The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-08
THE ~INFALLIBLE CURE.

Every man with a memory That ex-
tends back TO the year Of 1858 can bear
testimony to the fact that whenever
the republicans have had control Of
public affairs and the distribution OF
political offices in North Carolina that
it was the negroes that put them in
and shared in the spoils. No honest,
truthful man can possibly deny that.
Whenever the white radicals were in
the negroes were the power behind the
throne. But for the servility and
blindness and infatuation of the 12O,-
900 negro voters the robberies, oppres-
sions, ~corruptions and general pro-
figacy of officials could never have oc-
Cured. II 1860 the negro party
through the carpet-baggers from the
north and the constituencies white
scallawags born in the state, ran UP a
public debt above $780, 900, 600 (thirty
millions of dollars), n that too when
the whites were poor and struggling
and thousands of them b~ankrupted by
the cruel, devilish war waged upon
the south. But for the negroes there
would never have been carpet-bag
rODDeTleS IN NOFlu CdTOliid, duO ildIy
a native who for lust of office and un-
righteous greed for pelf rushed into
the arms of the republican partly the
accused enemy of the true and faith
full southern whites, would have saved
his honor and died revered and re-
spected. The days of rapacity, of
s~oulless legislation, of d~ragonading
o.5 oLninn mould poIyar houa c0noa 70
the white race if it had not been for
the bad course pursued by the recent
1y enfranchised blacks, who were
clothed with a great power that
proved a great destruction. When the
black flag was floating from the State
Capitol the sorrow of the people was
most profound, and their despair al
most unbearable. In 1868 the whites
should have done just what South
Carolina did under the wise and ag-
gressive leadership of Generals Hamp-
ton and Butler.
Let no white man ever forget the
gruesome, awful, detestabIe, agoniz-
ing times between 1865 and 1876, when
the noble Vance redeemed the state
from tn rule and ruin of the barba-
rians and the northern vandals who
led them and inspired them with re-
venge and filled them with the spirit
of spoliation and crime The state
has p~rospered since 1876, save when
by evil combinations and the power of
the blacks, the white radicals and
allies were installed in office.
The amendment to the constitution
is an inspiration and hope. In it's
adoption rests a vast deal that con-
Germs both races and the welfare of
the old commonwealth of North Caro-
lima. The absolute cure for wrongs as
we'll as preventive of a recurrence of
the devilish, dark days of d%espotism
in the past is the franchise amend
ment. 1t is the one remedy in all po-
litical pharmacoeia, and that not
applied invites diseases more violent
and destructive even han any that
visited the state under the carpet-bag
regimes. Let the intelligence IF the
people be equal to the demands. Let
the whites with character and sense
do their full duty. 1t will be wise in
the negroes to sustain the amendment
for in the future it will bring them
the blessings of contentment, peace,
release from the wiles of their white
enemies they followed to their injury
and to the harm of all. Not many are
really qualified to use wisely and
faithfully the ballot, for their own
good and for the benefit of the state.
Inscriptions white fellows have al
ready lured them to injury and wrong
doing. Let them take steps to educate
their race. The way to do this is to
insure the continuance and enlarge
ment of the free educational advan-
tages. Upon the adoption of the
amendment hangs the continuance of
white taxation for the benefit of negro
children. Vote for the amendment. 1t
means well to the state and good to
all people, to all voters, to all sorts
and conditions of men.