.
1t will one day be regarded with as
constituent, that the proud indOmitable
A~nglO-SaxOn people, whose brain has
been controlling the civil policy of the
union for nearly a century. and whose
gaIlantry had led it's arms TO victory,
with Washington at Yorktown, Scott
at Lundy'S lane and Taylor at Buena
Vista, to say nothing of their four
years Of unparalleled fighting against
thrice their number, in the war be-
tween the states, should have tOleTat-
ed the impossible burden laid upon
them.
With 10000 voters, many of them
former slaves, and the mass not only
ignorant. but short of many genera
tions, of the intelligent and unbiased
and i~ncOrrupJible use of suffrage, there
has been a condition of unstable equil-
ibTium, to borrow a term from physicS.
Every election becomes a crisis,
whatever may be the points of differ
ence as to policies in any respect. the
white man has been obliged to sink
all things to prevent the greatest pos
sible calamity to his state, his race,
his best interests, his very home n
sacred shrine of life itself.
The result of domination by negro
votes is always the same. they may be
read in the bloody tare OF San DOmin-
go. in the rapine, bloodshed and ruin
that OveTspread Louisiana for ten
years, the wholesale plumber of South
III III ASN
upon North Carolina, when her judi
ciary was exhausted, her educational
FUND absorbed, her governmental ex-
penses immensely increased and the
effort made to render her forever a
newer of wOod and drawer of water"
to the holders of a vast volume of ficti-
tiOus debts piled mountains high.
Fortunately a supreme effort, n
the RELOCATION of all issues to the rear
but safety of the white civilization, de-
cfrnyn1 tho fnhriR of nnrrIIntinn hnfOrn
time and power had cemented it into
the of our financial slavery
Almost a generation passed, when a
body of citizens, eager to cer>
tain theories of reform, and forgetful
Of the invariable result Of counting the
vote controlled in the interest of the
negro, in the delusive belief that the
negro would be content to vote and
shout, and seek no power or profit for
himself. were shocked to see in a
brief time over one thousand negro
office holders in eastern Carolina alone.
But the worse thing they saw was,
what might have been fOretOld from
the beginning and nature of things,
that men who sought the votes of ne
grOes as such. Tot being able to appeal
10 higher and noble principles for ac-
ton must needs given by pelf and pre-
judice. by the surrender of trusts and
responsibilities to ignorance and bru-
tally. and the result was swift degen-
u IL Al q IOdS "AANa
legislation.
Down the inclined plane to chaos in
society we were swiftly drifting. until
by a mighty CONFUSION in 1898. the
people reasserted their dominion in the
old North State.
1t will be acknowledged by all that
the most extraordinary efforts to re-
deem the land to the control of the
white man, were made, whose fathers
had made it the birth place of consti-
tutional freedom in America, and they
We're successful.
But why should North Carolina un-
deTgO this extremity of peril every two
years2 Why should many of her coun-
ties like the long STEERING people of
Craven, EdgecOmbe, Pitt and various
others where a great mass of negro
voters are found, be menaced with the
return of such conditions as prevail
ed in New Bern, Wilmington. Green
Vile and other towns of our fair state,
that were almost uninhabitable by de-
cent and Self-respecting white people.
With a patience that is wonderful,
in common with other states of the
south, We la for a generation strug-
gled on. bearing this weight of the
black vote. and seen it persistently
thrown against all our best interests.
Blind unreaSOning. moved by leaders
that drove the mass like sheep. and re-
jecting the counsel of the best of their
race, because it did not crafty passion
OF promise ONCE. lHlS evil DlIShl lnlS
aggregation of power without knowl-
edge yet remains in our midst. and SO
long as it exists, nothing however val
ued or sacred in our public policy and
established customs can be said to be
permanently safe.
We have tried to leaven this great
mass. forced into our vote by practi-
cal coercion, by combined fraud and
military power, we have given privi-
leges of every kind to the negro. and
have even paid twenty times his taxa
ton for education, and yet bestowed
it upon him per capita with our own
children.
Nothing remains to insure the per-
manency of good government. but to
restore the keeping of the suffrage to
the guardianship of the superior race,
by the passage Of the amendment pro-
posed by the general assembly.
Other states where the negro popu-
lation was still greater and the urgen-