The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-16
MR.. BITING TO SENATOR BUTLER.
Rural Hall, Forsyth Co., n c., March ii.

Rural Hall, Forsyth Co., n. g., March H.
Senator Butler Dear Sir: Your letter came
some days ago, and with it the papers you got
up to defeat, you say the Amendment to the
Constitution of this State, but really the letter
you send has so much to do with the de-
struction of the peaceable condition of our peo-
pie now, that l think it nothing hut right for
me to tell you that you will please TO not send
me any more such. When l read the following
in your letter sent to me: eve must bano
ourselves together and fight until this red shirt
mob is driven from power l think you insult
me and every other man who voted in 1898 to get
rid of the awful state of things negro rule had
brought to. You may not have attended it
to insult me, but is wrong for you, way
yonder safe in Washington, to try to bring on a
fight among us down here, who are peaceable
people.
I would have wondered why this matter was
sent to me, life long Democrat, if you had not
enclosed two large blanks for me to fill up and
return to you One marked Form No. l, had on
it List of Democrats who do not approve of
and may vote against the Amendment Now
know, like great many white men, before l
studied this Amendment, l spoke my doubts
about voting for it. l spoke from the lights
then had as to its meaning, and l am satisfied
that a certain revenue officer of my neghbor-
hood or somebody who heard talk, sent my
name to you, and that's how come to get your
letter, and that's why l received for a
month the Ashevlle Gazette, which came to me
as a Democratic paper, but is very bitter on
the Amendment l read in that paper:
First: That the Amendment would disfran-
chise whites and negroes both, if they could not
read and write. / was troubled and so l sent
for a copy of the amendment to Secretary OF
State Thompson, at Raleigh and looked this
matter up for myself. In section found this
every person presenting himself for registra-
ton shall be able to read and write any Sec
ton of the Constitution in the English Ian
guage;" that looked skttish to me, but 1 read
on and in section / read this: ''No male person
who was entitled to vote January, 1867, or
prior thereto, and lineal descendent, (heir) OF
any such person shall be denied the right to vote
by reason of his failure to possess the educl'
tional qualification mentioned in paragraph A.
Now I've got sense enough to know that before
1867 negroes couldn't vote and white people
could, and this certainly means, that ALL white
men will be let in, and all negroes who can't
read and write will be ruled out, and I am free
to say, that's exactly what 1 would like to
have DONE
Second: But my mind was disturbed the sec
ond time by reading in the Gazette afterwards
in explaining my asking if this wasn't so, b
its saying that if the law could stand like this
yes though it had said the opposite at first
but it was in two sections and the Supreme
court would knock out the grandfather or sec
ton s, part of the bill and let the reading anc
writing section 4, stand therefore cutting out
everybody, white and black who wtre ignorant
of book learning from voting anyhow. | had
lost some faith in the Gazette for catching it il
the first mistake, so l went to studying again.
And this is the way l studied it out. The
Democratic party is made up of white men en-
tirely and it must stand up for its own people
1t certainly has had to do it ever since the war,
and it is the party of the aboring people who
really dislike a negro's mannishness worse than
YOU highclass office holders, and I don't mean
ofense TO you, if so | beg your pardon. Now
a heap of white people can't read and write, but
they have been killing niger votes for the
Democratic party ever since niggers begun voting
against honest white men, and they begun it ear
1y and have kept it up late Would that party
I thought to myself, be fool enough to cut its
own throat by handing one of these honest white
friends who had no book-learning a ticket ant