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TWELVE PAGES. The News and Observe, VOL. XLVIII. NO. 25. Leads all W©pthCardmaDailtosmWews andOireulation MB. AYCOCKS SPEECH Before the Convention on Acceptingthe Nom ination For Governor. Mr. Ayeock was nominated ai 3:36 yesterday, and after two minutes of wild applause, In' appeared before the convention and said: -Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Con vention : The language of gratitude ought, to be brief, for inadequacy of speech is jiever so apparent as when it seeks to eonvey a sense of obligation. I am grateful to you and to the people whom yon represent. 1 cannot tell you how deeply so. My past life and service to the State have so little justi fied th<‘ great confidence which you show in me today that I am made humbly anxious for all the rest of my life to approve to your judgment the action of your affections. This nom ination has not come to me unsought, but 1 can say with truth that i have sought it in honorable fashion and it has come to me free from the taint of contrivance and combination. For the office of Governor itself, dignified and honorable as it is. made glorious by the records of a long line of the State's greatest and best men, I have not wished, but 1 have earnestly tie sired that manifestation of affection on the part of the people of .North Car olina which finds its expression in ‘ election to the Governorship. This unanimous nomination is a joy to me, because the good-will of my fel low citizens has ever been a thing of delight to tne. When 1 consider the character, the ability, the service, the fitness of tiie gentlemen who were named in connection with this nomi nation. any one of whom would have done honor to the State, 1 am op pressed with the consciousness of my obligation to you, and with fear of my inability to meet the demands which your kindness makes upon me. But the fight is not mine, nor shall 1 claim the victory when it is won. The con test; this year is to be made by the people of North Carolina and the per sonality of men will count for little. The question for settlement is of the utmost importance. It touches tin* race question and deals with condi tions. For thirty years our political •battles have been fought from time to time along race lines, while we have sought in vain to make the theory of universal suffrage work out good gov ernment and private virtue. We have found by actual trial that it cannot lie done. .Senator ytillom tells us in his report of the Hawaiian Commis sion that “the American idea of uni versal suffrage presupposes that the body of citizens who are to exercise it in a free and independent manner have by inheritance or education such knowledge and appreciation of the responsibilities of free suffrage and of a full participation in the so vereignty of the country as to be able to maintain a Republican form of gov ernment." Our experience has taught us that the negro has not such knowledge either by inheritance or education. The whole people of North Carolina have undoubtedly come to this conclu sion. All parties have in different ways and to different extents recog nized the incapacity of the negro for government. In 187.1 the people changed the Constitution at the in stance of the Democratic party, and authorized the Legislature to provide for the government of the counties. I’nder that constitution the Legisla ture provided a system of county gov*- eminent by which the justices of the peace in the various counties were ap pointed by the Legislature and not elected by the people. These justices in turn chose the county commission ers who appointed the various school committees and passed upon the bonds of the county officers chosen by the people. The counties of West ern North Carolina gave up their' much loved right of local government in older tof relieve their brethren of the East from the intolerable burden of negro government. For twenty years the IJepubliean party waged un ceasing warfare upon us against 11n form of county government adopted by the Democratic party. They ap pealed to that desire which has al ways characterized our people to par ticipate in the selection of the officers closest to them. When the Populist party came into existence if joined with the Republicans upon this issue and together they won a victory over ihe Democracy. They came into pow er with the distinct pledge to restore to the people local self government and indeed the act changing the old system is entitled. “Ail Act to restore to tin* people of North Carolina local self-government," and yet coining in to power as they did upon this dis tinct pledge they were afraid to trust the negro with the government ami put in the statute a provision for the appointment by a Judge of the Super ior court of two additional county commissioners, and clothed these two with more power than the other three chosen by the people possessed. Fear of negro rule compelled the IJepubli ean.s and Populists to introduce for the first time in North Carolina since The Democratic party abolished it un der Ihe leadership of that true heart ed and great North Carolinian. Gov ernor David S. Ileiil. a government by five-holders, for this act distinctly provides that the two additional com missioners shall only be appointed upon the application of 20u citizens. 