The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-04
E. v. Cox, Ex-Repub|ican Representative From
Pitt, Says Opponents of Amendment "Mean
License When They Cry Liberty

list leader has not had some personal
interest at stake he has been decidedly
mkewarm if not hostile in his efforts.
The fact of the matter is Senator But
ler's office is in danger, and as he can
expect no comfort from the party he de-
serted and as his own is NOT strong
enough. he must needs seek the help OF
the despfsed gold men the reelection
of whose leader he and the majority of
his party opposed. His voice is no longer
the voice of many of his erstwhlle fol-
lowers. 1t is the voice of one CRYING
for q reelection; the voice of one whose
eyes and mind and soul look only to
March 4th. 1901. He endorsed Bryan,
The Silverite in the Nation; Pritchard, the
Goldite in the State. Consistency, thy
name is Butler.
1t is unnatural for Republicans to ex-
pect Populists TO be frantically e1lthusi-
astic in opposition to an amendment to
the Constitution which if adopted reduces
for a time the strength of the Republi-
can party to some number nearer their
own, even though that party be the one
with which, it has heretofore been in
alliance. believe another fight along
the color line will stili further divide the
Republican and Populist parties while the
ranks of the Democrats will steadily in
crease.
a division of the negro vote in the past
among the different parties would have
resulted in incalculable benefit to the
Republican party, but most Of all to the
negro race and the State. But designing
politicians to further their own ends de-
feated every attempt in this direction.
III 11- Icsft fpr. 10 V
10 take to insure any future for itself
in this State, especially in the Eastern
section is to acQuiesce i'll the adoption OF
the amendment and prepare accordingly.
The truth of this statement, though
seemingly paradoxical. ! think l can
show. The amendment ratified the party
though temporarily losing votes can be-
gin anew its structure upon Il foundation
of patriotism and intelligence which once
finished becomes impregnable; unlike its
present one, the whole power of which is
in mere numerical voting strength with
no common ties to bind its parts together.
The young Republicans Of the State are
more interested in the great future. they
believe in store for the party than in the
continuance of the lease of Offices TO
those who now hold the1n-qnany OF
whom they must think or know un-
worthy.
In the consideration of the amendment
let us all remember that the enfranchise-
nlent of the emancipated slave was dleld
out to the South at the point OF the VIC
tors sword and that in the Adoption of
the 18th, 18th and 10th amendments 10
the National Constitution the Southern
States had no free voice. 1T is not DIS
s{,r+. Z hot ~fsYf1ult -
these amendments to Southern constltu
tions, but sedf-protection, self-preserva-
ton and the inhexihle will OF a race
conscious of its own superiority, a race
which has always dominated if
Won will-every other race with which it
has come in contact and ruled with such
mastery strength and kindness that all
the arts and sciences have advanced, fac
tories fiourished. and the people prosper
ed till benighted races of other lands
look to it to lead the vanguard of hu-
man liberty and human progress.
Again, these amendments to the
State constitutions Of Mississippi. Lon
isiana and South Carolina. already
adopted, and that proposed tn the Con
stitution Of North Carolina. were not
proposed, as might have been expected
after the carTetbaggers who had made
the ex-slave ruler over his former mas
ter. were overthrown, about 1876, but
after years of trial and patiece with
the negro as Il voter. sharing the
schools and asylums with him and his
children from store already roo mea gre
whnen the danger arose that
the ignorance and insOlence of
the negro i'll politics might
bo h 70
and black races. No one can truthfully
claim that there was negro domination
in North Carolina except in few To-
calities during or prior to 1888. but II
was the tendency Of evils then apparent
to become greater and greater until I'M
hearable that solicited the factions of the
Democratic party, found them allied ana
insured their sweeping victory
The white man, whether educated or
uneducated. knows as the average me-
gro voter does not know that race and
color in office and power will not hide
his crimes or protect him in violations
of the law. Negroes as a rme expect
their race and even their party to pro-
tect them when arraigned before the
courts. They mistake liberty for license
and hence give their evil propens.tieS
full sway. License they mean when they
cry Liberty" This is one Of the prin-
cipal evidences Of white superiority.
Men may subscribe to the declaration
that "aIl men are created equal and
yet not submit that it is within the
meaning of either the Declaration of
Independence or the National Constitu-
ton that a weaker less intelligent race
shall administer their affairs, for at
the PRONUNCIATION of both those docu-
ments the negroes lived here as slaves
and were just as fit for suffrage then
as they were thirty years ago. Have
we not just been congratnlating our-
selves and each other upon our superior
ity to the Latin race and did not our
navy at Manila and Santiago and our
army Mt San Juan effectually demoli-
strate that superiority. and are we
not now by virtue Of that same superior
ity using strong arguments to convince
the Filipnos Of the same potent fact!
Why not establish universal suffrage in
Porto Rico. in Hawaii and in the Phil
ippincs: Why limit the suffrage TO
the educated. 70 the intelligent. to the
property holder in these islands if tho
mere fact Of living and walking erect
4 II.