The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-07
THE SUFFRAGE PLANK AND
THE RECORD OF ROOSEVELT
Let Him Who Thinks the Rough Rider Won't Carry
Out His Threat if Possible Pause
and Beware.
and Beware.

their whole country, directing an en-
quiry as to whether or not certain
Southern States were maintaining a
Republican form of government.
There We're few who thought they
saw In those resolutions an ominious
forecast of what the South might exv
pect if Harrison should be elected.
Accordingly these Jeremiahs prophe-
sled of evil to come; but their voices
were drowned by the roar of the
conflict over the tariff
Several Southern Republican Con-
gressmen were elected who never
would have been elected had the
minds of the Southern people been
sufficiently directed toward the dam
ger that lay sleeping in those reso-
lutions. The House of Representatives
was Republican by very narrow
margin. Three votes taken from the
Republicans and given to the Demo-
Gratis would have placed the latter in
control. Had the Southern voters been
able to see six months into the future
they would have given the Democrats
that only the three votes necessary
but several more. Then there would
have been no Force Bill. Then there
would have been no Mckinley tariff.
IHcll the UOSOHl Oh the country WOulU
not have been torn by one of the
fiercest sectional controversies of thir-
ty years. History may repeat itself.
True, the Republican party went
down in disastrous defeat, largely on
account of the Force Bill. 1t cost
them the House. 1t cost them the
Senate and the Presidency and drove
them from power utterly.
Some one may ask: Will they not
Il 81
course which once proved ruinOuS :?
If we grant that the Republican
party is capable of learning anything
about the South in relation to negro
question, from experience or 9th
erwise, which is itself. in view of the
Republican record upon the subject,
Il violent assumption, it does not nee
essarily follow that they will consid-
er the Force Bill parallel case. The
same question was put not long ago
to a very intelligent Northern Repub-
lican, who was as splendidly fitted to
give a reliable opinion on the ne
gros condition in the South as any
garden mole that ever plowed the
bowels of earth would be to de-
scribe the glories of a mountain sum
set Here is his answer: Yes, but
the Force Bill failed to pass. We got
all the odium of the measure and
more of its benefits If it had been
law in 1890 and 1892, we would
have carried enough Southern States
to have made up for what we lost in
the North.
The negro vote would have been
counted as cast, and cast in full for
the Republican party. The army and
navy would have seen to that if nee
essary."
The answer requires no comment.
The Republican party has never given
up the hope of using the negro vote
for their benefit. 1t was with that
hope and expectation that they put
the ballot into the hands of a horde
of ex-slaves and flung wide open the
ilood-gates of hell on the South in
the days of reconstruction. The
Crumpacker bill is the Force Bill re-
verSed.
BY the Force Bill they planned to
make the South Republican. BY the
Crumpacker bill they hope to cut
down the representative vote of the
South and so completely cripple the
strength of the Democratic party.
Whether they add to their own vote
or diminish the Democratic vote, their
end will be gained; since the essential
aim is to secure the permanent power
of the Republican party. The Dem
ocrats of the South will do we'll not
to treat the suffrage plank so lightly.
1t is better for them. and easier, to
prevent the coming of a threatened
evil than to find a remedy for the
evil after it has befallen them The
renewal of race agitation cannot be
too much deplored; but the Repub-
lican party is determined not to leave
the South in peace. The resentment
of our people should be directed to-
ward the responsible authors of this
vicious plank, viz: Roosevelt and his
party, and not toward the negroes of
North Carolina, who have given no
trouble so far as 1 have heard. since
the adoption of the amendment, and
do not show any disposition to re-
enter politics, therein showing them
selves wiser than their protested ben
efactorS.
THOS. NJ. HUFHAM.