The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-22
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
FOR NORTH CAROLINA.

The amendment to the constitution
regulating suffrage in North Carolina
is of extraordinary Importance. 1t is
vastly above and beyond all other
questions agitating the public mind In
this year of grace A. D., 1900. Upon
its adoption depend great results. 1t is
pre-eminent, far and away superior to
the legislature even, or the presidency,
or the successor of Butler, who so loves
unrighteousness and the loaves and
fishes. If the amendment shall be de-
feated. as Jeter Pritchard, the Brown
lowite, prophesies, who BODIES no good
to North Carolina, it will set back in
dustr.al progress, repel capital, arouse
bitter race antagonisms, stir up strive,
destroy practically negro education In
North Carolina, and make the state
chaotic and desperate. No more negro
rule in North Carolina is the determi-
nation of the white race, and a thou
sand Tennessee Pritchards and Samp-
son Buffers can not bring it back to
paralyze and curse and destroy The
Anglo Saxon remains to rule in this an
cient and noble commonwealth or
know the reason why.
The white men-the nation builders,
the born rulers, the supreme dominat-
ing race on the globe-are not the en-
emies of the negroes. They are the
only white people in America who
really understand the negro. compre-
bend both the good and the evil in his
makeup, and who are friendly to
him. 1t is by their acts through a life
time hat they have shown this. The
best friends, the Surest, the truest
friends the negroes have yer had or
now have are the intelligent, indus
trious, sober white men in the south.
The attempt to adopt the amend
ment does not originate in hatred,
malice, Observation-Disclosures, but in a high
sense of what is proper and just and
safe for both races, and for the south.
The men in the south who are northern
born and have come into the south
within the last ten or fifteen years
share with the native whites fully in
the conviction that safety, prosperity,
peace and education are all involved
in the plan of depriving ignorant, in
capable negroes of the right to rule,
to vote to tax the whites, and to have
power in the naming of officials. For
thirty-three years or more, the negroes
have invariably selected demagogues,
self-seekers, hungry ~partisans, often
without character or principle, to con-
troll the affairs of a great state, and
run a great nation.
The republicans in other states have
made tests as to voters. In Hawaii the
franchise was refused to races better
qualified to vote than the average
negro. The federal government, con
trolled by republicans, has drawn the
inc in that added ountr so is to ex-
clude not only negroes, but h brown
race, and the yellow race. So the people
in North Carolina nave a very great
duty before them now. 1t is to so leg
islate and to so vote as to control hence
forth the destinies of North Carolina
for all peoples within our borders,
whether white, black or yellow. brown.
g~inger-cake, or what not.
We make here an extract from the
admirable address of Rev. DR.. John
w. Stage, of Charlotte, delivered at
New Bedford, Mass, on 9th ult. What
is true of Charlotte is true of other
towns and of other states. DR.. Stage
told his northern hearers:
In the government of this city, the
cOlored men take no part. We have not
now, nor have we had for many years,
nnu nntinnn1nn or nfhnr nfGnnrc nnn
nected with the city government ex-
cept of the white race. In the govern
ment of the county no colored man
takes any part whatever. In this city
and county, where the government, by
tacit consent, has assumed this phase,
colored men being excluded from any
participation therein, the rights of the
colored man have, as / have been in
formed, always been, and are now.
most safe'y guarded. His rights of
property; his rights of person.; the
safety of his family, the sanctity OF
his home, are as we'll protected in that
county n in that city, as the rights
property and home of any white cit
izen. The colored man is there the alb
oIu equal of the white man before
the law. He is not his equal socially.
He is not allowed the hope to be his
equal socially. He has learned that
neither the southern man nor the
northern man, who has come to dwell
amongst us, desires OF will permit his
domination in any governmental at
fairs, but he knows well that his rights
are safe in every particular, and he is
never discontented and never dis
turbed except when bad men, for their
own selfish purposes, work upon his
prejudices and ignorance, and either
buy his vote for money, or else excite
his passions and his fears by falsehood
in the hope that, with the assistance
of the ignorant colored vote, men who
could not otherwise hope to gain office
may succeed, by such means, in accom-
plishing their wicked purposes"