The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-05-14
The North is Learning.
News and Observer.

News and Observer.
The North-or at least a larger and
constantly growing larger portion OF
it's rapidly learning the truth about
suffrage in the South. 1t is rare now
to find well informed man, who has
travelled in the South or come in
contact with the best Southern senti-
ment anywhere who is not ready to
declare that it was a mistake to have
given the negro the ballot in 1868.
1t is a notable thing that the North
should generally be ready to make
that admission during the life time
| of many who participated in thepas-
sage of the reconstruction acts. 1t
does not follow that all who admit
the mistake are agreed as to the
proper way to remedy it. Some few
would be ready to disfranchise all the
negroes, but not many. The bulk OF
those who admit the mistake look to
see it righted by the suffrage amend
meats adopted by North Carolina,
Mississippi and otherSouthern states.
They are doing well to give their
moral support to the sincere efforts
of the South to do the best it can
with the difficult conditions, knowing
that sit is q condition, not a theory
with which the South deals.
The New York Sun leading editor
ial of April Goth, openly advocates
the disfranchisement of the negro,
saying:
'The hasty policy which invested
the emancipated males of African de-
scent with the full right of suffrage
was partly the result of supposed
political expediency and partly of an
ignorant overestimate of the possi-
bilities of development inherent in
the race.
''The costly experience gilmore than
a third of century, the span of a
whole generation, has demonstrated
the tremendous double mistake The
South has long known it; the North
is fast learning it.
'However far the direful conse-
quences of this error rofnational judg-
ment in 1869 and 1870 may be sue
cessfully avoided in the twentieth
century by local expedients, in eva
sion of the spirit, if not of the letter,
of the Fifteenth Amendment, the
probability remains that sooner or
later the country will have to face
squarely the question OF its repeal.
'Perhaps the sooner the better for
the dignity of the instrument that
now exhibits as a fundamental prin-
ciple of the American system a theory
of suffrage impossible ofpracticalap
plication with safety to the vital in
terests of the states chiefly concerned.
"When even the Supreme Court of
the United States, this very week, in
the case of the clash of the Alabama
constitution with the Fifteenth
Amendment, declines to interfere and
dismisses the appeal for the enforce
ment of the negro's right to the I'M
restricted franchise, the time cannot
be far off when American common
sense will be ready to 60 fearlessly to
the root of the natter
The Sun may be right, it may be as
sincere as it seems frank, but we do
not believe the South will be wise to
follow its lead or look for a repeal OF
the Fifteenth Amendment. This gen
Grafton will not see that done. 1t is
great step when the North appre-
ciates the problem and is treating
the action of the Southern people in
the spirit that Henry Grady, in his
memorable Boston speech, begged
they would bring to the consi2era-
tion of the difficult task to which the
!, South was then and is now conscien.
tiously addressing itself.