Part 14 (1/2)

In a happy aftah-tone.

But dem wu's so sweetly murmured Seem to tech de softes' spot, When my mammy ses de blessin'.

An de co'n pone's hot.

--Taken from the Literary Digest.

DISFRANCHIs.e.m.e.nT OF COLORED VOTERS.

While the Northern and Western portions of the United States were paying tributes to the valor of the Negro soldiers who fought for the flag in Cuba, the most intense feeling ever witnessed, was brewing in some sections of the South-notably in the North Carolina Legislature against the rights and privileges of Negro citizens.h.i.+p, which culminated in the pa.s.sage of a ”Jim Crow” car law, and an act to amend the Const.i.tution so as to disfranchise the colored voters. It was noticeable, however, that although the ”Jim Crow Car” law got through that body in triumph, yet the ”Jim Crow Bed” law, which made it a felony for whites and colored to cohabit together DID NOT Pa.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FILIPINO LADY OF MANILA.]

The Was.h.i.+ngton Post, which cannot be rated as generally partial to the colored citizens of the Union, and which is especially vicious in its attacks on the colored soldiers, has the following to say as to the proposed North Carolina amendment, which is so well said that we insert the same in full as an indication to our people that justice is not yet dead--though seemingly tardy:

SUFFRAGE IN NORTH CAROLINA.

(Was.h.i.+ngton Post, Feb. 20, 1899.)

The amendment to the Const.i.tution of North Carolina, which has for its object the limitation of the suffrage in the State, appears to have been modeled on the new Louisiana laws and operate a gross oppression and injustice. It is easy to see that the amendment is not intended to disfranchise the ignorant, but to stop short with the Negro; to deny to the illiterate black man the right of access to the ballot box and yet to leave the way wide open to the equally illiterate whites. In our opinion the policy thus indicated is both dangerous and unjust. We expressed the same opinion in connection with the Louisiana laws, and we see no reason to amend our views in the case of North Carolina.

The proposed arrangement is wicked. It will not bear the test of intelligent and impartial examination. We believe in this case, as in that of Louisiana, that the Federal Const.i.tution has been violated, and we hope that the people of North Carolina will repudiate the blunder at the polls.

We realize with sorrow and apprehension that there are elements at the South enlisted in the work of disfranchising the Negro for purposes of mere party profit. It has been so in Louisiana, where laws were enacted under which penniless and illiterate Negroes cannot vote, while the ignorant and vicious cla.s.ses of whites are enabled to retain and exercise the franchise. So far as we are concerned--and we believe that the best element of the South in every State will sustain our proposition-we hold that, as between the ignorant of the two races, the Negroes are preferable. They are conservative; they are good citizens; they take no stock in social schisms and vagaries; they do not consort with anarchists; they cannot be made the tools and agents of incendiaries; they const.i.tute the solid, worthy, estimable yeomanry of the South. Their influence in government would be infinitely more wholesome than the influence of the white sansculotte, the riff-raff, the idlers, the rowdies, and the outlaws. As between the Negro, no matter how illiterate he may be, and the ”poor white,” the property-holders of the South prefer the former. Excepting a few impudent, half-educated, and pestiferous pretenders, the Negro ma.s.ses of the South are honest, well-meaning, industrious, and safe citizens.

They are in sympathy with the superior race; they find protection and encouragement with the old slave-holding cla.s.s; if left alone, they would furnish the bone and sinew of a secure and progressive civilization. To disfranchise this cla.s.s and leave the degraded whites in possession of the ballot would, as we see the matter, be a blunder, if not a crime.

The question has yet to be submitted to a popular vote. We hope it will be decided in the negative. Both the Louisiana Senators are on record as proclaiming the unconst.i.tutionality of the law. Both are eminent lawyers, and both devoted absolutely to the welfare of the South. We can only hope, for the sake of a people whom we admire and love, that this iniquitous legislation may be overruled in North Carolina as in Louisiana.

CHAPTER IX.

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE PHILIPPINOS.

WHO AGUINALDO IS.

Emilio Aguinaldo was born March 22, 1869, at Cavite, Viejo.

When twenty-five years old he was elected Mayor of Cavite.

On August 21, 1896, Aguinaldo became leader of the insurgents. The revolution started on that day.

He fought four battles with the Spaniards and was victorious in all.

He lost but ten men, to the Spaniards 125.

On December 24, 1897, a peace was established between Aguinaldo and the Spanish.

Aguinaldo received $400,000, but the rest of the conditions of peace were never carried out.

In June last Aguinaldo issued a proclamation, expressing a desire for the establishment of a native administration in the Philippines under an American protectorate.