The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-03

were of light importance as compared with the question of negro suffrage which then was and now Is. the vital subject of public consideration. Whether or not he chooses to state the poins. on which he says he does not want the office, and when no question Is raised by the candi- dacy of Governor Jelks, as to the manner in which Governor Johnston conducted his office, will be claimed and held to be a verdict of the people for the restora- ton of negro suffrage to the situation 1t held under the constitution of 1875. That will be the certain effect of his election, and the hopes of the south for deliverance from that curse through the influence of reason and justice, and in accordance with law, will be long delayed, if they are ever realized.
 An Original Demand.
 If it is an empty compliment or an humble apology that he seeks from the democratic party, in demanding the great office Of governor which he says that he does not want, he should remember that this is the first demand of that sort that Any man has ever made upon that great party, and 1t is likely to be he last if that party retains any recollection of its past history.
 This demand for vindication Is a deib-
 
 rather than a plea for justice. It is a declaration of war against the new con stitution to be conducted inside of the organization; which will be also waged in other southern states. It's purpose will be the restoration of the negro to the ballot, through state action, and it will have the support of the national republi- can party.
 If the defeat of Governor Jelks in the 1,~fr rta eI,an ,I. A.. friends of the new constitution in the legislature Governor Johnston will de- cline election by the peopIe, and will again seek election to the senate in No vember next, as a salve 10 heal his wounded feelings. That must be the real purpose of his candidacy for the office of governor He tried to find some one else to run for it end failed It is in- credible that any man could have the ar- rosance to demand his election, as Gov ernor Of Alabama, while asserting that he did not desire the honor, or to exercise its powers for any public reason, but a- a vindication of his official conduct He desires that great office only as decora- tion.
 Has a Purpose.
 He could not so defame great office that he really desired to hold as to use it's powers for such purposes. He has a purpose however. that he claimed in l9OO' that he was ''predestined" to ac- complish-as he now claims that he is predestined to defeat Governor Jelks in the primary election in August. That fore-ordained purpose is the same now that it Was in 1900. It is to drop his cam patgn for governor, if he succeeds in de- feating Governor Jelks in the primary election and finds that majority in the aorf fcl lnf ft1Fo he 1aoa ole a6 then to defeat Senator Petrus Tor re- election. That would heal the self-infict- ed wounds of 1900 from which his recov- cry is so slow, but it would deprive Ala bama of senator whose value is incal- culable and whose place the whole south could find no man to adequately supply Il is said of Governor Jelks that he is ar accident. Such accidents are not acci- dents of birth or early advantages, or tn. lucky windfalls that happen, sometimes to the manipulator5 of ballots or the managers of political cabals, or caucuses who imagine that they control the destiny of the state. Such accidents are the re.