Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-04-12

negro under the constitution has right to
hold office, put bic sentiment was stronger than
law and public sentiment was opposed to the
negro holding Office" Indeed it has become
the fashion among Republicans and Populists
to assert the unfitness of the negro to rule, but
when they the word rule, they confne it
to holding office; when we say that the negro
is unfit to rtle we carry it one step further and
convey the correct idea when we declare that
he is unfit to vote. The causes which have
brought about this consensus of opinion have
i'll large measure forced themselves on public
atten ton within the last few years. We have
had but two periods of Republican rule in
North Carolina, from 1868 to 1870. and from 1896
to 1898. That party contains large number of
respectable white men, but the negro consti-
tutes two-thlrds of it's voting strength.
Government can never be better nor wiser
than the average of the virtue and intelligence
of the party that governs. The Republicans
insist that we have never had negro rule in
North Carolina; that the Republican party
elects white men to office and that this fact
gives government by white men.
Governor Russell in his message to the last
Legislature vindicates himself against the
charge of appointing negroes to Office and
proudly boasts that out of S1S appoin tments
made by him not more than eight were ne
groes. He missed the point which we made
and make against him and his party; it is not
alone that Governor Russell put the eight ne
groes in office and his party thousand more,
but that the 125,OO0 negroes put him in Office
over the votes of white men-it is the party
behind the office holder that governs and not
the office holder himself. There is no man in
the State to-day more certainly conscious than
Governor Russell that he has failed of his pur-
pose because he had behind him the negroes of
the State and not the white men.
We had a white man for Governor in 1870
I
surrection when innocent men were arrested
! without warrant by military cut-throats !;
| when the writ of habeas corpus was suspended
and the judiciary was exhausted.
We had white man for Governor
in 1898, when negroes became intol-
.. erably insolent. when ladies were in
burglary in our chief city became an
. every night occurrence; when ''sleep
| lay down armed and the vlllianous
centre bits ground on the wakeful
ear in the hush of the m 4onless
, nights; when more ghns and pistols
were sold in the State than there
had been in twenty preceding years;
when lawlessness walked the State
like a pestilence and the Governor
! and our two Senators were afraid to
speak in city of 25, 700 inhabitants.
J It is the negro behind the officer and
not the officer only that constitutes
negro government.
Major Grant now repudiates Con
| gressman White and draws the color
line against negro Office holding, but
! it has not been two years since a
Republican convention composed i'll
part of " hite men applauded to the
echo the declaration of White that the
industry of negro officeholding had
but fairly begun. We have taught
them much in the past two years III
the University of White Supremacy
we will graduate them III August
next with diploma that will entlre
| them to form a genuine white man =
party. Then we sha have no more
| revolutions IN Wilmlngtou; We shall
have no more dead and wounded ne
groes on the streets, because we
shall have good government in the
State and peace everywhere. The
Governor OF the State and the Sen
ators will not be afraid to speak
anywhere, for freedom of speech
will become the common possession
of the humblest of us. Lite and
property and liberty from the noun
tains to the sea shall rest secure In
the guardianship of the law
But to do this we must disfran-
chise the negro This movement
comes from the people. Politicians
have been afraid of it and have nes1-
tated. but the great mass of white
men IN the State are now demand
ing and have demanded that the
matter be settled once for all To do
so is both desirable and necessary
desirable because it sets the white
man free to move along faster than
he can go when retarded by the
slower mNve1, ent of the negro -
necessary gee lse we must have or
der and pc ~ hile we work out the
industrial, commercial, intellectual
and moral 2e opment of the State.
The Amenunent to the Constitution
is presented in solution of the prob
lem. It is plain and simple. 1t
proceeds along wise lines. It is
carefully snd thoughtfully drawn.
It stays inside the XIV Amendment
and, nevertheless, accomplishes It's
purpose. It adopts the suggestion
of Senator Cullom and demands the
''existence of sufficient intelligence
; either by inheritance or education
as a necessary qualification for yot
ing. It requires of the negro the
! qualification by education because
he has it not by inheritance, and de-
mands of the white man only thai
+ he possess it by inheritance. 1t does
! not sweep the field of expedients te
| disfranchise the negro which is helc
> constitutional in the Mississippi
; case, but seizes upon his educationa
unftness and saves the whites from
participation therein by boldly rec