The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-20

| to forty acres and mule from the pos
sessions of his former masters, they pc
came as a whole the prey of INSCRIPTIONS
[ demagogues, the carpet-bagger, many or
| whom migrated to the South for the pur-
pose.
The dreadful consequences of the gov
! ernments which followed throughout the
| South, and were only governments in
! name but legalzed systems of plunder,
| in truth, were felt everywhere. lntelli-
| gence and virtue were prostrate under
the weight OF enormous ignorance, mani
pulated by cunning and greed.
| That | may not write with any bitter
| ness of personal recollection, let me
| quote the words of Senator McEnery of
the condition of Louisiana, at that time,
as delivered in the United States Senate:
Negroes became justices of the peace,
constables, sheriffs, legislators, State
officials, lieutenant Governor, generals of
the militia. Even the high office of Gov
ernor was awarded to him. They were
ignorant, insolent and oppressive; and
| corrupt beyond mention The State debt
| in eight years increased from four to
| fifty million dollars. They were police
jurors in the parishes, and councilmen in
| the towns and cities. All parochial and
| municipal Indebtedness increased in the
| same proportion that the State debt had
| increased. The State expenses alone
| went to SIS, 900, 900 year, when the legi-
innate expenses ought to have been then,
as now, one and a quarter millions of dol
lars.
! 1T is well known that laws were enact
ed during recess. They were promulgated
| after the adjournment of the Legislature
| as having been passed, when they never
were presented to that body. The journals
were fraudulently manipulated in order
to show that they went through the regu-
lar course of legislation. The courts, as
a. rule, were corrupt Negro jurors were
empaneled. and no white man had an op-
portunity in criminal cases for a fair
trial.
"a drunken judge on the United States
bench at midnight signed an order or
ganizing the Legislature of the State,
and no member was permitted to enter
the State house without a permit signed
by the United States marshal. Polling
places were before dawn taken possession
of by negroes who stood in long lines,
and it was with great difficulty and hu
initiation that white man could vote.
White men under arrest for some fancied
wrong were brought to the polls under
guard of United States soldiers TO en-
courage edify and amuse the negro vot-
ePs.
THE entire State was/a military camp,
and United States troops were almost
daily employed as political agents. De-
tachments were furnished sherins and
constables to make arrests on warrants
issued by courts of record and justices of
the peace. United States marshals forg-
nf mi cd
States Commissioners to warrants, and
arrested with United States cavalry the
most respectable citizens, on fictitious
charges, and placed them in irons and
confined them in loathsome dungeons.
People lived in terror. Every man went
armed expecting an attack at any mo-
ment from the negroes. 1t was the pas
time Of drunken negroes riding along the
roads, to fire into dwelling houses. At
the end, the State was in a pitiable con-
dtion. Tax collectors had stolen the col
lections they had made. The State Trea
sury had been looted and the Auditors
books made way with, to prevent prose-
cution. Warrants On the Treasury were
begging on the streets, at 20 cents on the
dollar"
The recollection Of that period isl ike
a hell-born dream, and one is almost un-
nerved at the mention 1t is the dark
est and most shameful period in the his
tory of the human race The wonder now
is that by force it was not sooner ter
minated by an outraged people"
The people of North Carolina know that
this recital had its precise parallel in our
own State, and only the interpositon of
Cne fearless judge, arrested the progress
of Civil War; for which forces were ac-
tually enrolled.
By a supreme struggle the
forces of good government obtained con-
troll, many of the plunderers fled, and by
toiisome effort, prosperity and peace re-
turned: yet always demanding sleepless
vigilance, and with many drawbacks to
progress in the Eastern section of the
State especially, from the existence Of
the large, unintelligent, and corruptible
vote in the populous negro counties.
Accepting a situation always deplored
our people resolved to conquer by kind
ness, by education, by privileges for the
unfortunate. The record of the Demo-
cratic party in it's care of the negro as
the weaker race in the State may chal-
lenge comparison with that CT his warm
est friends anywhere in the world. He
was given an even proportion of the hard
earned taxes Of the whites although the
payment was as "a to 6 for many years.
He had the first institutions especially
built for the colored deaf and dumb and
blind, and insane, in the history of the
world. He has today, in the colored
graded schools of the towns, chiefly sup
ported by the whites, far greater advan-
tages than the white children of the
country may hope for, in long years to
come.
He had also special normal schools to
train his teachers. supported by the
State, and an excellent Agricultural and
| Mechanical College, which, though or
ganized by help from the United States
is assisted by State funds and public
! sympathy and placed under a faculty
wholly of his own race.
What was the response to all this?
With a few shining exceptions he has
invariably allied himself with the ele-
ments of misrule and corruption, and the
mass of 10000 voters of his color is the
most serious menace to the stability OF
| institutions the efficiency of law, and