The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-06-05

-ALA ALACLE1lCo lG lOI6
swore himself in doing so.
Ii the amendment or any part of it
is pronounced unconstitutional, the
whole becomes void. While this is
believed to be so now the Legislature
when it meets next month will, by
amendments, place it beyond contra
diction.
AS to white men being disfran-
chised, only foreigners who did not
vote in some State before 1852 and
who cannot pass the educational test
are affected. All tax-paying sons,
grandsons or descendants of those
who voted in any State of the United
States before 1867, and who become
twenty-one years of age prior to 1908,
can vote as long as they live in the
State.
Representations that white men
are otherwise disfranchised are false
and made to deceive the ignorant,
the unsuspecting and the unwary.
If any n who becomes twenty
one years of age before 1908, or is
now twenty-one years of age voted
before 1852 or had any ancestor who
voted before 1867 in any State of the
United States, he is entitled to vote
as long as he lives in the State
One strong evidence of the negro's
unftness for suffrage is that his own
party has practically disfranchised
him as far as they had power in ex-
Guiding him from their conventions
recently held in this State and boast
ing of how few negroes were in at
tendance. They have "hid him un-
der a brush pile" desiring to conceal
him until they can use him against
the white men in the general cleo
ton.
IF the negro is not capable OF partici-
pating in the conventions of his OWN
party and aiding in selecting its can
didates, he is less fit to take part in
choosing the officers of the counties
and the State and determining what
its policy of government shall be.
1t is said that when the first negro
troops were raised that a white man
who desired to secure enough men to
entitle him to a lieutenancy employed
a "smart " negro whom we will call
Jim to aid him in inducing the col
ored brother to enlist. Jim found
Sam who had come from the same
neighborhOod and took him out to
the camp. Sam saw that the officers
had good tents and rations and there
was frequently in the tents some
thing to drink that the officers were
allowed to pass out of camp without
~hinderance, while the private lived
about like he had done on the planta-
ton and had to have permission when
ever he went out of camp. He OBJ
iected to putting himself in such a
position. Jim told him that that was
all right: "No trouble about that.
After you jine, you may be walking
about camp, pass the officers tent
and see him eating beef steak and
taking a drink. You can go in his
tent, eat and drink with him if you
won't to, but you won't want to. You
see him pass the guard without be-
ing stopped you can too if you want
to, but you won't want to-" 1 sup
pose the negroes did not "want to"
attend the conventions.
That there is a desire on the part
of a large portion of the people for
this change is known. Surely the
legislator who affords them an OPP
portunity to express their views is
not blameworthy. It is simply the
initiative and referendum-allowing
the people to pass upon a proposed
reform.
HI RESULT.
The result, if the amendment is
carried. will be honest political meth
DDS in the State and better legisla-
tion. No man can longer as legisla-
tor the role that he "a do
as he pleases that as long as he
abuses the white folks the negro will
stand by him. Nor car one, on the
other hand, assume to follow his own
inclinations on the ground that the
returning boards will make it all
right. The amendment will be fol
lowed by a primary nomination"
law as has been done in the other
States and the. occupation of the po-
Iitical boss will be gone.