The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1901-04-25

THURSDAY, APRIL %, 1901.
MIR. BAILEYS STRONG PAPER.
The current number of The Forum
publishes a strong paper oy Mr. ;. W..
Ra,lev. editor OF the Biblical Recorder,
under the heading, s'The Case tor the
South"
The paper is directed especially to
the people Of the North, and by way OF
predatory. remark Mr.. Bailey observes
that the Northerner is yet ignorant OF,
and in some instances Indifferent to-,
the conditions In the South. He was
prompted to write by reason OF the re-
suits of recent elections, and because
the affairs of the nation will surely be
in the hands OF the Republican party
for two years, and perhaps for several
years longer, and in this party he OBJ
serves that there is scant sympathy Tor
the South. He truthfully asserts,
however, that ."party that has done
80 much to make the South part OF
the Union owes it to itself to regard
the Southern people as of one common
country, and to be concerned for them
as zealously as for those Of faithful
New England"
After assuring the people Of the
North that in the South the
valor of the Confederate veteran ls a
theme for unstinted praise by all, he
Gays that one born since the war finds
it hard to understand how there could
have been such bitter strife between
the North and the South from 81 to
'65. Ne vestige of 1t now remains.
He refers in strong paragraph to the
wasted conditions of the South at the
close of the civil war, but says there
was something more serious to the
South than empty sleeves and wasted
fortunes. We quote:
ssConfronting that soldier was mass
of freed negroes, IMMERSED in govern
ment, susceptible to every kind Of
darkness, yet invested with the high
prerogatiye of AngIo-Saxon selt-sov.
erignty and cooperative government
There were 1000, 900 of them, all told
$4,000 of them voters But this is
not the worst of it. The former mas
ter might have instructed his one-time
slave. But from the North came an.
other army of invasion, camp-follower:
and adventures, in the name of Re
construction, who-destroyers that they
were, as unworthy the North as thu
South-filled the hearts of the negroe.
with a bitterness and a suspicion O
their former masters that had not beer
known before. If the North worder
why the white ia against the blacl
let it read history and learn that sons
of the North first set the black man.
heart against the white man."
Mr.. Bailey then describes the happy
and prosperous condition of the South
to-day, notwlthstand what we hat
to endure after the war, and says sig
nlfcantly that "the Southern peopl.
have come to this through agonies o
poverty"
The writer declares that he Ia frien,
to the negroes and does not charg
them with being the intentiona
authors Of our woes, but charges mos
of our troubles to the enfranchisemen
of an incompetent race.
We quote again:
But the South struggles yet witt
her political problem, thrust upon he
by the greatest Of civil blunders, til,
enfranchisement of a numerous host O
ignorant men of lower race who wer,
incapable OF the ballot, and who, it i
unreasonable to hope, can be made Fl
for its responsibilities within two hun
dred years. The most deplorable effec
Of the war was not the loss of slaves
ior. from the day Of the surrender unit
now negro labor has been as cheap q
it was In slavery. not the loss o
money, not the loss of hope-all thes
have bsen overcome and In their stea
We have real blessings-but the er
tr4nchisement of the negro
tits clearly shown how the souther
whites have had to stand solidly t,
gether in politics or be subjected
negro rule. which meant corrupffo