The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-14
WHITE SUPREMACY
MADE PERMANENT
Full Text of the Constitutional Amendment
to be Voted on by the People
in August, 1900.
1t Allows All White Men VINO Register Under 1t Before
1908 to Vote For All Time, Whether They
Can Read And Write or Not

Senator Butler has published in The
Caucasian of January 4 a letter to Mr..
George Wilcox, defining his position in
reference to the Constitutional Amend
ment. In brief, he says that he has seen
much Of the evils OF the race issue belng
injected into politics; that the Demo
cratic leaders have used the race issue
as most effective barrier to the advance
ment of the principles of the Peoples
party, and, In fact, to prevent any indie
pendent thought or action along any line;
and he says, in effect, that the Demo
cratic leaders do not desire to remove
the race scare-crow from campaigns" To
do so, from their standpoint, he says,
would be foolish.
Again, he remarks that while he knew
that 'fhey did not, i'm submitting the
amendment, intend to rob themselves of
their only effective campaign issue by
removing the negro cry from politics, yet
decided If the proposed amendment was
constitutional and would result in any
way in making it less possible for them
to use that demagogical and dishonest
cry, and if there were no danger lurking
behind it, that | could support it, or at
least not actively oppose 1T.
Senator Butler then proceeds to point
out--frst, that under the amendment the
country negroes will be disfrancised.
while the town negroes will not be; that
about fifty thousand negroes will not be
MISUNDERSTANDING them the town ne
groes. And he objects that the town ne
gro cam not only vote, but still cam hold
office. He insists therefore that 1.-The
race issue" will still be kept alive.
REMARKS.
The Constitutional Amendment was
not proposed, as Mr.. Butler seems to
think, as partisan measure. LIT was
proposed to remedy a great evil and ac-
co1nplish q great patriotic object. 1T was
proposed to eliminate the baneful and
ruinouS influence of irresponsible negro
suffrage. A large part of the negro pop
ulation is, as every one knows, utterly
unfit for popular suffrage because of their
dense ignorance and their want OF natural
capacity: and for these reasons their
voting power is a menace to the best inter
est of the people of North Carolina. The
amendment is intended to cure that evil
II the adoption of the amendment does
not entirely remove the race issue 1T Will
become of but little Importance.
Mr.. Butler seems to think the great
evil of the day in North Carolina rs the
race issue. We think the great evil of the
day is the fact that a multitude OF lgnor-
ant and irresponsible negroes exercise
SO much power at the polls and pollute
nublic affairs, not only IN their strong
holds. but throughout the State; that they
and a few mean leaders, by their political
action, blight the prosperity OF the state
and in many sections make the situation
of white families within their influence
unbearable.
Mr.. Butler says that he had decided
that if adopting the amendment would
result in amy way in making 1t less possl-
BILE for the Democrats to raise the negro
cry, and if there were no danger Turk
ing behind it, that he would support
the amendment, or at least not oppose 1t.
Not once does he advert to the gr1ey-
ances and public evils that the amend
ment is intended to remedy and cure. Al
ways, with him, it is partisan politics,
partisan politics, partisan politics.
The race issue, he says. makes against
the Peoples party, and he would there
fore be willing to see the race issue elim-
mated so that his party might prosper
But about the evils that afflict the State
he is utterly silent.
WHY BUTLER OBJECTS TO THE
AMENDMENT.
Mr.. Butler objects, in the second place
that the amendment does not deprive all
negroes of the right to hold office; and,
indeed Mr.. Alexander McIver, Repub
licap leader of long standing, also makes
that objection. Under the Constitution
only such persons as can vote are eligi-
BILE to office, and negroes who cannot vote
under the amendment cannot hold office
after it is adopted. The amendment will
deprive at least between eighty and one
hundred thousand negroes of the right to
vote, and the elimination of this negro
constituency will, in itself, put an end to
negro ofhce-holding. That is too plain
for argument. Mr.. Butler and Mr.. Nc
Iver, and everybody else, knows that If
the amendment is adopted there will
be no more negro office holding in North
Carolina. AS matter of course, where
their race only is concerned in connection
with the schools, for instance, few me-
groes may be permitted to hold office;
but if the amendment is adopted it will
be impossible for a negro to be again
elected to a political office, or be elected
to any position where he will come in
touch with white men or white women
Of the State, or exercise any control over
their affairs. But Mr. Butler and Mr..
McIver are not satisfied with this practi-
cal removal of the negro as an office
holder. They insist that the law should
say in so many words that no negro
shall hold office" This is peculiar po-
sition for men to occupy who are anX-
iously insisting that every negro shall be
allowed to vote. Think about it; these
men. political bed-fellows with Senator
Pritchard, ard who belong to a class of
politicians who have looked to the negro
party for office one of them now hold
ing the high office of United States Sena-
tor by the negro vOtes,and who hopes
TO be reelected to that office through the
negro vote, Directing to a Democratic
measure upon the ground that it does not
IN EXPRESS terms deprive all negroes OF
the right to hold office! What is the milk
IN the cocoanut? Is 1T that these white
Republicans and Populists desire
that negroes shall be debarred from
office so that only white Republicans and
Ponulists can be put into office by means
of the negro vote? Neither Mr.. Butler