The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-04-24
POPULIsM PETERING OUT.

1t is manifest that the end OF pop-I
ulism in North Carolina is MOI far dis
tant. In a few years Butler will be 50
despised that no man outside of Samp-
son county will be found to do him
reverence" He has done about as
much harm in five or six years of life
as it has been left to most bad men tol
accomplish in a long life. He is by
odds the most tricky, unreliable, faith
less demagogue in the history of Northl
Carolina politics for an hundred years.
The late meeting at Raleigh showsl
clearly that Butler has not power tol
deceive and bind much more than one
third of the original populists. Therel
is no doubt that half of the men whol
united in forming the populist party
were men of character who %purposedI
well and had genuine grievances they
sought to have redressed.
But it is a singular fact that the pop
ulist leaders took their party into theI
black radical camp when there was not
a solitary principle they favored tol
be found in the republican platform.
with whom they had formed an. I'M
holy and most unfortunate alliance.
On the other hand not to exaggerate,
the democratic platform contained at
least one-half hat the populists pro-
posed to hold and for which they had
deserted that party. A strange, illog-|
ical, unwise policy.
The better men among the populists
a seen all this folly and insincerity
and have naturally as honest men be-
come Disguised, so much so, that they
will no longer follow such a brassy, in
sincere, trading, t~reacherous lead as
Butler.
Delegate Moye said in the caucus
that not a county east of the Whining
ton and Weldon railroad could be
carried against the democrats nor could
the state be carried against them.
This may not have been relished by
some of the delegates, but it is proba-
bly, a sound prophetic deliverance.
One thing is conspicuous-that the
Butler gang are no friends of the ne
groes. The Messengers Raleigh letter
in yesterdays issue said that S. A.
Edmund, one of the leading populists
in the southeastern section, said the
populists were anxious to eliminate the
negro from politics altogether; in a far
more sweeping way than the constitu-
tional amendment proposes"
There was a striking contrast between
~ThompSon's prostration n SINNERS
independence. Thompson has been
fully captured by the glare Of publicity
and the sugar plums Of office. He ad-
mitted be had been a panderer as a
democrat but he had stopped that, and
henceforth would be only a populist
panderer. This lifted the little fellows
and they howled and pranced. Skin
ner was bright and saucy and his plain
statement failed to please the Butler
gang. But he did some scalping, and
left Butler we'll trimmed. He said:
II think the dishonesty and fraud of
Marion Butler at this convention as
disgraceful as the politics played by
Chairman Simmons. Again I ask, do
you want Bryan?"
The probability is Butler and his
henchmen will drop Bryan and COM
bine with the black radicals in electing
Mckinley. Pritchard is evidently an
ticipating his result from what he
said. Skinner cut close and hard when
he told Thompson and Butler hat IF
you are true for Bryan, come forward
and help elect him. Come along bold
ly and face the universe and say you
favor the repeating of the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments to the con-
stitution and then relegate to the states
their reserved right to regulate suf-
rage. 1 would qualify suffrage alone
on racial lines and write it so plainly
! all men would know it; hat all white
men but no one of African race should
vote"
Skinner then said: This is a white
mans country. 1t is his continent. 1t
is better for the negro to be out of
politics"
That is decidedly fetching talk"
The ticket nominated begins with Cy.
Thompson for governor and one Shu-
ford for lieutenant governor, and so on.
There is a little lawyer in Granville