The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-20
Uh Messenger.
A PEACEFUL REMEDY To REMOVE
DANGER.

There is not a state or a community
in h great and prosperous and very
rich north that would ave stood for
a year the conditions that have exist
ed in North Carolina since the en-
thronement of the ignorant and inlet
tered negro by clothing him with the
great power and responsibility of the
elective franchise. Massachusetts
would have Toared and "cussed," SO
that Bunker Hill would have shaken
and ghosts would AVE appeared in
FaneuI Hall. if such a cruel fate had
befal-en rs civilization. Dead Puri-
tans might nave come forth to turn
over that Rock" they were 50 proud
OF. if it were possible for the departed
to revisit it the scenes of their achieve
ments. The most dangerous, the most
igr rant. the most su~perstTious. the
mo- incapable. the most untrain-|
ed element in the state vas put in
chsrge, and mean, corrupt, vicious
white traitors and traders deserted
1hzir kith and kin, their %neighbors and
race, and used this element for their.
own personal, selfish advancement and
aggrandizemenc. and to the oppression
and robbery of the whites. and to the
serious injury Of the state in all of it's
institutions n interests. 1t was.
''hell turned loose" in North Carolina.
II is no wonder then that the two
able Vt from two other southern
states, who spoke in behalf of North
Carolina and PTS peaceable plan of
~Temedying a great evil and curse,
should have spoken such clear and
direct words for the proposed suffrage
~amendment to our constitution. Il is
a great thing 10 live in a free cOun>
try. Ii is a great duty that falls upon
a man when created by law an cleo
tor. 1t brings with it responsibilities of
a serious and impressive character.
Even men who have come down from
generations of educated forafathers do
not not always prove themselves equal
TO the great task devolved upon them,
and establish by their works the con-
Tincing fact that they are every way
capable of doing the work assigned
wisely, justly, humanely. Said Senator
Money. of Mississippi, in his excellent
and able speech in reply to P~ritchard:
AS a matter of fact. the capacity
of the white man to govern himself has
never. yet been finally demonstrated
We are making perhaps as grand an
experiment. as was ever made on the
face of the earth, but we are just now
approaching what l may call the cru
cial period in the history of this cOun-
try, whenSit is soon to be determined
whether the white man. with his in
herent capacity, with his sustained
resolution, his fixedness of urpos his
intelligence, and his public virtues,
will be equal to the task of self-gov-
eminent, at which so many other peo-
pies have failed before in human his
tory.
MI. President, there is an instinc-
tive feeling of self-preservation in this
race, in every race. AS l pro
F, ceeding to say, we have reached the
point in our history when 1T is to be
show whether the American white
man is capable of continuing a self
governing republic. . ut gives me
no pleasure to depreciate the African.
I know that under certain conditions
he has attained a certain degree Of civ
iliZatiOn, but lit has never occurred any
where on this globe except under the
hot-hOuse influence of European or
American civilization. and it has al
ways happened, unfortunately, that
whenever the sustaining hand of white
civilization has been Withdrawn he has
rapidly reverted to his original saw
agery. That is a weight that is con-
tinually and necessarily drawing us
down; ard if any state by cOnstitu-
tiOnal n hods can relieve itself of this
in -ubus nobody, in my opinion, who
V, ues ne prosperity of this country
al , he permanence of free institutions
81 nd make objection.
Ir. President, we know the history
of lie African All home n in the old
esl colonies in he world. We know
what he has done under Spanish, Eng
lis, Dutch and French domination.
VI know today where the most intel
Ii 1T black people in the world are
found, where their conditions are best.
They are those who AVE been enamel
pa,ed from slavery in the United States
and in the English, the Spanish, the
French. and the Dutch West Indies,
where hey have been sustained like
ships fl,ating upon the tide of white
civilization. and when that is with
drawn they immediately sink into the
mud"
North Carolina is seeking to solve
a most perplexing, difficult problem in
political life-to eliminate practically,
fairly, humanely, that part of the cleo
torship that menaces all the time both
civilization and prosperity, both law
and peace. But for white tricksters,
magogu and traders there would
be no peril attending the experiment.