The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-19
THIRrY-TwoY YEARS AGo-ALEssoN

GnI. Inc l6SSOuS VI eApCIlChSC -
never despised by men of sense. Do
not live in the past while living in the
present. Go forward is what God COM
manded the children of Israel. While
the past comes not back it is filled
with teachings and warnings.
Union county adjoins M~ecklenburg.
1t is a good county with a thrifty, pro-
gressive, growing county seat, Mon
roe. The county furnishes a lesson for
voters in 1900. The county in 1868 was
filled with enemies of the public called
red strings, and they held their mid
night meetings constantly. They were
bent on mischief. on devilishness.
They made the Ku Klux a necessity.
Mr.. A. T. Marsh. in the Monroe En-
quirer, one of the best weekly ex-
changes tells of the d~ark-lantern gang.
He shows how elections were conduct
ed Their by the black radical gang, the
enemies of the white people, the true
people. We wish our readers to read
N AXE note of the way the enemies
and scoundrels conducted elections
when they had a vicious government
and bayonets to back them up in their
v~illainies. Mr.. Marsh writes:
AT first they left the negro out, but
soon took him and every body else
who would join them, and arrayed
themselves against the white people
of the county. A goodly number of
the best white people were disfran-
chised. Sleepy" Downing, of unsa-
worry m was their leader. At the
election in November of that year,
every judge mi manager was a re-
publican. The ballots were deposited
in locked boxes and We're counted by
the managers in rooms with closed
doors, NJ one being admitted. After
the first count they went to Sleepy
who ~recounted them, and finally to
Gen Candy, at Charleston, who de-
clared the result of the election. 1t al
ways gives me a kind of tired feeling
to think of that election, particularly
when 1 hear a republican prating
about a free election and fair count
1t is enough to arouse the indigna-
ton and wrath of any respectable
white man to lear the corrupt office
holding gang talking now of the purity
and sanctity of the ballot and the
right of all men to vote. Back yonder
the foremost, the wisest, the safest
white men were disfranchised, and the
ballot boxes were controlled by corrup-
tionists and conspirators. 1t was this
sort of deviltry that made the Ku
K1ux flourish. In 1868, we were in Ten
nessee, and we have high authority
for saying that there were 0 1000 we'll
disciplined Ku Klux with Gen. Bed
ford Forrest, the great soldier, in COM
mand.
The red string gang in Union, of
course, had it all their own way in the
counting. Their majority was put at
537. How was it composed, and how
control of Union county? Mr.. Marsh
says:
1.-The party was mainly composed of
negroes, deSerterS and their Sympa-
thizers, though there were a few men
amongst their number Of whom we
might have expected better things, out
quite a few. AS the result of that
election we had the most costly coun-
ty government hat the county had
known. The five county commissioners
cost the county $1,000 per annum for
per diem and mileage, Dr. about that,
as anyone can see by reference to the
records. Methods Of letting the people
know when they would be in session
was by a written notice tackled up at
the courthouse. They had man, extra
meetings, at one Of which 1t was said,
and I never heard disputed, that the
only business they transacted was TO
doctor a very sick mule which n of
them had ridden to Monroe. There
were is paupers in the poor house n
they cost the county 5000
You see the fusion gang are the real
successors of hat old robber gang.
We remember hearing one of the old
and most respected magistrates in the
county of Granville. Mr.. Lunsford A.
Paschall, say that the inmates of the
county poor house cost more by the
day thai they would have cost the
county if they had been boarded by
the month at the Marlborough house at
Raleigh. These are samples of negro
rule in the past with corrupt, low
down white fellows to boss them and
to help them to get their share of the
stealings.
Mr.. Marsh tells of the change that
was wrought two years later, 1SIOe
when the democrats got control. In 1870
the democrats took charge of the ex-
penditures. The same number Of COM
missioners cost the county about 200
dollars. The number of paupers in
creased to thirty, and their cost in the
county was about $1,000 and they said
their fare was better"
The truculent, reckless enemies of
the white race in North Carolina are
greatly moved at the very idea of hav-
ing an educational test. They are in
anger at the Idea Of disfranchising So
600 negroes, and are moved to
tears when they pretend to believe
that poor whites" will be disfran-
chised. As to all this they had no
scruples whatever to disfranchise &c.
,OoO or more whites in 1883. and the
best of the whites at that ana tney
know they are lying nov when tney
say the amendment will o~isf-anchise
Ignorant, unlettered white men. Mr..