Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-04-12
AYCOCK BY .ACCLAMATION,
THE DET1OCRATS UNANIMOUS IN
THEIR CHOICE.

of the Democratic party, and authorized the
Legislature to provide for the government of
the counties. Under that constitution the
Legislature provided system of county gov
ernment by which the Justices of the Peace in
the various counties were appointed by the
Legislature and not elected by the people.
These justices in turn chose the County Com
missioners who appoin ted the various school
committees and passed upon the bonds of the
county officers chosen by the people. The
counties of Western North Carolina gave up
their much loved right of local government in
order to relieve their brethren of the East from
the intolerable burden of negro government.
For twenty years the Republican party
waged unceasing warfare upon against the
form of county government adopted by the
Democratic party. They appealed to that de-
sire which has always characterized our peo-
pie to participate in the selection of the Off
GERS closest to them. When the Populist party
came in to existence it joined with the Repub
licans upon this issue and together they won
81 victory over the Democracy. They came into
power with the distinct pledge to restore to
the people local self government and indeed
the act changing the old system is entitled,
IAN act to restore to the people of North Car
olina local self-government'', and yet coming
into power they did upon this distinct
pledge, they were afraid to trust the negro
with the government and put in the statute
provision for the appoin tment by d Judge of
| the Superior Court. of two additional County
Commissioners, and clothed these two with
more power than the other three chosen by
! the people possessed.
Fear of negro rule compelled the Republ1-
| cans and Populists to Introduce for the first
| time in North Carolina since the Democratic
| party abolished it under the leadership of that
! true hearted and great North Carolinian, Gov
| efnor David s. Reid. a government by free
holders, for this act distinctly provides that
| the two additional commissioners shall only
! be appointed upon the application of two hun
! dred citizens, one hundred of whom shall be
| free holders The Republicans and Populists
| themselves thereby to some extent restricted
| suffrage to those who owned land in order to
| escape from the unbearable burden of negro
| rule n the Eastern counties. Is there any Re
publican, is there any Populist who viii deny
| that this provision put in the statute a
! safe guard against the evil of negro suffrage;
| will any of them pretend that any such pro-
vision would ever have been made if only
white could vote They thereby confess,
! and they have put this confession in the form
| of a statute and written it in the law books of
| North Carolina forever, that the negro where
he predominates in numbers cannot be trusted
to govern. They themselves declared his un-
| fitness and published his incapacity.
| Again III 1891 there CAME 1ulO Gn0 EAocul1Ne
| chair in North Carolina a man, who in a pub
lie speech had declared that he was not a
| friend of the white friend OF the
| negro, but friend OF man. With his advent
| to power the negro naturally forgot the days
| when he regarded a savage and with
| eXpectant joy liste2ed to the inaugural ad-
| dress which to usher in that new and
glorious day of political equality, but before
| that address closed we hear this friend of man
TariSl I'm tn TN tha cit ioS
of the State over to the Ignorant and proper
tyless elements, and thereby this friend OF
man declared that fond as he was of universal
mankind, he realized that the negro is inca
pable of governing. the cities in which he pre-
dominates, for surely it will not be contended
by anybody that Governor Russell had other
reference than to the negroes when he spoke OF
the Ignorant and propertyless elements 81
And the Legislature of 1897, violent as it was
determined it showed itself to be to break
all ties with the past and to repeal all Demo
cratic legislation, followed the advice of the
Governor to the extent of providing for the
apppin tment by the Governor in the cities OF
Newbern and Wilmington additional alder
men to those selected by the people This act
of the Legislature and this idea of Governor
) Russell before the Supreme Court OF
North Carolina in the of Harriss VS.
, Wright from Wilmington and that body SuS
tanned the legislation and recognized alike the
unftness of the negro to rule and the right OF
the State to protect itself against his incom
potency. Every judge that bench knew
, that as a matter of fact that legislation was
| passed to discriminate against the incapacity
of the negro and yet the opinion of the Court
does not mention the XIV Amendment nor de
clare the act unconstitutional. So I may be
permitted to observe in passing that the Court
) knows many things as facts which it never
: know judicially. Further confirmation Of
the unftness of the negro to govern may be
found in the open letter which Senator Butler
addressed to the people of North Carolina JUS
before the election in 1898. in which he pledged
? introduce bills providing special form O.
ties where necessary.
In what Eastern counties did Senator Butle
suppose a special form of county government
L necessary and why it necessary
Plainly he meant in those Eastern counties
where the negro predominated and because O.
D the unfitness of the negro to rule. A more
r recent and convincing evidence can be offered
: Senator Pritchard in his speech delivered il
8 the United States Senate January %, 1900
4 uses this language, "In the very nature o
0 things it (negro domination) cannot be. From
the earliest dawn of civilization to this goot
o hour the great white race has given to tn
world its history. its philosophy, its laws, it
: government, and its christianity, and 1t will
+ continue to do so.''
d In . recent speech delivered in Go1dsboro b
Maj. n. L. Grant before the Republican Con
> vention of Wayne county, he declared, .tha
e the negro could not longer hold Office and tha