The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-27
A ROYAL WELCOME
TO THE CANDIDATES
(Cotinued from First Page.)

were spoken "a thrill pass over the au-
dience. He proceeded: Then one
day there came clicking over the wires
| to my town the message from Will
mington: For God sake send 200 men;
we have race riot In less than half
an hour there We're five hundred men
at the depot with guns on their
shoulders waiting for, the train, and
| | was one of them
| A furious burst of applause greeted
| this announcement You would
have been there too. (Applause.) !
don't care what your politics is, blood
is thicker than water. Cloud app
plause.) The east and the west is
one, the white man is white man
the world over, and he will rule
1t was great speech-the greater
perhaps for the reason that Mr.. Gil
mer before him had paved the way
for it by reviewing in most eloquent
and splendid manner the political
conditions which made it necessary.
for the white men Of the State to
propose the amendment and rally to
the support of good government and
White Supremacy.
"How did it happen" he asked.
that the right of suffrage was ever
conferred upon the negro? There are
men here with whitened locks who
should hear the story retold; there
are young men and women here who
have never heard it. We hear men
these days praying about the Consti-
tuition and its violation. | want to
say right here that the Constitution
! was never more grossly violated than
! on March 18th, 1867 when the right
to regulate suffrage was taken from
| the States. Men who had been reared
in the midst of civilization and Gull
ture were DISTINGUISHED. The ballot
was taken from those who had follow
ed Lee and jackson and it was placed
/ in the hands of negroes. The Re-
publican party is the DISTINGUISHING
party, by whose vote the ballot was
taken from the white man and given
to the negro. They voted for three
days: then the ballots were taken to
from there from General Canby's
headquarters the result of the election
was certified"
49, Mr.. Gilmer read with fine effect
the following resolution which was
proposed in the convention by Plato
Durham. a native of this county:
Resolved, /, nat the white. and
black races are distinct by nature.
and that any and all efforts to abol-
ish or abridge such distinction, and to
degrade the white to the level of the
black race are crimes against the civ
lllzatlOn of the age and against God.
Resolved That the government of
the United States and of the South
ern States were instituted by the
white men. and that while the lives,
liberty and property of the black race
should be protected by just laws,
these governments ought to be con-
trolled by white men only"
Continuing Mr.. Gilmer spoke of the
, character of the men who were thus
disfranchised. They were men who
i had braved every danger. men who
| had blazed the forests and crossed the
! mountains, men who had conquered
nature and the savage men who had
| spilled their blood for home and
F, country. They were sun-crowned. tall
men who lived above the fogs i'm public
duty and private life, and for whom
were these men deprived of voice
in the governments" For race who
had known only slavery, who were
utterly unprepared for the duties of
citizenship; they knew not even the
meaning of it and rejoiced in it
only as the red man reioices in his
beads and his trinkets with which he
barriers away the inheritance of his
children.
and what happened all over East
! ern North Carolina? There was riot
and bloodshed until the white people
rose in their might, and declaring
such things should not be. dethroned
| the Republican party from power.'
| Mr.. Gilmer is an eloquent speaker.
and his argument today was one of
| great power and effect
The Democratic campaign gathers
| force andSmomentum as it proceeds.
Daily the crowds are becoming larger
and the enthusiasm more intense. At
| Waynesville Tuesday the crowd was
| numbered by thousands: at Marion on
| Wednesday there was the largest as
semblage of people known at a politi-
cal speaking in that county since
Vance spoke here, / am told, and at
Shelby today there was. not man I'M
| der $500 in the auditorium when Mr..
Aycock ended his splendid speech
On the way here last night from
Marion crowds met Mr.. Aycock's
train at Union Mills, Rutherfordton
ana fOfeSC N1ly. AL all these places
the train stopped long enough for
him to shake hands with many of
those present. At Union Mills and
! Forest City he made short speeches.
The candidates leave here Friday
morning for Charlotte where thew
speak Saturday.
Two weeks or so ago the drums of
Democracy beat the long roll of White
Supremacy. There was a Great Coun-
ell of the party captains at Raleigh.
Even the press of the enemy declared
| IT to be the grandest concourse of the
kind any party has ever held in the
State. But the story of that conven-
ton gathering has been told in these
| columns and it is not my purpose to
rehearse it now.
This is written TO say that the work
there started has not been allowed to
wane or wave. Nor will it be until
the votes are counted with victorious
shouts in August. | say this in all
seriousness after following the Demo-
cratic candidates in their campaign
from Raleigh to the extreme West.
From the first speaking at Burling-
ton last Monday to that Murphy al Sat