The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-03-03
NEGRO UNFIT FOR A CITIZEN.
Professor Dowd old "Bal-
lot Has Been Deadly Poison to the
Race"

ture, in part, before a large audience in
GAINESVILLE, Wis, on the evening of Feb
ruary 10th:
Whenever the American people come
to know the real nature and condition
of the dark races of the earth and to
be guide in dealing with them by the
dispassionate and united scholarship of
the civilized world there can be no dis
pute as to the best governmental policy
for Porto Rico, the Philippines, or
South Carolina.
Race of men. like races OF animals,
have Unborn traits which are the pro-
duct Of many centuries, and which only
many centuries can change. The Jew,
the Italian and the Teuton differ as
distinctly today as they did ten centu-
rles ago. h dark races. having had
are the most persistent in their race
characteristics.
Let US inquire what are the general
characteristics of the African negro.
AhSb, iC 10 lllQOlGIly 11S AdS al GAptO.
sive temper n he lacks self control.
In the midst Of the most fertile region
he suffers famine. This is because lie
has not the foresight nor disposition
to provide for the future. Pressed by
hunger, one tribe wages war upon an
other, raping the women and cooking
and eating the men.
The family does not exist as we un-
derstand that institution. Each man
steals his women or buys them for so
many COWS or sheep. Children are sold
at the ages of 9 to IA. The women do
all of the work and support the family,
while the men sit in the shade and
smoke their pipes of peace.
There is scarcely any restraint upon
the sexual appetite Of either boys or
girls. When children are weaned they
receive very little attention from par
ents. Aged people are often left to
perish in the forest or they are knock
ed OIL the head, killed and eaten. Many
victims are sacrificed to the African
gods, and, on this account, the negro
has become cold and pitiless in the
presence of human suffering. Theft is
a universal trait.
These people, being brought to AM
erica and subjected to the rigid dis
cipline of slavery, were forced to aban-
don many Of their savage practices.
They became Industrious, submissive
to command, and adopted the outward
form Of our religion. The master, hav-
ing an economic interest in the slave,
watched so carefully over his health
that in Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,
New Orleans and other cities the death
rate Of the negro was below that of
the white up to 1865.
While the sexual l~ooseness, encOur-
aged by the master, was not favorable
to Improvement in the family life, still
it is generally conceded thar a arg
| proportion of the negroes lived out their
lives in proper monogamic union.
The close contact with the white man
developed in the a sympathetic
disposition which became almost a uni
versal characteristic. While petty
| theft persisted throughout slavery, rape
| and crimes of blood were very uncom-
mon. These notifications in the negro's
life were artifcially p~roduced-the in
evitable outcome of the self interest Of
the white mainland they effected no
| permanent change in the negro's nature.
When the restraints Of the master
! were thrown off it was natural that
the savage nature should have a strong
| tendency to reassert itself. Thus far
the most serious reversional tendency
| has been shown in the negro's sexual
nature. His family life, bad enough
under slavery, has disintegrated in the
direction Of African polygamy and
polyandry. For example, in one coun-
ty in Mississippi there were in one year
900 marriage licenses taken out by the
r-L;k1 -0o~I 49, ~ n~nv,arrinn TS
| population there should nav peen
1000 licenses taken out by the negroes
but. in fact, the negroes took out only
three licenses.
Intrigues and separations between
man and wife are common. and the
police dockets are filled up with cases
Of brawls growing out OF u~nfaithful-
ness of husbands and wives. In many
cases the women support the family.
investigated one hundred negro homes
In the city of Durham, N. c., and II
nearly every one the support Of the
family devolved upon the woman, the
husband spending his money upor
prostitutes. d liquor, festivals. eA-
cursions and the like.
Only twenty-eight men in these ont
hundred homes had employment a
the time Of the investigation. Twenty
three Of the women were VIGOROUSLY
immoral, vile forty-tWo Represented
themselves as widows! In twelve
| eases the father had entirely abandon
ed his family. ] found n case where
a man took a second wife two week!
after burying his first Ole.
: Children receive little attention. Man,
Of them sleep on the MOOR, rolled UP II
an old carpet, and they are often sen
- school without any breakfast. The.
loaf the streets, steal and beg. In thes'
one hundred homes l found thirteer
abandoned children. On the occasion
of a cold wave, a few days before thi:
Investigation, there was not a BIT Q
fuel in any Of these one hundre'
homes. and many of the inmates woulC
! have frozen to death but for tn
prompt relief extended by the whit
people. Disregard for the future is tn
most notable characteristic of thes
people. The wages received on Satur
day night are usually squandered b.