The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-07-17
WHY I FAVOR THE AMENDMENT.

stitutional amendment is of such i'm
portance to the good citizenship of
the State that no voter will have
done his full duty to the State until
he has done all that he can in favor
of its passage.
AS to the constitutionality of the
measure, I am thoroughly satisfied
on that point. We do not desire to
prohibit the negro's voting on &C
count of race, color or previous con
dition. I think every fair-minded,
honorable man will admit this. Be
sides, we as voters are not members
of the legislative or judicial branches
of our government, and therefore
r not responsible for it's cOnstitu-
tionality. If the masses of voters
had to say, individually, what is or
is not constitutional, we never could
have even a Constitution.
The question with us is, Is it
right? Will it bring us good or evil.
It is certainly right that the good,
intelligent, honest, upright people of
the land should make such laws as
are wholesome to all the people OF
the State, thereby securing to each
individual all that belongs to him,
whether he be weak or strong, intel
Egent or ignorant. 1t is certainly
right for US to protect ourselves and
our neighbor from the rule and ruin
of the ignorant and vicious. Is this
not so?
I can see only good resulting from
the adoption of the amendment. l
see a continuance of a great evil in
it's failure. I see men voting the
sentiments of others, and not their
own, through fear of negro outrages
and violence, through fear of being
called negro or black and tan sym
pathizers ; I e in its adoption the
doing away with the opportunity of
men branding themselves with Gains
mark. It's adoption will eliminate
a great political factor which is at
any time stimulated by a little bride
or Doodle, capable of throwing its
whole force against anything that is
calculated to bring peace and pros
perity to the people and advance the
welfare of the State.
No man says the negro as a race
ought to have the franchise priv
lege in a country like Ours-among a
people so much his superior in every
respect. Then who can it be that
wants the country burdened with
this blighting curse? can only an
swer those who want office for
which they are unfit or to which
they are not, in the estimation of
the intelligent people entitled, and
those who want that which does not
belong to them those who want to
rob others and appropriate to them
selves ill-gotten gains, from class
legislation and the like. No good
citizen ought to encourage or have
a hand in making it possible for any
such to succeed in their purposes.
The negro stands ready, at all
times to assist the vicious, the fraud
and the unreliable, partly on account
of his ignorance, but principally
from his natural bent, always wait
ing for an opportunity to sell his
manhood, his responsibility and
credit for a trife, for anything he
can get easily, without labor. You
cannot free this land to any extent
where the negroes r numerous
from the degrading and blighting
curse of the whiskey traffic. This,
of itself, ought to rob him of his
franchise in our land. Who, in his
right mind, could continue this whis-
key blight in our fair land if it were
in his power to do away with it?
This amendment will be one of the
mightiest blows ever struck in the
interest of temperance, morality and
righteousness.
The opponents of the measure lay
great stress on account of the poor
ignorant white man. This amend
ment DISTINGUISHES no white man
now and never will disfranchise any
except such as cannot or will not
learn to read and write in eight
years, and all necessary helps fur
nished free. The country is and will
be safer with such disfranchised
than otherwise.
The country and its institutions
are and will be perfectly safe in the