The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1915-07-02
Friday, July I'd, 1915
THE GRANDFATHER CLAUSE.

cases. Coming from the great
est of the New York dailies-
published in a Northern State it
certainly affords impressive evil
dence of the change Of attitude of
the minds of the people of the
North, on this Southern problem.
There was sinilar editorial in
the New York Sun of the same
date.
''The Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments to the Constitu-
ton, says a vigorous political
essayist whose pen name is
Savoyard, were the harvest of
revenge. Enlightened states
manship had nothing to do with
them. He'll and Utopia
STEVENS and SUMNER brought
them forth. Perhaps the
Sumner utopiansm had more to
do with it than the Stevens
vengeance; but the Fifteenth
Amendment, atlany rate, was a
blunder in craftsmanship and
left terrible consequences. 1t
attempted to thwart by leglsla-'
ton a determination which has
never been thwarted in the
history of the human race by
legislation or any other thing
whatever the determination of
the white man to rule the land
wherein he lives.
1.-The bloodshed and misery
which resulted from it in the
first twenty years are little
known to this generation, be-
cause for many years that de-
termination has had full sway in
all that part of the country where
negro domination has been pos
sible. The enforcement of that
determination by terrorism was
! succeeded by more peaceful
methods. One Of them was the
tGrandfather Clause, which has
at last been declared unconstitu-
tional by the Supreme Court.
The issue was squarely presented
and no other decision was posi-
BILE; the clause had no reason for
the purpose of multiplying the
Fifteenth Amendment, and the
court is not there to nullify the
Constitution.
'The determination of the
white man to rule the land where
in he lives is not affected by the
decision. Wherever that de-
termination has been challenged
the result has been the same.
The last proof of Importance was
in 1898, when large parts of
North Carolina were governed
by negroes, wholly or in part.
The result was in miniature
that which had followed the
Fifteenth Amendment all over the
South years before. Resolutions
adopted at a mass meeting in
Goldsboro thus stated that re-
suit:
bad government has fol-
lowed, homes have been in
: vaded, and the sanctity of
woman endangered. Bust
ness has been paralyzed and
property rendered less valua-
BILE. Themajority of the law
has been disregarded and
lawlessness encouraged. In
many localities men no long
er rely upon the officers
of the law for protection, for
they are known to be incom-
petent or corrupt. Condi-
lions have become SO intoler-
able in these communities
that they can be no longer
tolerated Or endured.
And a mass meeting IN
Wilmington declared its belief
that the Federal Government
would not subject US perman-
emily to a fate to which no
Anglo-Saxon has ever been
forced to submit.
Business in many of the negro
ruled sections was at a standstill,
and negro rowdies, relying on
the favor of negro Magistrates
and negro police, went to great
lengths. Attempts to arrest
mobs. Every house house in
the city is an arsenal, reported
a Northern correspondent.
The white men went to the
polls armed. and the result was
the overthrow of government
for all time in North Carolina.
Next day the office Of a negro
paper which had published an
article resented as an insult to
Southern womanhood was burn
ed to the ground by 600 armed
white men. and the writer Of the
article was ordered to leave the
city, which he did. Twelve
negroes and three white men
were shot; the negro officials
r,cirnod their Offices 11ndar com