100 of whom shall be free-liolders. The Republicans and Populists them selves thereby to some extent re stricted suffrage to those who owned land in order to escape from the un bearable burden of negro rule in tin* Eastern counties. Is there am Re publican, is there any Populists who will deny that this provision was put in the statute as a safe-guard against the evil of negro suffrage; will any of them pretend that any such provi sion would ever have been made if only white men could vote? They thereby confess, and they have put this confession in the form of a stat ute and written it in the law books of North Carolina forever, that the negro where he predominates in num bers cannot be trusted to govern. They themselves declared his unfitness and published his incapacity. Again in 1897 there eame into the Executive chair in North Carolina a man. who in a public speech had de clared that he was not a friend to the w hite man nor a friend of the. ne gro. but a friend of MAN. With his advent to power the negro naturally forgot Ihe days when he was regarded as a. savage and with expectant joy listened to the inaugural address which was to usher in that new and glorious day of political equality, but before that address closed we hear this friend of MAN warning the Leg islature not to turn the cities of the State over to the “ignorant and prop ertyless elements.*’ and thereby this friend of MAN declared that fond as he was of universal mankind he real ized that the negro is incapable of governing the cities in which he pre dominates, for surely it will not be contended by anybody that Governor Russell had other reference than to the negroes when he spoke of the “ignorant and propertyless elements." And the legislature of 1897. violent as it was. determined as it showed itself to be to break all ties will) the past and to repeal all Democratie legisla tion followed the advice of the Gov ernor to the extent of providing for the appointment by the Governor in the cities of Newbern and Wilming ton additional aldermen to those se lected by the people. This act of the Legislature and this idea of Governor Russell eame lie fore the Supreme court of North Carolina in the ease of Uarriss vs. Wright from Wilmington, and that body sustained tin* legisla tion and recognized alike the unfit ness of the negro to rule and the right of flic* State to protect itself against his iucompeteney. Every judge on that bench, knew that as a matter of fact legislation was passed to dis criminate against the incapacity of the negro and yet the opinion of the court does not mention the 15th amendment nor declare the act un constitutional. So i may be permit ted to observe in passing that the courts know many things as facts which it can never know judicially. Further confirmation of the unfitness of the negro to govern may be found in the open letter which Senator I»iit ler addressed to the people of North Carolina just before the elect ion in 189 s. in which he pledged Ihe Popu list candidates for the Legislature to introduce bills providing a special form of county government for cer tain Eastern counties where necessa ry. In what Eastern counties did Sena tor Butler suppose a special form of county government was necessary and why was it necessary. Plainly he meant in those Eastern counties where, the negro predominated and because of the unfitness of the negro to rule. A more recent and convincing evidence can be offered. Senator Pritchard in his speech delivered in the l nited States Senate on January 22, 1909 uses this language. "In the very nature of things it (negro dom ination) cannot be. From the earliest daw it of civilization to this good hour The great white race has given to tin* world its history, its philosophy, its laws, its government, and its Chris tianity. and it will continue to do so.’’ In a recent speech delivered in Golds iioro by Maj. lb L. Grant before the Republican convention of Way lie county he declared “that the negro could not longer hold office and that for 20 years lie had fought to put down the idea of negro supremacy; that while the negro under the con stitution lias a right to hold office public sentiment was stronger than law. and public sentiment was oppos ed to the negro holding office." in d»\*d it iias become the fashion among Republicans and Populists to assert the unfitness of the negro to rule, but when they use the word rule, they confine it to holding office; when we say that the negro is unfit to rule we carry it one step further and convey the correct idea when we declare that he is unfit to vote. The causes which have brought about this consensus of opinion have in large measure, forc ed themselves on public attention