The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-07-31
is a very unsafe foundation for free
and enlightened suffrage.

is a very unsafe foundation for free
and enlightened suffrage.
People of all races are affected by
ancestry. He is a sorry dog who is not
glad of honest and faithful forbears.
Federal bayonets were many but
they were utterly unable to confer per-
nancy or qualification or character
upon the enfranchised Negro.
For two thousand years the peoples
in northern Germany, whence came by
descent the Anglo-Saxons. nave been
self-reliant, self-asserting. lovers of lib
erty and their rights and of splendid
manhood. No servile. inferior, or ig-
norant race eyer bossed them long.
North Carolina was settled by white
men OF this stock mainly. 1t of right
belongs to them. They have made it
what it is. They will preserve it from
barbaric hands and crown it with the
glories of wise government and a high
civilization.
The southern people nave traditions,
ancestral faiths, lofty ideals. noble as
pirations, heroic impulses and grand
III uClpltS l1dl III uOh dS
ances, and for these they fought five
times their numbers OF armed northern
men for four years of battle.
1t was in this old commonwealth that
the mighty Goddess of Liberty took up
her abode two hundred years ago. 1t is
mountain Businesses or secluded glens
or mighty forests the fair goddess will
dwell after she has shaken the lust of
the north from her sandaled feet for
ever.
The white man is fit to govern and
to be the master of Others. OF his fit
ness for supreme rule there is over
whelming evidence. The ages reveal it
all along their pathway of advance.
Speaking of the qualifications of the
great, white, ruling race, the eloquent
Mr.. Locke Craig gave this:
The men whose suffrages are pro-
tected by this amendment are the de-
ScendantS of twenty centuries of self
governing ancestors. Says Mcneil, the
German historian: While sages of the
east were teaching wisdom beneath the
palms.; while the merchants of Tyre
olld SdI lIdSS were Nt1SllHS lutIT
heavy anchors and spreading their pur-
pie sails for far seas; while the Greek
was making the earth fair by his art,
and the Roman founding his colossal
empire of force, the TeutOn sat yet a
child, k among the forest beasts,
and yet unframed n in his sport he
lorded it over them, for the child was
of a loyal race and destined to win
glory for all time to come. The Anglo
Saxons of North Carolina are the heirs
of the qualities that have civilized and
ruled the earth. Though sometimes
unlettered they are not unworthy TO eX-
ercise the privilege descended from
their ancestors. Many of them are
men whose veteran faces have burnt in
scars made by steel hat bristled on
fields of var"
The Messenger charged that the suf-
frage vas given to the ignorant, I'M
lettered, incapable negroes as a pun
ishment and revenge because the south
fought them with such splendid brav-
cry for four years. Mr.. Blaine confirm
ed this when he admitted that the re-,
publican party never would have con-
ferred this right upon the negro, and
lever intended to do so, except for the
stubborn attitude of the people of the
south. The negro was no prepared for
the exercise of this right.
Let no honorable and true Whining
tonian ever forget the DISTINGUISHING of
the white men of this city and the de-
privation placed upon them when in
1897, they were not allowed to hold
their regular biennial election for pub
lie servants. RUSSELL was at the head
and at the bottom of this iniquity. The
legislature of 1897, violent as it was,
determined as it showed itself to be to
break all ties with the past Inc to re-
peal all democratic legislation, follow
ed the advice of the governor to the ex-
tent of providing for the appointment
by the governor in the cities of New
Bern and Wilmington additional alder
men to those selected by the people.