The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-11-04
DUMPING THE NEGRO.
Ease In=rasitu.e of n Republican
Party shown by One of That Race
Greensboro. \. c. October 3


the late registration under the lew SUI
frage amendment the 10000 negro vot-
ers in this state would be reduced to
only 5000 or 5000 at the most When
We reflect upon the situation and the
causes which brought about such a re-
suit we are persuaded 10 exclaim: 10.
the poor Negro,
The democratic party having disfran-
chised TO a very great extent. the re-
publicans now profess TO ave 10 furth-
er use for hin and have ungraciously
turned him out to grass to shift for
himself.
In every national election since Pres
J ident Grants second term, the negro
has been n potent factor both in the
nomination and election OF the candi-
dates OF the republican party for the
presidency.
The negro delegates have held the bal
ance OF power in every convention n
which the republicans have been sue
cessful since that time-with the posi-
bic exception of McKinley's second
election. That vote has always been
given 10 the republican party, and If
that party has any existence in the
south today, il owes il TO the negroes,
who, under all circumstances, have been
" ol " IL. LII lOGu NtNldI dLlOllS III
the republican leaders in the south of
it's intention TO make a white mans
party of the republican party in this
section may give a semblance of a
greater responsibility 10 that party, but
this apparent responsibility will have
been acquired by an act of base ingraJ-
itude which stands without a parallel
in the annals of American politics.
Even among thieves there is aid 10 eX-
ist a basis Of honorable dealing as be-
tween thief and thief n if White
republicans in the south wish TO win
respect for their sincerity and honor
they should first be honest n fair
among themselves. They cannot hope
TO win the respect Of high-minded men
~ such acts of treacherouS and base
ingratitude as the turning dow Of their
friend and former ally. the negro, will
involve.
However desirable it may be that the
republican party should be a white
mans party, no condition either of ex-
pediency or of necessity can justify or
condone ingratitude which is the base5t
of all offenses. And it is ingratitude
of the rankest sort for the white repub-
licanS to thus ruthleSsly crush-aS they
| propose to 10th humble and faithful
instruments by whose efforts they OBJ
tanned the power they now WELD. Every
obligation Of good faith and political
honor would demand that the republic
| can party SIOulu Dear WITH the "edh-
ness Of their friend-the negro-and en-
courage him to strive for the attain
ment of better and higher ideals. The
republican party owes to the negro an
obligation which it can never discharge,
strive, however, earnestly it might to
do so, and this cold and brutal turn
ing down of him-after his BLIND and
servile fealty to the republican party
has caused TO be visited upon him the
penalty Of Acknowledgement by the
democratic party-is at once the most
pathetic and ungrateful spectacle pre-
sented in all the history of that party.
1t goes without saying that if the ne
gro could vote in aba and North
Carolina today as he did before the
passage of the suffrage amendment,
these same white republican leaders
who are now shouting loudest in favor
of a white mans party" would be
speaking but softly in order that they
might not offend the negro. Now that
he has no vote, he is turned out on the
commons, as a heartless man would
turn out an aged horse which has out
lived his usefulness and is not worth
what it costs to maintain him.
D~isfranchised by the democrats and
then cruelty kicked out by the republi-
can party, whose very existence could
not be maintained up to this good day.
save through his unfailing support and
unquestioned loyalty, the negro is the
most pdCneIlC OBJECT III AHleflCdl So
ciet- today. His base and cowardty de-
sertion by his professed friends of the
republican party in the hour of his
calamity IS unquestionably one OF the
blacklist spots in the political history
Of the American people. The negro n
the south-Whatever else may be sad
of him-furnishes the most sublir. les
son of political fealty that Ia. ever
been presented in human history. for
he has through storm and sunshine re-
manned as true TO the republican party
as the needle to the pole. He has SUI
fered persecution and stripes, and given
up life itself in order to show his graf
itude. and devotion to he party which
he believed to ave been his friend.
Now that he has been d~isfranchisej
largely too on account OF his devotion
to the republican ~party-and he can no
longer be Led to the polls as a sheep to
the slaughter to do the will Of the re-
publican bosses, he is spurned as a
tranger dog from the republican
threshold.
While we believe it would he infinitely
better for the negro to pay less atten-
ton to politics in the south, and to de-
vote himself more TO improving his con-
oftion-morally, intellectually and ma
terially-yet his merciIess kicking out
by those who have all along claimed to
be his political friends. and for devo-
ton to whom he has unflinchingly made
SO many SdcTIllCtS uITIi5 Jne past nit
ty-five years, is a crime which sounds
the last gamut of political infamy and
which no apology on the score of expe-
4 diency can atone for or mitigate. II
stands out alone and conspicuous as n
monument 10 the black ingratitude OF
a heartless, designing. and mercenary
party hungering and thirsting after tn
spoilS of office, and totally unscrupulous
as to the methods employed in acquir-
ing them
CHARLES H. MOORE.
Greensboro, -. 4.
!. tCharles H. Moore, writer Of the
above COMMUNICATION is at the head Of
the academic department of the color
ed Agricultural and Mechanical college
Of this state. He was the first eU.ored
man to graduate from Amherst college
of Massachusetts,. He is a native OF
this state and since his graduation ir
: 1878 has been engaged in ~educationa
! work in his native state. The Greens.
: boro Record Of September 18th says o.
him "ProfeSsor Moore has bean IL