within the last few years. We have hud but two periods of Republican rule in North Carolina, from lStjs to 1 sTo. and from 1890 to !Bpx. Thai party contains a large number of re spectable white men. but the negro constitutes over two-thirds of its voting strength. Government can never In* better nor wiser than the average of the virtue and intelligence of the party that governs. The Re publicans insist that we have never had negro rule in North Carolina; that Ihe Republican party elects white men to office, and that this fact gives us a government by white men. Governor Russell in his message to the Inst Legislature vindicates him self against the charge of appointing negroes to office and proudly boasts that out of 818 appointments made by him not more than eight were ne groes. Ife misses the poinl which we made and make against him and his party: it is not alone that Govern- RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 12, 1900. or Russell put the eight negroes in office, and liis party a thousand more, but flint the 125.0nn negroes put DIM in office over the votes of WHITE men- it is ihe parts behind the office holder that governs and not the office holder himself. There is no man in the State today more certainly con scious than Governor Russell that he has failed of his purpose because he had behind him the negroes of the State and not Ihe white men. We had a white man for Governor in 1870 when counties were declared in a state of insurrection; when inno cent men were arrested without war rant by military cut-throats; when the writ of habeas corpus was siis .Hi i j iliiv ' '''' HON. OH AS. BRANTLEY AYCOCK. Nominee of the Demorrai ie Cor ven I ion for Governor. pended and the judiciary was ex hausted. We had a white man for Governor in 189 s when negroes be came intolerably insolent; when la dies were instilled on tin* public streets; when burglary in our chief city became an every night occur rence: when “sleep lay down armed and the villianous centre-bits ground on the wakeful ear in the hush of the moonless nights;" when more guns and pistols were sold in the State than had been in the twenty preced ing years; when lawlessness walked the State like a pestilence and the Governor and our two Senators were afraid to speak in a city' of 25.000 in habitants. It is the negro behind the officer and not tin* officer only that constitutes negro government. Major Grant now repudiates Congressman White and draws tin* color line against negro office-holding, but it lias not been two years since a Re publican convention composed in part of white men applauded to the echo the declaration of White that the industry' ofc negro office-holding had but fairly begun. We have taught them much in tin* past two years in the Fnivcrsity of White Supremacy, we will graduate them in August next with a diploma that will entitle them to form a genuine white man's party. Then we shall have no more revolutions in Wilmington; we shall have no more dead and wounded ne groes on the streets because we shall nave good government in the State and peace everywhere. The Governor of tin* State and the Senators will not be afraid to speak anywhere, for free dom of speech will become the com mon possession of the humblest of us. Life and property and liberty from tin* mountains to the sen shall rest secure in the guardianship of the law. But to do this we must dis franchise the negro. This movement comes from the people. Politicians have been afraid of it and have hesi tated, but the great mass of white men in the State are now demanding and have demanded that Ihe matter ii»* settled once and for all. To do so is both desirable and necessary de sirable because it sets the white man free to move along - faster than lie can go when retarded slower move ment of the negro—necessary because we in list have good order and peace while we work out the industrial, commercial. intellectual and mor al development of the State. The amendment to the Con st B* lion is presented in solution of the problem. It is plain and simple. It proceeds along wise lines, it is carefully and thoughtfully drawn. It stays inside of the XV amendment and. nevertheless, accom plishes its purpose. it adopts the suggestion of Senator ( idiom and de mands the "existence of sufficient in telligence either by ‘inheritance or as a necessary qualifica tion for voting it requires of the negro the qualification by education because he has it not by inheritance and demands of the white man only that he possess it by inheritance it does not sweep the field of expe dients to disfranchise tin* negro which is held constitutional in the Mississ ippi ease, but seizes upon his educa tional unfitness and saves the whites from participation therein by boldly recognizing- the claim of their heredi tary fitness. The amendment makes ; a distinction between a white man j and a negro, but il does so on Ihe ! ground that the white man lias a j knowledge by inheritance which the j negro has not. Has the white man i such