The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-16
MORGAN IN BEHALF OF GOOD
GOVERNMENT.

When Senator Morgan made his very
elaborate and powerful speech in 1896,
at Nashville, Tenn, on the Currency, We
said it was as great a speech as had
been made in this c~ountry-that Web
ster nor Calhoun nor any other states
man and orator a ever surpassed it.
So far from having reason 20 alter our
opinion, we still hold te~naciously to the
soundness of the judgment. We have
since that year seen things from him
we did not relish or favor-his craze to
spend $1OO, 600, 900 in digging a canal,
and his wild views about expansion.
His last speech-on the North Carolina
amendment to the constitution and
Jeter Pritchard'S resolution to punish
North Carolina and deprive il of state
hoods pronounced in Washington as
a powerful argument, and was much
complimented by the North Caro-
linians in congress. A special to the
Raleigh Post said of it:
LAS a supporter of the right of the
Caucasian race to rule, as a preSenta-
ton of legal authorities to sustain the
right of a state to regulate her election
franchise, as an e~Xpounder of the true
intent of the constitution, Senator Nor
gan not only arose to the OCCASION, but
surpassed even many of his former
great efforts. The galleries of the SEN
ate were crowded, and he was heard
with rapt atteniaon.'
Those two traitors of their race and
state, Jeter and Marion, had cheek
enough to move up and listen. It was
an argument for civilization and con-
stitutional liberty against the evil ma
chinations of the cunning Tennesseean.
We have only read a small part of the
speech as yet. The senator urges that
the present congress must make the
apportionment for the fifty-seventh
congress, n says that principles on
which that apportionment will be made
will be a question of the gravest i'm
portance in the elections that must be
held in November of the present year.
1t is indeed a very high and solemn
duty that is devolved upon the present
congress-. 1t must be lone in equity
and wrong done. Addressing himself
to the dirty game of Pritchard, the
great senator said:
Il am convinced that no other tribu-
nal except the people voting in the
elections has the right or the power to
finally settle this question here pre-
scented in the resolution offered by the
senator from North Carolina, and 1
will endeavor to sustain this view of
the matter in my further remarks to
| the senate.
THE resolution as amended and also
in it's original form is not intended to
have the force of law, Is he thinks it
should have if the senator from North
Carolina really desires sue action as
will settle the question he forces upon
the attention of the country 1t is only
an expression as to what he thinks the
law ought to be. 1t is not an enact
ment, but is the expression of a view
of opinion"
He says the resolution or it's modified
form (for Pritchard has learned some
thing) will not control either the pres
ent or a subsequent congress-, either as
to the form or the substance of any
enactment that congress may make for
the enforcement of the fifteenth
amendment of the constitution.
L SdyS IL JSlSl SOulu uO ~ lc WOulu
introduce a bill. if he could so devise
one, that would ''coerce a state to
amend it's constitution under the pen
atty of being driven from the union or
of being refused representation in con-
gress or in the electoral college. 1t is
too plain for argument that sue a
measure would abolish the state as to
all it's rightful sovereign powers, and
would remand ii to the condition of our
organized territories, all of whose laws
may be repealed by congress and all of
whose officials may be placed under
the power of appointment and removal
by the President"
Doubtless the white renegade would
like to deal with North Carolina, he
dishonors, in hat summary, vindictive
way, if in mis- power to do so. For low
party M and to crafty a cunning
selfishness and vindictiveness he would
strip North Carolina. one of the old
Thirteen, of all statehood, and remand
her to a condition of servitude-a mere
formleSs territory, whose rulers and
laws should be made by the Imperial
Congress. But Jeter P: will not be able
to compass that vile end. Pritchard
declares that if the constitution of a
state violates the fifteenth amendment
then it is no longer "a republican form
of government" But he dropped that
soulless declaration n picked I'D an
other form that may burn his hand vet.
Senator Morgan says at this point:
"On further reflection he ~endeavors
to get away from this dangerous
| ground and to retreat to a position that