The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-07
CONDITIONS IN ALABAMA.

Two negro preachers in Alabama are
alike indiscreet and unwise. They as
guides Of their race threaten the whites
of that state. They publish a communi-
cation in a negro paper criticising at
length the temper and sentiments of the
appeal of Booker Washington and w. c.
Council and others. These negroes are
described as prominent g preach
ers in Mobile" and they have evident
ly "eaten of the insane root or are
bent on mischief. They seek to invite
a collision which may end in a revo-
luton of very wide results. The tele-
graphed account from Montgomery,
Ala. of Bird inst, says that the 'arti-
Gle declares that the negroes not only
ask for fair play of the convention, but
demand it; that there is no use in at
tempting to fool anybody; that if the
negro is treated right he will help make
the south bloom and prosper; eff treat
ed wrong, he will seek what opportun-
ity he can to weaker it, so hat he can
destroy this system of semi-barbaric
slavery, and that the country cannot
live in a n happiness with one
law for one class and another for an
other class: and that the g is not
now satisfied, and that the race only
submits because they are powerless 10
help themselves:" hat the negro .is
either a citizen or slave, and the coun-
try is only making trouble for itself
In the distant FUTURE" that 1.-The ne
gro submits now, but that submission
is by force and with discomfort, a can
cerous sore. which will come to the sur
face in an eruption in a few years."
What car that portend? There can
be but one answer-a terrible race coll
lision in Alabama. Who will go I'M
der? Which race will be driven out?
Will it be the white race? Let it come
and it will be seen. Such sentiments
can do no possible good to the negro
race. They cannot live as the equals
of the white race, and if that be their
idea then they would be wise to pull
up early and go to the north and try
their destiny in. hat land. There are
SO, 200 in Washington city now, and the
oS% oo SANo"i op tAiSAA
insolence. their o~verbearing ways, their
~laziness. vice and crime. More crimes
are committed in Washington in a week
than would happen there in a year,
perhaps, if the $4,000 would only YAM
ose the rancho" The violent tone of
negro preachers always works evil. at
did so in Wilmington and elsewhere,
and will bring trouble in Alabama
We earn from a Montgomery dis
patch that Hon. Hannis Taylor one 6f
the very ablest and most Accomplished
of native born North Carolinians now
living al home or abroad, went to
Montgomery upon invitation and was
the speaker at the celebration of Pres
ident Jefferson Davis birthday on June
ern commemoration. The dispatch
says:
His speech was a resume OF the
history of Mr.. Davis in war and peace.
N conclusion he referred to the ques-
ton of debarring the negroes of Ala
bama from the right to vote.
I'm speaking Of the assembled con-
st%itutional convention, he said:
Il would say to the council thus as
sembled that one thing is admitted on
all hands, and that is, that a plan for
the disfranchisement of the mass OF
negro voters Of undoubted validity, can
be devised, providing there is among
us a spirit of patriotic s~elf-sacrifice and
self-abnegation, willing to accept such a
scheme. coupled with the probability
that a few of our own people may be
disfranchised, too.
st would say to such a council that
much as / prize the right to vote, /
myself am willing to surrender it to
the state. once and forever, if such a
sacrifice on my part is necessary for
the common good"
1t looks as if the white sentiment in
Alabama is that they nave had enough
of negro supremacy and the pollutions
of the ballot. They are reported as
determined to get rid of the negro
vote" So the fiery preachers will ave
to get their guns for the deyiltry they
were set afoot. Bad advice is often as
wicked as bad action. Rev. DR.. Park
hurst. of New York city, lately advised
the negroes "to keep quiet upon the
whole suffrage matter. to keep out OF