The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-19

specific cause or causes OF challenge.
He was required TO cause to be served
upon the party challenged a notice by
an officer OF the law and 10 pay that
officer the sum OF Is cents for serving
notice. II h challenge is sue
ceSsful. the money thus paid for serv-
ing the notice was refunded. otherwise
the challenger must loSe II Like n
law OF 1895, IL cast upon him the bur
den of showing the facts OF disqualifi-
cation, but made no provision for pay
ing him for the expense and trouble
Of securing the attendance OF wit
nesseS to prove these facts.
Its manifest purpose was to prevent
and defeat challenges and thereby
make IL easy for bad and corrupt men
to pad the books with fraudulent reg
istration-
Under the election law OF 1885 the
democrats did have some voice in the
selection of election officers and sumo
representation upon the several election
boards, though IL was always a MINOR
ity representation; but the Legislature
of 1897, by a combination between the
republicans and minority populists.
passed a law which deprived them OF
all representation on these boards in
the negro counties OF the east. II placed
the entire election machinery in the
hands of the clerk, register of deeds
n chairman of the board Of commits
sioners. II was we'll known to the com
bination which passed this amendment
TO the law OF 1895, that as a result of
the election of 1896 all these offices in
most Of the negro counties were held
by republicans or populists, and that
by cooperation between the parties
the democrats would have absolutely
no voice in the selection OF the election
nfioar< in <rreh COMMITTEES Tho ah{a-nt
of this combination in making this
change in the law of 1895 is apparent.
They wanted absolute control of the
election oar in the counties in which
they expected large fraudulent negro
registration For the SAX of securing
the control of these boards where they
would be of most value to them they
were willing to risk giving the demo-
Gratis a control which they had not
heretofore had in a few white counties
in which the democrats were in power.
Under the election law of 1895, as We
have said before, negro boys under u
years of age, negroes imported from
beyond the borders of the state, ne
gro eX-convictS and negro repeaters
were registered and voted galore. The
doors of fraud We're thrown wide open
to these irresponsible and ignorant
voters, and no protection whatever
was afforded to the honest voters of
the state. The amendment of 1897
threw these doors still wider open and
left to the white voters of North Car
DINA no protection against this fraud
ulent registration save what their
courage and Anglo-Saxon manhood
give them. 1t must be manifest to every
one that these laws of 1895 and 1897,
passed in the name of fair and honest
elections, were intended to give what
they did in 1896 most effectively give
the negro an advantage over the white
man, and to increase and multiply his
vote. But this is not all that the cleo
ton laws of 1895 and 1897 We're in
n to do and have lone in North
Carolina. The republicans, not salts
| fled with a law which enabled them to
practice frauds upon h honest suf-
frage of the state, passed another law.
the manifest urpos Of which was to
| vote the negro Solidly for the official
ticket of the republican party and to
| prevent the iliterate voter generally
! from expressing by his ballot his indi-
vidual choice for candidates. 1t ought
forever to damn he republican party
and minority ~populists who passed it
with the illiterate voters of North Car
DINA
1t provided for what may be called
an official ballot. Each party may file
a list of the candidates OF that party
for the state offices with the secretary
of state, and a list of the candidates of
that party for county offices with the
clerk of the court, and designate a de-
vice to be printed upon the ticket with
the names on it. This, then. became
the official ballot of that party. This
law made it a miSdemeanor for any
one, not only to vote, but to have in
his possession. with this device upon
it, a tickle with the name of any per-
| son printed upon it whose name had
not been field with the clerk of the
court or secretary of state, as the case
may be, as a candidate of the party
adopting that device.
1t has been a right immemorially en-
joyed by the free people of North Car
Dina to vote for whom they pleased,
without regard to whether the party
they voted for a been nominated by
a partisan convention or committee;
but this was by the legis-
lature of 1897.
The legislature of 1899 undertook to
| correct these evils and passed the cleo
ton law of 1899. 1t provides for a reg
istrar and two poll holders at each vot-
| ing precinct, and that all shall not be
| of the same political party, and it gives
to the registrar power to wit
nesseS as to identity, g and residence
| of the party offerings to register. The
condition of affairs in North Carolina
| made this provision particularly necG-
sary. Shortly after the colored man was
enfranchised he showed himself the
willing tool of the heelers and manipu-
lators Of the republican party. They
had not these qualities of easy identi-
| ication which the white man possesses.
They were Of a rowing disposition,
moved from place to place, and could
| readily conceal their identity. Fur the
same reason il was easy to import
them from other communities and to
register ~eX-convicts and boys under
u years of age. These facts, which
made it easy for them, with little IAN
ger of detection, to register and vote
at several different places, were taken
advantage of by the INSCRIPTIONS re-
publican white bosses; and repeating
and fraudulent registration were so
| common that il became necessary, in
order to protect the white voters Of
the state against having their honest
votes offset by illegal n fraudulent
ly registered negro votes, to provide
rigid safeguards against this class Of
frauds If, therefore, the democratic
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