The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-04-17

populists of the honest and intelligent
and self-respecting, and race loving
kind who will vote for it. If true il
will be most lamentable. At present we
are unwilling to believe this state
menf.
1t is as T as truth itself, and as
certain as h grinding of the suppos
ed wheel of fate. tina the White Mans
party is going to win, and will not
be again terrorized and pealed and
cursed by negro rule under rascally
white leadership. Put that in your
pipes and smoke it. No more rule of
ignorance and corruption and incom-
petence will be allowed in North Car
DINA II so then 16O. 900 white men
will Know the reason why"
The intelligence, the virtue, the char
acter, the burden-bearers of the state
are trying in a reasonable, commend
able, honorable and conservative way
TO remedy a great and unbearable evil.
They are seeking TO do this in a way
that honest and upright men will ap-
prove. They are essaying at the polls.
without intimidation or violence of any
kind, TO establish on solid grounds for
ever the reign of law and the rule of
the white men in this old state. There
is no low, sordid, selfish ambition in
this effort. 1t is a movement that the
worlds history justifies, for it is 10
give the direction and control of pub
lie affairs into the hands of the race
that has always governed N all parts
of the world and in all ages of it. 1t
is an attempt by peaceful methods 10
relieve North Carolina of a great, in
sufferable burden, and to forever set
tie the race question in this ancient
commonwealth. Come what may the
race question is up for final settlement
and it will be don and the thousand
Jeter P~ritchards and incendiary But
conSummation.
Some time ago a document was sent
out from democratic headquarters, we
think it was, that contained a conVinc-
ing plea in behalf of honest and safe
government by the white men of the
state. 1t contained much that is i'm
pressive and %quotable. We make a long
extract because of it's force and direct
ness of statement. After setting forth
the gam of the Pritchard-Butler gang
of implacables and greedy teat-suck-
ers, and the resolve Of the white men
to settle the race question by the
amendment way, it says refinitely and
Enthusiastically:
IF we can't settle it this way, we
will have to settle it in a way, per-
haps, worse for the negro, for we re-
pea that settled, and settled forever
it must be. This is the decree not only
of the white people of the state, but
of the whole south, and it is a decree
as inexorabfle as fate itself.
"A vote cast against the amendment
will be a vote cast to continue the ne
gro as a voter and if that vote be cast
by a white man, it will be the most dis
tinctive vote of any white man In
North Carolina has ever cast against
his race; it will be a distinctive vote
for the negro, a distinctive vote against
h white man; it will be a declaration
on his part that he thinks the negro is
as good as the white man; it will be a
protest on his part against the white
mans having anything that the negro
does not have; it will be a vote for the
continuance of race trouble and con-
1ict and clash, and finally it will be a
vote which cannot possibly help even
the negro for which it is cast, since ii
he could succeed in defeating the pur-
pose of the white men, as expressed in
this amendment, the race question Gin
the settlement of which he lis as much
interested as the white MANI will still
remain unsettled, with the Xed and
~irrevovable purpose On the part of the
whites, as we have said before, to set
tie it, if not in n way. then in an
other, but to settle it and settle it for
ever"