The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-04
THE NEGRO AND AMENDMENT

Inc defeated managers OF the anti
amendment campaign are already
stating that the Democrats owe their
unprecedented majority to carrying
the counties in which the negroes
have a large majority, and adding:
"This shows that the election was car
ried by fraud" The vote of every
negro county could be eliminated and
still the amendment and Mr.. Aycocll
would have received an unprecedent-
ed big majority.
No evidence has been offered that
the negro was inundated anywhere.
In no county in the State except
in Robson county has there
been any friction between a negro
and a Democrat. The negroes who
failed TO vote-(and most of the ne
groes did register and vote, and their
votes were counted against the amend
ment)-had two reasons, that no
doubt Influenced many:
1. Early in the year they were
notified by the Republicans that they
must not take any prominent part in
politics, must not attend conventions,
and must take back seat in all Re
publican gatherings. The spectacle
was witnessed this year in Raleigh
of a nearly white Republican conven-
Ia I, e;,,
the negro became a voter AS the
proportion of the negroes to the
whites is four to one in the Repub
lican party, their elimination was the
practical disfranchisement of four
fifths of the voters. The whites made
themselves a small clique of bosses
and told the negroes that in this cam
paign that they couldn't have voice
in naming the candidates, all the part
they could play was to vote for them.
IF | am not fit" said one negro
whose chief happiness for twenty
years has been to attend Republican
conventions, ito help select candi-
dates for whom | am expected to vote,
the Democrats are right in saying that
| am not 'ftten' to vote"
2. The Populists, who were ANAL
gamated by the Republican party, in
their State convention, after declar-
ing that the Populist party lis and
has always been more distinctly than
any other party in North Carolina a
white mans party and is more anX-
iouS than any other party to solve
the race problem" the platform went
on to propose in lieu of the amend
ment submitted by the Legislature
and supported by the Democrats, as
1.-The best solution Of the race ques-
ton that is possible as long as the
18th amendment to the Constitution
of the United States stands,' the fol-
lowing:
Amend section V, Article G, of the
Constitution of North Carolina by in
serting among the disqualifications
for office, enumerated therein, the fol-
lowing, viz: All negroes and all per-
sons of negro descent to the third
generation Inclusive
1t did not stop there but promised
to maintain a legislative system of
county government for all the negro
counties" After such resolutions, the
Republican party, composed four
fifths of negroes, fused with the Peo-
pies party which put the whole ne
gro race on the save level with luna
tics, atheists and convicts, and barred
them all from holding office. IF /
am not fit to hold office was a COM
mon expression among the negroes,
''as the Populists say, then / am not
FIFTEEN to vote for the Populists for
Office On top of these declarations
Cyrus Thompson, Fusion candidate
for Secretary of State, went about
saying he had never voted for a ne
gro and never would" Those things
were not calculated, do you think, to
make the negro very anxious to vote
the Fusion ticket? He was "between
the devil and the deep blue sea-