The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-27
DIR Messenger.


It is plainly a white mans duty,
solemn, necessitious and imperative, toI
vote for the suffrage constitutional
amendment, and to do ali he can de-
Gently dc to make it a success al thel
polls. Tt will be indeed most pitifulI
if any man calling himself al
democrat should turn against his
party, his neighbors, his friends, his
family, himself, his state n his race
and vote 10 re-establish in the EASTERN
and central negro counties the reign of
~rascality and the blacks. No democrat
can reconcile such an act with his con-
science if he is ordinarily informed. If
reasonably intelligent he must know
hat If the proposed democratic amend
ment is rejected that it will be a sig
nal for practical negro supremacy I'M
der malicious, office seeking white rad
icals. Every informed a knows how.
it was for many years after the war
ended, n how it has Jared with theI
white people during the last five or six
years. The reign of the combine was
the reign OF ruin in many directions
Let it be known that henceforth North
Carolina laws must be made at the die
tation or consent of 130, 900, more or
less, incapable negroes, and capital will
flee the state as men and women flee
before a West Indian cyclone. Capital
outside will never come in when it is
apparent who are to have charge of
the destinies of a state with 1900, 900
inhabitants. Capital is very sensitivel
and often very wise. Two years or less
ago a northern man of capital visited
Wilmington. He was looking out for
plant to place in some favored locality
in the south. He was on Market
Street. He saw a negro policeman, and
not long after saw a negro health Of
ficer, we him it was. He asked what
hat meant? He was told that it
meant a negro city government, and at
once he said l will go farther south,
and he went. We got that from the
gentleman who talked with the outsid-
er soon after it occurred.
y writer in the Charlotte ObcerverI
appeals to the white men earnestly and
to them:
I'VE. of the good old state of North
Carolina, now have a chance to build
up her latent Industries and those who
oppose the amendment only retardI
them. White men of North Carolina,I
come as N man and free you state
from ignorance. You all know that
this grand old Commonwealth has Suf-I
fered enough by it, and now when you
a chance, use it. These chances
not come often. Possibly this will
no on nnlxr moo fhAn rnn - T-H;nl-
dear people, intelligently, and if you
do you will all come up to the voting
and vote as white men
hould- Array yourself amongi
those you esteem and help them in
this, the greatest political battle they
have ever engaged in. Be wise as you
would van your children to be by
showing them that you are at this time
going to be with people whom you
mean only the advancement of
Us ALL"
Words wisely applied. Let us repeat
the Messenger has already so Of
stated, that no white man will be
1isfranchised- The amendment is not
50 built, is not SO intended does not look
n that direction. 1t will d~isfranchise
10 white man who voted before 1867, or
whose father voted before 1861, or
whose grandfather voted before 1861. 1t
s a lie out of the whole cloth when
any other statement is made. The
men who constructed the amendment
ire white men, and they had no pur-
,ose under heave to disfranchise any
white man in North Carolina either at
he August or November elections or
he elections of the future. They be-
ieve that the amendment is constitu-
ional and will stand the test. 4