The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-07-31
THE AMENDMENT y MOVE IN BE-
HALF OF MORALITY

To us the proposed franchise amend
ment is a high moral measure looking
to the betterment Of W races. 1t will
correct a great evil, free the negroes
permanently from white ownership,
set them up on a higher plane Of use
fulness and citizenship. They can vote
or qualify themselves TO vote, n
henceforth can exercise the right of
franchise like free men owned and
bossed by no white skinned traitors
and office-seekers. At present 1t is no
toriou, that the negroes as a class are
wholly unfit intellectually and morally
to exercise SO important n controlling
a right as the franchise. Being morally
disqualified they have really no bust
ness with the ballot. They have shown
since about 1867, that they had no right
understanding of it's meaning, of its
force in the American system of it's far
reach ng consequences. The duties or
citizenship could not appeal to their
limited understandings, and their gross,
fragrant immoralities rendered them
wholly unfit for the place assigned
lIlCII ny IHC II OAAN ~
states, the bosses of the great Anglo
Saxon race.
Some weeks ago the Messenger urged
the moral aspect of the question of ne
gro suffrage. Civilization. honest,
economical, wise, good government are
all at stake now in this issue before the
people. The great Washington in his
1900 hlo olIrocc r n tho A M orr
can people in retiring from the high
office he had so richly adorned and
magnified, foresaw and understood
what were the foundations of a stable,
prosperous, successful republic. He
said it was all based upon the virtue
and intelligence of the people.
The northern people, angry, swept
from their feet, vindicitive and perse-
cutting disregarded all this and so far as
the south was involved, n it's greatest
interests were concerned, they said in
effect give the ignorant immoral, in
capable, i%lliterate negroes the ballot,
for it is not + u or important that cleo
tors should have any sense or have any
morality.
Do Will ICiIcClluB HiSA Tie QucSlIOIi
of voting involves high morality and
intelligence and character. No negro
without virtue and intelligence" can
ever exercise the ballot with wisdom,
safety and benefit to the state. II has
been tried in the south for some thirty
odd years, and all over the dome in the
black radical mud-palace is written
NJ 49, MILL
In a republic the safety of all-the
perpetuity and grandeur of free insti-
~tutions, all rest upon a great moral
foundation. Destroy the foundations
and you topple the whole grand struc-
ture into the lust and ruins. A repub-
lie can no more confer the suffrage
upon a Glass that is corrupt, vicious,
ignorant, and without true moral basis
and escape the saddest results, than it
can build upon the insane, the idiots
the little children. the great criminal
class who are branded by law as in
competent and forbidden.
The acute and wise Montesquieu, had
d clear understanding of government
that it was not governed by chance
He said OF a kingly government tina
there exists always certain genera
causes, either moral or physical, which
act upon the affairs of every monarchy
raise it to grandeur, or p~recipitate i
do its d~ecadence or dissolution" This i:
true, and if true of a monarchical form
of government, how much truer of
republic whose very foundations lie il
the minds and hearts of the freemen
based only on intelligence and virtue
Another writer not so distinguished
but of gifts, said this: Evils lave de
stroyed men, dissolved the best govern.
ments, n thinned the greatest ma
tons" AS people are better educated
they are far less open to the wiles and
lies of cunning. malicious demagogues
False cries, plausible statements, artfu
lodges, treacherous advice can no
alarm or control the intelligent as the.
can and do the ignorant. Sir Waite
Raleigh, so identified in history will
North Carolina, who fell a victim to
false, tyrannical government, held thi
over three hundred years like a wis
and great man as he "A maj
must first govern himself, ere he be fl
TO govern a family; and his family, err
he be fit TO bea the government in tn,
commonwealth" The negroes canno
govern themselves as has been shown
10 be true through the centuries; the.
cannot, therefore, be capable of govern
ing a great state. 1t is wrong as tn
greatest genius Of all the world affirm
ed three hundred years ago. "to brinI
in the crows TO peck tbs eagles"