The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-05
THAT PROMISE is KEPT
How Butler and His Crowd Have
Changed Front.
SOME CHOICE EXTRACTS FROM HIS PAPER
He Did Not Then Think the Democ ats Would
Try to Eliminate the Negro Vote and
So He Advocated Such an
Amendment.
Amendment.

1UlClulIlSHts
a notable speech was made yester-
day by Mr.. James III. Pou, of this
city, at Meisenheimer's Springs, Stan
ly county.
The occasion was barbecue and
Democratic rally and the people came
from all the country round.
Most of Mr.. Pou's speech was de-
voted to answering the charge, now SO
often made by the Fusionists, that
the Democrats have broken their prom
ises in submitting the Constitutional
Amendment to the people. Mr.. Pou
said:
The Democratic platform of 1898
was silent upon this question and the
issue arose during the campaign. At
first the Fusionists said if the Demo-
Gratis were entrusted with power they
would enact an election law modelled
upon the Australian system or like
the Walton law in Virginia. That
under such law the illlterate voter
would be in fact DISTINGUISHED. In
answer to this charge Democrats ev-
erywhere promised that if successful
the Democrats would enact fair cleo
ton law; one which would prevent
frauds upon the part of negroes but
which would not disfranchlsc a sim
gle person white or black who was
legally entitled to vote. This prom
Use was generally made and it has
been faithfully kept; and every per
son educated or iIliterate, white or
black, who is entitled to vote will
have that privilege next August UNI
der the Democratic election law. La
ter on in the campaign the people
of all parties oegan to demand the
elimination of the negro vote; this
demand came from populists and
white Republicans as well as from
Democrats. In fact one of the
charges the Populists brought against
the Democratic party was its failure
to adopt such Il provision. In its Cam
paign Book of 1898. page 4, the Popu-
lists Said
During a period of twenty years in
which that party swayed overwhelming
power in North Carolina; it never passed
a law nor made an effort to disfranchise
or Il Ike from the negro the power OF the
ballot which they now declare they SC
mortally dread.
"In nearly every Southern State ex-
cept North Carolina. the negro is dis
franchsed, with the result that racial
antagonsm cannot be aroused, because
of the absence of basis on which to pro-
coed. The same power that disfranchised
the negro in these Southern States has
been wielicd by thet Democratic party in
North Carolina fer twenty years. and yet
no advantage whatever has ever been TAX
en- of that power
This is the complaint made by But
Ter. Thompson and Aver in 1898. As
the campaign progressed the one
great demand of the people was that
the issue should be settled for all
time to come: and in answer to that
demand the Democrats generally
promised such legislation, with the
limitation that not n single white
man should be disfranchised. This
promise of the Democratic party, is
succinctly stated by Senator Buffers
organ, The Caucasian, in an editorial
in. its edition of December Sth, 1898.
1t uses these words:
The Democratic machine promised the
HNOHiS OH CNClS olhiliP mat IL they WtlG
put in power that they would eliminate
the negro from politics. 1t seems that
they got twenty-five or thirty thousand
new votes on this promise. Now the way
to eliminate the negro from politics is to
let down the bars and invite 'Peg-leg'
Williams. and other railroad agents to
come and take the negroes out by the
thousand or to disfranchse the negro
by Constitutional Amendment. We will
soon see in what way the Democrats will
keep this promise to the people"
Also in its edition of January 10Th.
1898, we find this:
1.-THE Democrats promised in the cam
paign rot 10 disfranchse a single white
man."
Before the Legislature assembled
the Caucasian began to predict that
this promise of the Democrats would
not be kept. On December Sth it had
the following to say:
THE JIM CROW CAR DODGE.
'.Since the election there has sprung
up new issue that was not heard Of dur
ing the campaign or before. 1t is the pro-
posed Jim Crow car law The Demo
Gratis ran their campaign on the cry that
the State was cursed and disgraced and
damned with negro domination. Since
the election it seems that the only RENE
dial legi; iltion that the Democrats proposa
TO get rid of negro domination in the jim
Crow car. They are now agitating this
question, and say it is an awful thing fol
negroes to ride IN the same car with
white people. 1t is strange that it never
occurred to the Democrats during theil
twenty five years of Democratic rule that
this kind of negro domination was ther
in progress and was just as offensive ther
as it is now. One would think, to see the
concern that the Democratic machine Is
showing over the Jim Crow car proposition
that the Peoples party was responsible fol
repeating some Democratic law prohibiting
negroes to ride in railroad trains witt
white people. The meaning of all this i!
that the Democrats do not propose to cal
a Constitution convention or meet tn.
expectation of the people on the suffragt