superior know ledge? Will any liliin deny it? Will Senator I’ritehard deny if? Hear what lie said in his re cent speech in the Senate. "It is ab ; surd to contend that there is any dan | ger of negro domination in North < ar i olijia. In the very nature of things j if cannot In*. From the earliest daw n of civilization to this good hour the ! great white race has given to the i world its history, its philosophy, its j laws, iis government, and its Chris ‘ tianily. and it will continue to do so." j Why unless the white man is su perior? Will Senator Butler deny it? 1 Ask tin* Caucasian, evidently named lin honor of the great race. Will Governor Russell deny it? Surely he will not assert that unlettered white men are no better than “savages.” If t in*n it be true that unlettered white im*n have a knowledge of gov ernment superior to that jtossessed 1 by unlettered negroes I want to know if Senator Butler and Pritchard and Governor Russell want the Supreme Court to hold that the XV amendment demands a LIE. The Democratic par ty knows tin* truth it is certain that the unlettered white man is more i capable of government than the ne gro. It is so certain of it that it has put its opinion in writing--lias print ;ed it in the laws of 1899 has subniit | ted it to the people and it now ehal j lenges any white man in North Caro olina to deny it. Republicans are pro fessing a special love for tin* poor and I unlettered white man, but at the same ! time they assert that iln* law can j make no disiinetion between him and the negro. The Democratic party j takes the true, bold ground that a | whit** man is superior to a negro and that the law of man will follow the law of God in recognition of it. If we are wrong about 1 liis. then God pity u** for that sense of superiority which beats with om blood and boast fully exclaims with St. Paul "1 am free born." But the opponents of the amend ment attack it on another ground. They say that every child who comes of age after 1908 white and black must be able to read and write before iu* can vote. This is true. The amend ment does so provide. We recognize j and provide for the God-given and hereditary - superiority of ihe white i man and of all white children now 13 i years <>f age. but for the future as to i all under 18 we call on them to assert | that superiority of which we boast by learning to read and write. The schools are open and will be for four or more months every year from now to 190 s. The white child under 1-1 who will not learn to read and write in llig-uext eight years will be without excuse. But we are told that there are orphan children in the laud. And there are. But the State and flu* ,Mn | sonic Fraternity support the Orphan j age at Oxford and they - stand with I open arms inviling orphan children I<> I enter Ihe doors of that noble institu ! lion. The Odd Fellows Orphanage i at Goldsboro is open for the sons and | daughters of Odd Fellows and the , township in which I have iln* happi- I ness to live in its public Graded School leaches without money and without price, but not. thank God. without a blessing, ihe orphans as- I sembled there. The Baptist Orphan age at Thomasville with its 170 pupils follows tin* Master and preaches the : Gospel to 1 iu* poor while it teaches to read and write. Barium Springs and tin* Thompson Orphanage and the Friends' Orphanage near High Point attesl the interest of Presby ; terians and Episcopalians and Friends iu tlie education oi poor orphans, while the Methodists are opening bi this beautiful city a home and school for those to whom they owe a dntv. The State and Charily and Philan thropy and Christianity all stand rejady to aid our boast of superiority. The man who seeks in the face of thesi* provisions to encourage illiter acy is a public enemy and deserves tin* contempt of all mankind. 1 have heard Republican speakers grow elo quent on the impossibility of the poor while children learning to read and write iu eight years. 'Flu* mail who makes such a speech lias no such opinion of the incapacity of his own children as to suppose ilia! they can not learn to read and write in 8 years. I won Id that ! could reach the heart of every illiterate poor man in North Carolina and give him assurance that his children tire as bright and capable as those of the demagogue who seeks to encourage him not to educate his children. I would assure him that these demagogues have their own children in school while seeking to keep those of the poor and illiterate out, their purpose being to gain a start in life for their children ahead of those whom they seek to mislead. Gentlemen of the convention, this clause of our amendment does not weaken but strengthens il. In your speeches to the people, iu your talks with them on the streets and farms and by the fireside do not hesitate to discuss this section. I tell you that the prosperity and the glory of our grand old State are to be more ad vanced by -this clause than by any other one thing. Speak the truth, "tell if in Gath, publish it