The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1900-07-19
PEOPLES PARTY PlATFeRn


Aaopeod UnaAlD00aly tneOsaveoe3s
Apra 18th. lses.
The Peoples Party Convention
Issemb led in Raleigh, April 18th.
the principles set forth -
he Peoples Party National plat
'orm adopted at st. Louis In Ia. !
md instructs the delegates to SAC
National Convention at Sioux Ts,.s
May 9Th to vote for the nomination |
Of William J. Bryan for President
We commend the present State
for its high pei
sonal and official integrity. ,ne
comparison OF ito rec
ord with any and all Of ito pseds-
cessors.
We condemn the Democratic Lsgis-
latuFe of 1889 for its extfavsGaAt ex-
penditures of public money amounting
to 81 ,59l 1856 in 1899, - opposed to
81 ,2S3, 97l IL, expended by the proceed
ing Legislature, An excess Of $780,
1874 IS, not including the sum Of $780,
000 for public education nor the SS3, $50
for purchase Of State farms.
We further condemn said Legisla-
tnre for the careless laundering and
careless legislation, including more
gross blunders and unconstitssional
laws than ever before enacted by any
General Assembly in North Carolina.
We further denouuce the machine
leaders of the Democratic party for
laying the whip on the backs # the
Democratic Legislature and fovcinR
them into enacting and submitting
DISTINGUISHING constitutional amend
ment in violation of the solemn
pledges of the party, made not only
officially in their campaign handbook
but by members OF the General Assem-
bly, and other Democratic candidates
for Office in their canvass before the
people. We denounce them not only
for doing this in violation of their
pledges, but also for submitting q mea-
sure most odious in form and danger
GUS in effect. That General Assembly
being composed of: some of the best
lawyers of the party, must have
known, or at least had reasonable
doubt, not only as to the unconstitu-
tionality Of the monstrous provision of
Section 8, known rs the grandfather
Ctdu6c Ill 60lu Uup ol6O
of the great danger Of that unconstitu-
tiOnal sectional section falling, leav-
ing the remainder of the amendment
to stand, thus DISTINGUISHING by an ed
vocational qualification afty or sixty
thousand white voters of North Caro-
lima, who in 1898 gave the Democratic
party power IN the Legislature, and
whose ignorance is no fault of their
hu1f 10 oh h1o RI M ~
the Democratic party, which now sc eks
to disfranchise them and make their
ignorance crime alongside that of
the felon.
But even If the proposed amendment
ly is), still it is especially objection
able in the following particulars:
(a) In that it dignifies with the right
Of suffrage the most vicious, trouble
some and obnoxious class of the negro
population, and completely disfran
chises the most faithful, kindly and or
derby element of that race.
(b) In that,while clamoring for white
supremacy and declaring that no white
man shall be disfranchised under this
amendment, they have so written their
amendment that every white boy be-
coming of age after 1908 stands on the
same footing with the negro, and can
not vote unless he is able to read and
write.
(c) In that by the latter provision,
they have made it possible for the ed
ucated negro after 1908 to cast his bal
lot while the unfortunate son Of the
white men who have been the strength
of true democracy stands without a
vote at the ballot box. They slaug hter
the suffrage of the son whose father
they dare not openly attack.
(d) In that this suffrage amend
ment does not remove the negro from
politics or settle the negro question in
North Carolina.
(e) In that every voter who has not
paid his poll tax as much as Eve
months before the State election and
eight months before the national cleo
ton, shall be disfranchised as much as
if he were convicted of felony or were
an ignorant negro. The purpose of
this provision is not only to disfran-
chise every good honest citizen who
unfortunately cannot pay his taxes by
the first of March preceding the cleo
tion, but further to try to bride the vo-
ter to surrender his suffrage at the ex-
pense of the public school fund of the
State, which is derived from poll taxes.
There Turks behind this proposition a
still greater danger to the public
schools of the State, for with the ad0p-
tion of the amendment the opponents
of free schools In North Carolina will
at once raise the cry that every dollar
raised for public instruction means the
increase of the number of negro vO-
tiers, and thus the poor white mans
son will be chained in bondage of ig-
norance and disfranchised to prevent
the education of the negro voter
There is no white supremacy In this.
The constitutional question pre-
sented by the proposed amendment is
one that must be determined by the
judgment and conscience of each indi-
vidual voter. Therefore, we do not
make it party question. We state the
evils and dangers and leave the voters
of all parties to pass their verdict in
the light Of these facts. The question
is above party, and no one should BE-
more active and anxious in our judg
ment to defeat it than the rank and
file OF the Democratic party.
The Peoples Party is and has always
been more distinctly than any other
party in North Carolina q white mans
party, and is more anxious than any
other party to solve the race problem,
and to force oil parties to q diseuss,o or
OF the great economic issues so vitality
affecting the welfare of all wealth pro
ducers of the State and nation and de-
cency in politics.
Therefore, we propose in lieu of this
dangerous amendment, the best sOiu-
ton of the race question that is posi-
bic as long as the 10Th amendment t.
the Constitution Of the United States
stands solution which -deprives no
white man in North Carolina now or
hereafter Of his right of suffrage, to
wit.
Amend Section 6, Art. 6, of the Con
stituti"n of North Carolina by insert