The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-28

the hereditary prejudfces, and social
and business prescription would be its
fate.
IF the country will consent that the
eight million colored citizens shall be
deprived of their rights. that lynchings
may go on without let or hindrance
as a necessary part of the process of
subjugation, there may be a white
Republican party in the South, but
not otherwise.
"a white Republican party. Shades
of Lincoln and Seward, of Summer
and Chase! A white Republican par
ty only little over a generation af-
ter the death of the great emancipa-
tor! 1t is an impossibility."
Mr.. Crumpacker first introduced his
bill at the first session of the Fifty
Sixth Congress. Again in the Fifty
Seventh Congress it was introduced
and a strong, but Intellectual, fight was
made for its passage. During the
Fifty Eighth Congress it was a third
time introduced but there was no at
tempt to push it to a vote. Also at
Chicago, in 1900, an effort was
made to have it incorporated in the
platform, but it was not successful,
for the reason that Mckinley, unlike
the present Executive, was willing TO
trust the patriotism and the states
manship of the South to solve it's own
faith to both races and TO the whole
country.
The South's Wisdom shown.
The South has remained solid for
Democracy because Democracy in the
South means Opposition to the over
throw of it's civilization. Hence the
further it gets away from the menace
of negro domination the more rapid
will be it's material and intellectual
progress This is abundantly shown
by the fact that since the adoption
of new constitutions limiting the suf-
frage in several of the Southern
States an era of peace and content
ment, good order and progress has
prevailed such as they have not known
before.
And yet this counts as nothing in
the balance against the political ad-
vantage that the present AdminiStra-
ton hopes to gain by agitating a pro-
position that Congressman Smith
(Rep), of Michigan, declared in the
House keeps alive sectional hatred
in our country where none should
exist
Many of the predetermined Repub-
lican politicians of this generation are
now satisfied that a great mistake
was made by their predecessors In
comforting suffrage by wholesale on
the blacks at close of the war. In
private this fact is often freely adj
mitted. and it is acknowledged that
serious mischief has been inflicted
upon the Southern people without any
corresponding advantage, material or
political, to anybody. Such is clearly
the fact whether they acknowledge 1t
or not But the strenuous Raa.evelt
! determined to carry out his negro
policy inaugurated by the Booker
Washington dinner and emphasized by
him on every possible occasion since,
throws the issue squarely into the
campaign.
If he wins on it, nobody who knows
Roosevelt and his methods with Con-
gress, doubts for moment that he
will push the measure through that
body.
Prior TO the civil war no one ever
thought of suggesting that the entire
mass OF negroes have the ballot. 1t
was claimed by many that slavery
was a great evil. and it ought not
to be extended, that ii ought to be
abolished-but no party proposed to
confer suffrage upon them. 1t was
not until the war had closed that in
an hour of folly this step was taken
Nor of all the harsh measures adopt
ed in the reconstruction epoch, was
there one which. bore SO hardly upon
the Southern people as forcing negro
suffrage upon them. Some of the
other measures were perhaps as hu-
initiating, but none have borne such
bitter fruit or entailed so much loss
and injury to society. The military
governments passed away one by one
The carpet-bagger was after awhile
dethroned. Some of the disfranchised
citizens were relieved by statute, but
gerat number We're relieved by
death Other evils were mitigated as
time wore on, but the mischiefs which
were the result of negro suffrage grew
greater year by year until the States
most cursed by it took the matter
into their own hands and remedied
the evil. to some extent at least.
First State to Cut the Knot.
The first State to move i'm respect
to this suffrage question was Missfs-
sippi. A convention was called there
and assembled in 1890 They adopted
new constitution on November /.
The section relating to suffrage con-
tanned two important provisions: Cd.
That in order to vote all taXes for
the preceding year must be paid be-
fore February /; (2) that the voter
must be able to read a section OF the
| Constitution of the State, or If unable
to read, must understand it when read
to him.
This raised a great furore North.
though Senator George, who drew the
section, showed that in doing so he
had simply followed the precedent set
by Massachusetts. The understand
ing clause was the one principally
attacked, its opponents claiming that
it was a hole through which the whites
were to be allowed to enter, while the
negroes were kept out. Experience
has shown, however, that more ne
groes than whites have registered un-
der the understanding clause"
Mississippi's suffrage law was de-
clared constitutional by the United
States Supreme Court on April 25,
1898, IL tn cease of Williams VS.
Missisf ppi (170 L. S. Reports, 213).
Low ;iana modified her Constitution
in NJ 1898, after thirty years trial
of wholesale negro suffrage. Under
the Louisiana law taxes must be paid
for the year preceding by March l.
and the voter must be able to read
unless he could vote January /, 1861.
or is descended from person who
could vote at that time. or owns $500
worth of property.
The North Carolina law is copy
of this except that it contains no
"a