The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-03
THE NEW ERA OF GOOD FEELING
AND ITS LEADER.

great victory won in North Carolina
yesterday will find expression in as
many ways as different natures know
how to give an outlet to their Joy,
but the major note in all the shouts
of victory will be a solemn and sacred
| joy such as strong men feel when
| they have been enabled to win great
moral victory. The adoption of the
| amendment will not be received by
the great body of the people in the
same spirit that follows the election
of the party candidate for political
office, for it is a victory for good
| morals, for peace, for freedom from
| menace and the end of bitter race
antagonism. Most men will feel like
lifting up their hearts to the All Good
for delivering the State from the
perils and evils that called for the
most strenuous political action and
! the most terrible strain on all the
people, women and children as well
as men.
The Democrats have conducted the
campaign upon high plane. The
spirit of the leaders in the fight for
the Constitutional Amendment and
the responsibility it imposes was we'll
expressed in the speech of Governor
Aycock when he accepted the unani-
e., ~
the close of what may be truly called
a great Speech" Mr.. Aycock said:
furnish us the, occasion for a better
understanding one with another, and
while restoring to white men the
rightful superiority which God gave
them, let us in the assurance of bet
ter government learn, not liberation
only, but respect as well for the views
of those opposing us. In coming to-
gether for the common good we shall
forget the asperities of past years
and shall go forward into the goth
century united people, striving with
zeal and in generous rivalry for the
material, intellectual and moral up
building of the State.
''May the era of good feeling among
us be the outcome of this contest.
Then we shall learn, if we do not al
ready know, that while universal suf-
frage is a failure UNIVERSAL JUS
TICE IS THE PERPETUAL DECREE
OF ALMIGHTY GOD, AND THAT
WE ARE ENTRUSTED WITH POW
Err NOT FOR OUR GOOD ALONE,
BUT FOR THE NEGRO AS WE'LL.
We hold our title to power by the
tenure of service to God, and If WE
FAIL TO ADMINISTER EQUAL AND
ENACT JUSTICE TO THE NEGRO
WHOM WE DEPRIVE OF SUFFRAGE
WE SHALL IN THE FULNESS OF
TIME LOSE POWER OURSELVES,
FOR WE MUST KNOW THAT THE
GOD WHO is LOVE TRUSTS NO
PEOPLE WITH AUTHORITY FOR
THE PURPOSE OF ENABLING
THEM TO DO INJUSTICE TO THE
WEAK. We do well to rejoice in our
strength and to take delight in our
power, but we will do better still
when we come fully to know that our
right to- rule has been transmitted
to us. by our fathers through centu-
ries of toll and sacrifice, suffering and
death-and their work through all
these centuries has been striving
to execute judgment in righteousness.
That must likewise be our aim; that
our labor"
The white people Of North Carolina
are hostile to negro offce-holding
and they will not permit its continu-
ance. They are also opposed to office
holding by men who win by appeal
ing to the negro vote. But the Demo-
cratic party, which now in public af-
fairs has been chosen to govern this
State, is not hostile to the negro. He
| will find that no prejudice, no intol-
erance, no bitterness engendered by
the campaign will be permitted to
deprive him of full protection to per-
son or property, to deny him facili-
| ties to educate his children, or to
find here in the home of his birth
every proper incentive to thrift and
good citizenship. Many negroes have
been made to believe that the passage
of the amendment would be the be-
ginning of a war upon them. So far
from this being the case, they will
find that when political friction is
ended, they can rely implicitly upon
the justice and fairness of the Demo-
cratic party.
1t was not to be expected that
many negroes would vote for Mr.
Aycock because he was the leader in
the fight for the amendment, but they
will find that the words in his speech
of acceptance will be lived up to in his
official acts. He did not give utter
ance to them in order to secure the
vote of the negro. lie did not court
their votes. He declared his high pur-
pose because he is just and fair
man. IN
''Sun-crowned, who lives above the
fog,
In public duty and in private think
ing"
In this New Era of Good Feeling
which will inallourate tho now com