The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-02
A DODGE, A PALPABLE DODGE!

Why did not Pritchard, and his lieu
tenant in the senate, the great consti-
tutional lawyer, Marion Butler, try
their hands upon the Louisiana law
if they are so confident it is unconsti-
t%utional,- barbaric and Internal as they
would have their ignorant henchmen
and black allies to believe? It has been
in operation for a year and a half. It
is found to be SO beneficial to Louisi-
ana, so full of blessing to both races,
and all parties, that the republicans no
longer object to it, the negroes who
vote under it find it working well, and
the d~isfranchised negroes are already
Indifferent. The complaint as 20 the
alleged iniquities and wrongs and
abuses do not come from men living in
Louisiana, white or black electors, re-
publicans or democrats, but from Jeter
Pritchard and Marion Butler, two full
fiedged demagogueS, whose entire hopes
of political prefermenr and senatorial
p~rovender hang upon their defeating
the Louisiana law in it's application to
North Carolina. They will go into en-
forced retirement, so far as the people
of North Carolina are concerned, and
their only chance of political reward
itot SolitS liloS - Kill Ei ~ civ
humbug, the India-rubbe1 fellow in the
white house, if he shall through the
power of "the almighty tollar'' once
more be made president oi a country
he has so diligently, SO pertinaciously,
so treacherously sought to degrade, to
despoil, to destroy.
No, Pritchard has not Brought the
Louisiana law in force now before the
Tv-itaI Cto+nc oA,,r IL. bn.
not dared to do so, knowing what tina
court holds. He prefers to defeat an
amendment not in force. If he really
believes one-half he say in his long
harangue in the senate, he will make
an issue over the LouiGtara law at
once. He will fight the monster al
ready ~"devouring'' his poor, unhappy
friends brethren, and not avoid tn
issue by attacking first a law not in
force and that may never be n force
not if he and Butler and the teat-
uckers and the machine operatives
generally can prevent it.
Senator McEnery in his able and USE
full speech in the senate, says of the
law of his state:
1.-The inclusion. of this class does not
exclude the from voting. He has
the TlSHl III COLlIIlOU WIFI lHe Willie
people on the conditions alike applica-
BILE to both races, that he can read and
write or that he owns a certain amount
of real or personal property. He is de-
prived of no right of suffrage by the
comforting of it upon another class. If
the suffrage amendment, because it.
conferred the right to vote upon GER
tain citizens, is to be interpreted as a
discrimination against the egro, then
no privilege could be granted to n
white citizen of a state unless a negro
was granted the same. The fourteenth
amendment declares that the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United
States shall not be abridged by any
state. This amendment was intended to
protect the negro, SO that he could not
be Disseminated against in public
places of amusement and on public
conveyances and in the courts. Suppose
a state should for some eason or other
provide for the free transportation Of
some of its citizens on a public convey
ance, then, according to the views Of
those who complain of the suffrage
amendment in the constitution Of Lou
isiana, the state would be bound To
grant the same privilege to an equal
number Of negroes"