The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-06-26

the polls between files of soldiers. and
voted at the point of the bayonet.
Elections were conducted and super
vised by Federal office holders. All
that has passed away, never, it is hop
ed, to return again. The people of
North Carolina do not propose to toll
crate the unlawful and revolutionary
interference of Federal office-holders,
who are seeking by every abomina BILE
and desperate effort to have register
ed negroes who are not entitled to
vote, as was done in the elections of
1896 and 1898. This is a government
by the people, and not by the United
States Commissioners and Deputy
Marshals, nor Federal office-holders.
They may run and control, and do
run and control Republican and Flu
sion conventions, but they will not
be allowed to take charge of the cleo
tons of the people. If any Registrar
in discharging the duties of his Office
is subjected to any threat or any pros
ecution by these Federal Deputy Mar
shals, let him continue to do his sworn
duty faithfully and fearlessly: they
will not dare arrest him: they know
course; they are simply trying to in
timidate him. But, if in their desper
alton. they should arrest any Regis
trar. bond will be furnished him:
council will be provided for him, and
he can rest assured no harm can come
to him. Those who thus interfere
with him in the discharge of his law
full duty under the laws CT the State
will be both criminally and civily pros
ecuted, for the man who swears out
such a warrant, and the man who exc
cutes. it will be both criminally and
civilly 1iable--criminally because it
would be an unlawful interference
with the Registrar in the exercise OF
the judicial discretion imposed in him
by the statute, and civilly because
such a prosecution would be without
probable cause, and, therefore, malic-
ious.
Let every Registrar do his duty
requires; register those who are en-
titled to register under the law, and
see that no man who is not entitled
to register is allowed to do so. Our
laws prescribe, as the State has
right to do, the qualification of vot-
ers. 1t requires certain age; it re-
Quires a certain residence; it requires
that the party offering to register
shall be bona fide resident of the
State, county and precinct. In these
respects. our Election Law is not diff
ferent from the law in every other
State in the Union. and from what
has always been the law here. A boy
who is not twenty-one years of age is
not entitled to register simply because
he is Il negro: a man who has commit
ed an infamous crime is not entitled to
register simply because he is a negro.
A resident of Virginia or South Caro-
lima, who is temporarily soiourning
here, is not entitled to register sim
ply because he is negro: nor is a
man entitled to register more than
once simply because he II negro.
and wants to vote the Republican
ticket
These are the people the Republican
candidates and leaders wish to force
on the registration books. 1t is to
get these negro boys and criminals
upon the registration books that these
desperate men buster, and threaten
to invoke the machinery of the Unit
ed States courts, and the presence of
Deputy Marshals at the polls. Their
threats are mere wind and fury
There is no authority in the United
States law to enforce them. They
need brighten no one; it is merely
a part of the Republican scheme of
bluff and buster; it is in line with
Buffers threat to which white men
of the State. and of Blackburn's
threat to assassinate white men who
are not willing to submit to the negro
rule of the Republican party.