The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-08-19
WILMINGTON N. C., AUGUST 49, 1904

Ancestors as viewed from the stand-
point of the wisdom OF Republican
Statesmen, who have embraced the
Strenuous Life.
The first of these consisted in His
eliminating against the red man-the
Image of God in Cherry-on account Of
his race and color and Previous cor
dition. Our ancestors said 1t was on
account of the inherent, or inherite1
race traits. tendencies and SUPPOSE
incapacities, of which his color was
but the outward sign. Be that claim
pretense or sincerity, we found to our
astonishment that the door OF
opportunity and hope in the way or
office holding and Young had been
closed to Lo! the poor Indian. He was
not invited in by the select Men IN
Connecticut, nor by the electors cf
the self-governing towns in MaSsachu-
sets to help govern our ancestors
and the country which they had COM
mitted TO their charge, nor did our an
cestors promise to assimilate him
This first violation in America of the
divine right Of manhood suffrage and
of the cherished fundamental dogma
that all men of all races are equally
capacitated to govern themselves, and
especially to govern others, has doup-
less been the 'Tliad OF all our woes
Plainly it was what the Boston Tran
script so eloQuently calls 'colorpho-
bia.' We could not account for it, ex-
cept perhaps upon a line of thought
suggested by sentence In che notln-
cation address of the permanent Chair
man of the Chicago convention in
forming the President or his nomina-
tion by the republican party to sue
ceed himself, Mr.. Cannon said: BY
blood. by inheritance, by education
and by practice, we are Self-govern-
ing people Are we to believe that
Mr.. Cannon meant to intimate, a
converse. that nobody was Of SELF
governing capacity unless by blood.
education or successful practice? II So,
it is feared that he is getting back
to our ancestors blunder and may
incur the danger of receiving the ap-
probation Of some Of those benighted
creatures known as Southern Demo
Gratis. We wonder if our ancestors in
New England, New York and Virginia
had been stupid enough to have some
notion the converse of Mr.. Cannon 8
utterance in their heads, and if they
| had based their action on the fact
| that the noble red man had none
of the blood of seif-governing races
| in his veins, none Of that subtle force
of 'heredity', which accounts for so
L
| counted for itself, if they thought
| that he had net for any sufficient
| length of time been educated for the
| task of governing white men, or had
| had no practice in it, except SUCH as
| seemed to lead to the conclusion that
| he was not capable of it.
| The next great blunder in our early
| history consisted in their taking 10
| arms against King George and his
\ forces. when the latter were actuated
as they themselves confessed, only by
| the kindeSt designs of .benevolently as
| similating' to themselves our resources
and our opportunities. You, sir, who
have a Republican son-in-law and
therefore, possess culture by affinity
| at least, will hardly believe that our
| ancestors were stupid enough to fight
| against the principle, which we so
| frankly recognized i'm the Philippines
viz: that it is perfectly right, self-eVl-
| IDENTIFY proper, for flag to cover and
| emblemize two entirely different sorts
| of government, one for ourselves at
| home,' protecting individual, civil and
| political liberty and pretending to fur
! nish full and equal opportunities for
| industrial development, and another
| for other in the misunderstanding
| and discretionary in dts character and
avowedly limiting Industrial develop
| ment there by the necessities OF cum
mercial exploitation for the benefit CT
| the home merchant and the home
| manufacturer We know, now, oil
| course that all our ancestors talk
about 'inalienable rights of self-gov'
| ernment, no taxation without repre-
| sentatiOn', habeaS corpus and right OF
| trial by jdry, freedom of the press
| freedom of speech freedom of
assembly, were only a pIeteXt resorteo
| to by ranting insurgents in order to
/ ioir ,raR,
| the best government, which the world
| had that far witnessed. We have no
| been stupid enough to confine to mere
| words our apology for the mistake
| in our history; we have apoligized by
| deeds Of confession: 1t seems strange
that we could, as a people, have PROS
pered industrially and otherwise. as
i we have prospered, so marvelousy
i sir in all our history, both as Colonies
/ and as States, in spite of the monstr
Gus error-this unholy rebellion;
| Coming on down the current oi
time, We found another period Of popu
/ lar Mysteries. that is mcomprehensi.
bic to us of wiser generation. ir
view of some enlightening facts in oEl
| recent history. Some men in the
troublesome little town or Boston
| maSqueFading as Indians, seized anC
| threw into the sea, certain cases ot
tea belonging to certain merchants ol
| the East 1ndlan company. Ihat TINS
| was a violation of law, no man ir
England or America had any doubt;
amenable to punishment under tht
law, through its usual processes,
amongst which were indictment by :
grand jury and trial by a petit jury
none doubted. With a wisdom, how
ever. equalled only by that of the pre-
sent occupant of the Chief Executive:
l chair in these United States, these us
ual remedies nv law against law
. | breakers. were ignored by that sapient
| statesman, King George. as being reed:
i too weak to depend upon in an eX
| treme like that. The consequence wa:
that the entire population Of Boston
men, women and children, observer:
/ of the law as we'll as Iaw-breakers
/ were punished and the Boston port
/ bin was passed, thus IN fashior
| Royalty communicating the little