in the streets of Askelon” that universal ed ucation of tin* white children of North Carolina will send ns forward with U hound in the. race with the world. Life is a mighty combat and the peo ple* who go into it best equipped will be sure to win. Massachusetts has grown rich while we have remained poor and complained of her riches. She educated while we remained ig norant. If she has brown rich out of us it is because sin* knew how to do so and we did not know how io prevent it. Wvvith tin* adoption of our Amendment after 1908 then* will In* no State in the I’nLon with a larger percentage of boys and girls who can read and write and no State will rush forward with more celerity or cer tainty than conservative old North Carolina. The day of the miserable demagogue who seeks to perpetuate illiteracy in the Stale will then have* happily passed forever. fla re is one oilier provision of the Amendment to which I musi advert and that is the payment of the poll tax by March Ist of election years as a condition to voting. The largest part of the poll tax goes to public education under the Constitution. If our boys are lo be educated as a con dition precedent to voting after 1908. (hen no man who will not contribute to that end ought to vote. Nearly all whiit persons liable to poll tax pay it now. If the negro wants to vote it is no hardship on him that he should lie required to pay his tax to the support of these schools in which his race gets more than it pays of the public fund. The various provisions of the Amend ment work together for good to all men. We are going to carry them through to success. The light is on. \Ye unfurl anew the old banner of Democracy. \Ye inscribe thereon white supremacy and its perpetuation. Fu ller that banner we shall win and when we shall have won we will have peace in (lie land. 'l*here will he rest, from political bitterness and race antagonism. Industry will have a great outburst. Freed from the nec essity of voting according to our col or we shall have intellectual freedom. Error will come face to face with truth and shall suffer that final crush ing which the poet denies to truth. With freedom of thought will come in dependence of action and public ques tions will stand or fall in the court of reason and not of passion. To these great ends I beg your unceasing ac tivity during the present campaign. Let your work be with zeal and ear nestness. Remember that the peace of the State is at stake. Do not for get that the safety of our .women is dependent upon it. Ladies refugeed from Wilmington in IS9B as they did before the advance of Sherman in lMi5. The county in which we are as sembled is named in honor of a wo man. Esther Wake. The city in which we are is named for that gallant gen tleman whose most famous net among liis many great and illustrious deeds is that he spread his cloak upon the ground in order lhat his Queen might walk dryshod. In North ( 'arolina in every home there is a queen, wife, sister, mother or daughter and in her name I demand your allegiance and service. It is by no accident lhat the first child born of English parentage in America was born on North Carolina soil and was a girl—the event was both a prophecy and an inspiration— a prophecy in foretelling that modesty which, characterizing North Carolin ians. has found its chief pleasure in doing things rather than in proclaim ing them when done—an inspiration to all North ( arolina white men to forever regard the protection of the womanhood of the State as the first duty which God in the birth of Vir ginia Dare laid upon ns for all time. In flit* performance of this delightful dutv the North Carolina Democracy claims no monopoly, hut is willing and anxious to share with our Republican and Populist friends iln* glory of achieving it by establishing perma nent white supremacy—-there is work for us all and in tin* language of Ad miral Schley, glory enough to go all around. If the Democratic party has seen with quicker, clearer vision the necessity for this Amendment than either of the other parties, the fact has grown out of environment and gives us jito right to boast over those of our race belonging to other parties who seeing it now shall join with us in perfecting the good work. Let the adoption of the Amendment furnish us the occasion for a better under standing’ one with another, and while restoring to white men the rightfu superiority which God gave them, let us in tin* assurance of better goveru- StC 1 ION UNt—Pages Ito 4. PRICE FIVE CENTS men' learn, not toleration only, but respect as well for the views of opposing us. In coming together for the common good we shall forget the asperities of past years and shall go forward into the 2Hlh Century u un ited people, striving with zeal and in generous rivalry for the material, in tellee'ual and moral upbuilding of the State. May the era of good feeling among us be the outcome of this con test. Then we shall learn, if we do not already know, that while univer sal suffrage is a failure universal