The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1900-08-30


Right of Franchise at the Time and
in the Tanner it Was Done-A Wrong
Which is at Last Being Righted.
(Newport News Herald)
On more than one occasion the
Herald has declared itself in favor of
an educational qualification for the
voters. The Herald has not been in
the least mealy-mouthed about it and
has not hesitated to say in the plain
est English at its command that
demand for an educational qualitica-
ton meant the practical elimination
from politics of the negro, or to be
put in yet palmer English, the dis
reimbursement Of the negro voter.
The editor of the Herald has always
believed that the enfranchisement of
the negro was an iniquity and an in
justice practiced by the power of
might upon the helpless people and
that in time eternal Justice in the
hands and under the guidance of ON
impotence would, by human aid, wipe
out the wrong and do justice to the
elect-the Anglo-Saxon race God
moves in mysterious way, His Won
ders to perform"
Slavery, we believe, is and ever has
been an abomination in the sight of
the All-wise. In His own mysterious
way He removed the shackles from
the ignorant bondman of an inferior
| race in this so-called land of liberty.
To do this it may have been necessary,
seems to have been, was necessary
for time to, in a certain way, en-
slave those who were once masters.
1t was slavery in a very mild and
merciful form. 1t was only political
slavery. For thirty odd years the
white people of the South have been
these political slaves. The constant
fear of negro rule, negro domination
and a return to African methods, has
kept the white men of the South in a
line that has not always been con-
genial to them, nor always in strict
accordance with their mate ideas,
freedom of thought and independence
Of action.
But, in the wisdom of Him who
errs not, the emancipation day is
surely dawning. The first rays of the
dawning day were seen on the banks
of the Mississippi, and Mississippi
and Louisiana emerged from dark
ness, and then came South Carolina.
Now old North Carolina has pulled
the negro out of the woodpile, and
next will come Virginia.
What do our Northern friends think
about this thing? Let paper in
rock-ribbed Connecticut answer. Read
the following from the Hartford
Times, which is pointed and to the
point:
"Whatever else may follow from
the election in North Carolina, there
can be no doubt about what has hap
pened to the Populist party there.
There will be only two Populist men,
bers of the next North Carolina Leg
islature, and the party which is rep
resented by Mr.. Marion Butler in the
United States Senate will cease to be
political force in that State. On
the other hand, there will be merely
twenty Republican members of the
Legislature, out of total N EN- bership
of 1874. 1t looks as if a good many of
the white Republicans had tacitly ac-
cepted the suppression of the negro
vote of the State as inevitable, and by
no means undesirable, in the long
run. Indications are not wanting in
South Carolina, Mississippi and Louis
lana that although they may not call
themselves Republicans some, if not
all, the Representative of these States
in Congress will soon range them
selves openly and decisively on the
side of the ideas represented by Mr.
Mckinley and Mr.. Hanna. The ad-
ministration already has the support
of Senators McLaurin, of South Caro-
lima, Morgan, of Alabama, Sullivan,
of Mississippi, and McEnery, of Louis
lana, for its Asiatic schemes, and in
view of the very large manufacturing
interests of North Carolina it will be
likely to come into harmony with the
other Southern supporters of some
features of the Republican party pol
icy.
This will be all the more likely to
happen if the State offices shall for
the present be controlled entirely by
the Democrats, who have put them
selves in control of the whole politi-
cal situation by obtaining an appar-
ent net majority of 50, 553 votes for
the Constitutional amendment which
permits illiterate white Republicans
to vote but excludes all illiterate ne
groes. and places other distractions
in the path of the negroes who may
persist in attempting to vote. Mr..
Mckinley has no difficulty in main
tanning amicable relations with most
of the Southern Democratic Senators,
and probably he would prefer, if the
truth were known, to have a Demo
crat in the Senate in place of a ram
pant Populist like Butler. The other
Senator, Pritchard, is a Republican,
and he will be displaced, also, when
his term ends. He voted for the cur
rency bill which Congress passed in
March, and is man of some ability.
We shall be surprised if the business
men of North Carolina do not put
better man in his place under the new
regime.
Mr. Butler and Mr. Pritchard NAV
unite in an effort to have the recent
election investigated by Congress, and
perhaps they will try to prevent the
electoral vote of the State from being
counted for Bryan. 1t is reported
that Mr. Butler has already declared
that the electoral vote shall be count
ed for Mckinley. But they will get
little aid or comfort from the Repub-
licans in their effort to review or up
set the recent election. The Repub-
licans of the country feel but a Ian
guild interest in the woes of their
party brethren in the South. or in
fact of the colored voter. The Repub
licans of Connecticut, for instance,
have got all through shouting for the
rights of the black man. An era of
brutal frankness has set in.