The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-07-06
A SOOTHING FOR BUTLER
James III. Pou Pays His Respect to This
Mantle Quotes Prom Buffers Or
gan to His Confusion.
Raleigh, y. c., JULY

saw lIlOSL ~" CNFdCLOc dRalnSL
Senator Butler, taking his facts from
Buffers own paper.
Referring to the charge SO Otter made
by the fusionists that h democrats
had broken their promises in submit
ting the constitutional amendment TO
h people, Mr.. Pou said:
The democratic platform of 1898 vas
silent Upon this question and the issue
arose during the campaign. At first
h ~fusionists said If the democrats
We're entrusted with power they would
enact an election law modelled upon the
Australian system or like the Walton
law in Virginia. That under such a
disfranchised. In answer TO this
charge democrats everywhere promised
that if successful the democrats would
enact a fair election. law; n which
would prevent frauds upon the part
of negroes but which would not dis
franchise a single person white or
black who was legally entitled to vote.
This promise was generally made and
it has been faithfully kept; and every
person educated or i~lliterate, white or
black, who is entitled TO vote will have
that privilege next August under the
democratic election law. Later on in
the campaign h people of all parties
began to demand the elimination of
the negro vote; this demand came from
populists and white republicans as we'll
as from democrats. In fact one of the
charges the populists brought against
the democratic party was its failure
to adopt such a provision. In its cam
paign book of 1898, page 4, the popu-
lists said.
During a period of twenty years in
which thai party Swayed overwhelm-
ing power in North Carolint, it never
passed a law o made an effort TO
disfranchise or take from the negro
the power of the ballot which they now
declare they SO mortally dread.
-
In nearly every southern state except
North Carolina, the negro Is disfran-
chised, with the result that racial an
JagoniSm cannO be aroused, because
of the absence of a basis on which to
proceed. The same power that dis
franchised the negro in these southern
states has been welded by the demo-
cratic party in North Carolina for
twenty years, and yet no advantage
whatever has ever been taken of that
power"
This is the complaint made by But
Ter, Thompson and Aver in 1893. AS
the campaign progressed the one great
demand of the people was that the is
sue should be settled for all time to
come; and in answer to that demand
the democrats generally promised such
legislation with the limitation that not
a single white mai should be dlSfran-
chised.. This promise of the demo-
cratic party, is Succinctly stated by
Senator Buffers organ, The Caucasian,
- DI;+Ariol IN tic edition nf IOQnpm-
Der Sth, 1898: 1t uses these words:
THE democratic machine promised
the people on every stump that if they
were put in power that they YOU'D
eliminate the negro from politics. Ii
seems that they got twenty-five or
thirty thousand new votes on this
promise. Now the way TO eliminate
the negro from politics is to let down
the bars and invite "Pegleg' Williams
and other railroad agents to come and
take the negroes out by the thousands
or to d~isfranchise the negro by constl-
tutional amendment. We will soon see
in what way the democrats will keep
this promise to the people
And on January 18th, 1899:
The democrats promised in the
campaign not to disfranchise a single
white man.
Before the legislature assembled The
Caucasian began to predict That TINS
promise Of the democrats would not
be kept. On December Sth it had the
following to say:
THE JIM CROW CAR DODGE.
".Since the election there has sprung
up a new issue that was not heard Of
during the campaign or before. 1t is
the proposed Jim Crow car law. The
democrats ran their campaign on the
cry tina the state was cursed and dis
graced and damned with negro doml-
nation. Since the election it seems that
the only remedial legislation that the
democrats propose to get rid OF negro
domination in the Jim Crow car.
They are now agitating this question,
and say it is an awful thing for ne
groes to ride in the same a with
white people. 1t is strange that, ii
never occurred to the democrats dur
ing their twenty-five years of demo-
cratic rule that this j of negro
domination was then in progress and
was just as offensive then as it is now.
One would think, to see the concern
thai the democratic machine is show
ing over the Jim Grow a proposition
hat the peoples party was responsible
for repeating some democratic law
prohibiting negroes to i d in railroad
trains with white people. The mean
ing Of all this is that the democrats
do not propo to call a constitutional
SoiN VI Z IL
the people on the suffrage question,
and therefore it is necessary to get up
some dodge on which to ~ 20 sa tis-y
credulous people that they are doing
their duty in stopping the supposed
negro domination that they howled so
tremendously about in the campaign.
Now in order to make it appear that
the machine has not sold out complete
ly to the railroads they have arranged
that the railroad officials shall at once
begin to declare hat they are opposed
TO the Jim Crow a law, and then
The Charlotte Observer n all the
other railroad rgans are given the
tip that they must at once declare that
the democratic legislature will pass
the Jim Crow a law in spite of the
opposition of the railroads. 1t is a
sham fight and the democratic monop-
oily papers and the railroad presidents
understand each other. The scheme
has been agreed on between them and
the farce is being carried out with
perfect understanding on both sides"
WHAT WILL BE DONE?"
The Tarboro Southerner in an edi-
torial headed: ''Wha will be done"
says: will the next legislature pass
an election law so that intelligence