Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1901-01-17

them that parties were the servants and not
| the masters of the people and that no past SER
vices of a party, however beneficial these ser
vices might appear, justified the destruction of
good and safe and economical government in
/ order to secure it's success. We provided
| schools for them and spent for them as we
spent for our own children. We cared for their
insane and opened schools for the education
OF their afflicted and for the and tuition of
/ those who were left fatherless and motherless.
We continued these efforts in the face of re-
peated evidence of their hostility and abated
not our purposes when they repeated their
follies. We still hoped that they would follow
the example of the whites and divide their
vote along the lines of governmental indus
| trial and moral issues The result was a disap-
pom tment. The negro was always to be
counted upon and our opponents did not hesi-
tate a any excess, because they knew that they
had 120 coo voters who could be relied upon to
support any policy, however ruinous, which
bore the stamp OF Republi icanism. With this
vote as certainty adversaries, when they
| came to power after twenty years of defeat,
dared new evils and wrongs. .sHnder their rule
! lawlessness walked the State like pestilence-
death stalked abroad at noonday-.sleep lay
down armed"-the sound of the pistol was
more frequent than the song of the Mocking
bird-the screams of women fleeing from pur-
sAaa
with a shock. Our opponents unmindfuI of
F.! the sturdy determination of our people to have
safe. good government at all hazards became
!. Indifferent to or incapable of enforcing law
and preserving order. Confident of the sup
, port of this ignorant mass of negro voters, the
| Republican party and it's ally forgot the
strength and determine ton of that people who
| fought the first fight in Alamance against bad
government and wrote the first Declaration of
| Independence in Meck'enburg. They chal-
| lenged North Carolinians to combat and the
world knows the result. The campaign of 1898
| ended in victory for good government. That
| was not a contest of passion but of necessity,
| When we came to power desired merely
| the security of life, liberty and property We
| had seen all these menaced by 10000 negro
| votes cast as the vote of one man. We had
/ seen our chief city pass through blood and
| death in search of safety. We did not dislike
| the negro but we did love good government
We knew that he was incapable of giving us
that and we resolved, not in anger but for the
safety of the State. to curtail his power We
had seen what struggle it required to pre-
serve even the form of Republics government
with him as voter. The negro was not only
ignorant-he was clannish The educated
among them who realized the danger to the
State in mass voting were unable to free
themselves from the power of it's ostracism.
When the Legislature of 1899 met it wa
confronted with these facts and was sincerely
anxious to save the good and suppress thu
evil of those forces which had made our his
tory. They. therefore, submitted to the peopl,
for their action an Amendment to the Con
stitution which forbids any man to vote wht
cannot read and write, but excerpts from th
operation of this restrictive clause all thos
who could vote in any State on January tn
first, 1867, or at any time prior thereto, or VIII
are descended from any such voter. This pro
vision excludes no white man except person
of foreign birth not yet familiar with our in
stitutions. and excludes no negro who cal
read and write, and no negro, whether he cal
read and write not, who could vote prior f
Jan. 1, 1867, or who is descended from one VIII
could vote at any time prior to said date. Thi
8 amendment to our Constitution eliminates NJ
capable negro. Indeed, it sets free those ne
: groes who, believing in certain principles O
. government. have been restrained by loyaIt
: to the mass from voting their convictions. I
] does no injustice to the negro. It really bene
v fits him 1t does recognize the necessity fo
v having some test of capacity. and it prescri be
q two rules of evidence by which this capacit
f may be ascertained, and declares that any ma
Y capable of meeting either test shall vote If
q white man can read and write he can vote.
f a negro can read and write he can vote. IF
e white man cannot read and write but is dc
j. scended from one who could vote on Januar
n 1, 1867, or at any time prior thereto. or if b
J. could himself vote before that time he ca
IS vote. Ii negro cannot read and write, but
J. descended from a person who could vote O
D January 1, 1867 or at any time prior theret
l. or if he could himself vote before that time.
d can vote. There is. therefore, in our ament
1t ment no taint of that inequality provide
IL against in the 18Th Amendment to the Const
i. tutiyn of the United States; and in order tn,
st the question might not even be suggested, an
D. realizing the Importance of educating IL
es white and black alike, our Amendment r
l. quires every boy of whatever color now
ir years of age to learn to read and write und
Sc penalty of losing his vote. Interpreted in tn
til fashion-we may with complacency accept Il
ce declaration of the Republican National pla