justice is the perpetual decree of Al mighty God. and that we are. en trusted with power not for our good alone, bui for the negro as well. We hold our title to power by the tenure of service to God, and if we fail to administer equal and exact justice to the negro whom we deprive of suff rage we shall in the fulness of time lose power ourselves, for we must know that the God who is Love trusts no people with authority for the purpose of enabling them to do injustice to the weak. We do well to rejoice in our strength and to take delight in our power, but we will do better still when we come fully to know that our right to rule has been transmitted to us by our fathers ill rough centuries of toil and sacrifice, suffering and death and their work through all these centuries has been a striving' to execute judgment in righteousness. That must likewise ho our aim; that our labor. Fan you wonder then, my friends, that 1 feel weighed down by the honor which you have done me? The task is great and I am weak. To be the first Gov ernor of North Carolina under the new order in the State may bring hon or. but it may bring’ the disgrace of failing rightly to interpret and ade quately to express the high ideals and llie noble purposes which I am certain thri l the hearts of North Carolinians as ti e sun of the 20th Century be gins to brighten the eastern skies. The morning of the new century calls. There is work to lie done —the old, old combat between freedom and force is even now upon us and the mighty roar of traffic and industry cannot drown the tremeiyious din of that conflict. Our industries are to be multiplied, our commerce increas ed. We are to have an educational awakening tliai shall reach every son am* daughter of North Carolina. We may not grow in numbers as rapidly as some other States, but we shall multiply many times the effective power of the State in the .next ten years by the strength which, conies Tom the wide diffusion of knowledge. 1 1 is my happiness to hove been nominated by you for the Governor shq of that State in which thesi* things are to lie done. I shall come to that great office, if elected, with an honest, desire to serve faithfully and well. I shall have no enemies to punish and no private ends to gain. I shad be the servant of the whole peo ple <*f the State—are you rich and powerful, then I shall meet you as your equal, for surely he who has garnered this harvest of hearts has a goodly heritage and possesses a pow-* er which only folly can dissipate—are yon poor? still 1 am your equal, pos sessing- no other riches than the love of my friends. I shall respect the rig’llts of piTqierty and rejoice in pros perity . but I shall not forget that they who toil constitute not only the larg est class of our people, but from their laoo.’s can spare little time to urge their views upon those whom they have chosen to serve them. Currituck All Right. To the Editor: The Republicans in this county hold, a county convention here for the purpose, as I am informed, of electing delegates to the State Republi can convention. There was not a white man of this county in the convention. Mecklns, whose residence we do not know, whom G. \V. Ward defeated for the office of Solicitor in the First Judi cial District in the last election, came to the convention, but he was closeted with a few negroes, forming his plans, we suppose, most of the time, and hardly showed himself in the convention. The Democratic party of this county held their county convention on Monday, the 2d day of April, and made nomina tions ior our Representative to the Gen eral Assembly and the various county of fices. The convention was largely at tended, as were the various primaries, and peace and harmony reigned in all ihe proceedings and much interest was shown for an overwhelming victory in the coming election. Many who heretofore have been populists have come back and renewed their allegiance to the cause of Democracy and are anxious for the victory of the Constitutional amendment. A. A. SIMMONS. Condensing a Document. fChieago Evening Dost.) The young man took :i piece of pa per and a pencil from his pocket and laid them on his knee. "I will have something important to say to you in a minute. Miss Jones." he said. Then lie read over carefully vvluit was written on tin* paper and cross ed out a word. "Supertlnous." he said, half to him self. lie went over it again and crossed out anot her word. "It's just, as strong without that. In* muttered. “We are till too prone to use adjectives and adverbs, an v w ay." lie picked up the paper and seemed about to begin to rend from it. but suddenly stopped. •That whole sentence might as well come out," lie said. “The meaning is perfectly* clear without it. Concise ness is really the crying need of the hour." Then, turning to the girl, he said: “Be mine."
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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April 12, 1900, edition 1
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