The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-05
A POLITICAL RETROsPECT-CHAIR.
MAN SIMMONS RETIRES.


began in North Carolina upon the meet
ing OF the State Convention in Raleigh
in the summer OF 1898. There has been
no such political period except when the
white people of the State thirty years
ago rescued the State from the carpet bag
and negro government. When the 1895
campaign opened every branch of the
State government was in the hands Of
the Re-pop-li-cans At the previous
nearly 10000 majority and thought they
were too strongly entrenched to be driven
from power. The Democrats, recollecting
his successful service as State Chairman
in 1892, elected Hon. F. NJ Simmons as
State Chairman. Surrounded, cheered and
helped by able and courageous men, who
were ready to make any sacrifices to re-
deem the State, Mr.. Simmons effected the
best organization, put hope into the
hearts of the people, and after the most
strenuous campaign since the Ku Klux
Klan days, the white people of the State
returned to their own. The shouts of vic
tory had scarcely died out before the
leaders of the party saw that unless some
measure to eliminate the ignorant negro
vote could be devised, results of the vic
tory would be only temporary. They be-
gan at once to study the Mississippi, the
South Carolina, the Louisiana plans OF
constitutional suffrage regulation. When
the Legislature met the amendment I'M
der which the people voted yesterday for
pie for ratification. The campaign upon
the adoption of that amendment was
holly contested. The allied Republican
and Populist parties exerted every effort
to defeat the amendment. They de.
clared it was unconstitutional, vicious,
unjust; they told the illiterate white
voters that the amendment would dis
franchise them, and hundreds were de-
ceived by their Misrepresentation Thai
of the State campaign and by unanimous
vote Mr.. Simmons was reelected chair
man. But the amendment was adopted by
more than $4,000 majority, to go into
effect on the first of July 1902 Even
then there were many who doubted that
it would accomplish the purpose for
which it was devised and ratified. The
success of the amendment was an open
question. The same agencies that had
directed the 1898 and 1900 campaigns were
best fitted to complete the work by con-
Quoting the first campaign under the
amendment. And so, with one accord
the people called Senator Simmons again
to be State Chairman. He was willing
and ready. AS in former campaigns he
gave his whole time and thought to win
ming the magnificent victory elsewhere re-
corded in this paper. On Monday night
in his speech in Greensboro, Mr.. Simmons
reviewed the continuous campaign begun
in 1898 which ended yesterday, and said:
"In 1898 we regained control of the
legislative department of the government.
In 1900 We regained control of the Execu-
tive department of the government. To-
morrow We will regain control of the
judicial department of the government,
and the Constitutional Amendment, the
Magma Charta of white suprem-
acy, will be established by a majority so
great that no man in North Carolina will
henceforth dare lay his impious hands
upon it. When tomorrow's sun goes
down the work of redemption will be
complete, and / shall then lay down my
commission as chairman Of your commit
| tee that L may give my undivided time
to the great work you imposed upon me
when you commissioned me to represent
you in the United States Senate AS
chairman of your committee l have given
you my best efforts AS your Senator you
are entitled to receive and, God being
my helper, you shall receive my best
efforts. When my work here is finished,
when I have retired from the conflicts of
life, l shall not remember with most
pleasure the fact that my fellow country
men have made me Representative and
Senator, as proud and grateful as l shall
ever be of these great honors and dis
tinctions. My greatest pleasure in con-
nection with my public work,-the proud
est legacy save that of an honorable life
which l shall leave to my children, will
be the fact that, when the State was to
be saved from the Plutonian night into
which it had passed, l was chosen by
/ my countrymen to lead in the crusade for
redemption and at your command / took
into my hands your white and stainless
banner and, with the aid of one hum
dred and eighty thousand true and loyal
white men, we planted it upon the high
est ramparts of victory, where it will
stay as long as the white men of North
Carolina and their descendants shall con-
tinue to love and cherish home and altar
and fireside.'
Until Mr.. Simmons had conducted the
first election under the amendment, the
wisest party leaders would not have con-
scented to his retirement as State Chair
man. 1t is never safe to change horses
while crossing a stream. The campaign
of 1902-1900 and 1898 was only one cam
paign 1t begun with the avowed determ-
ination to eliminate the negro as an i'm