Ce et aon ea Lo ae Peas I oe Fk nade pine. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA THE COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANA PRESENTED BY E. Merton Coulter Cp32h.1 187 iu THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION JOHN! ELLIS COULTER COLLECVION BBL A947 The Policy of the Democratic Leatlers is t0 stanehite : . the Poor as Well as the literate Man. Read What General Cox, Chairman Simmons, Herriot Clarkson, and €. B. Watson, all Prominent Demo- crats, Declare to he the Policy of Their Party. “The Washington Post of September 2d contained an interview with General Cox, declaring it to be the policy of the Democratic party in North Carolina to adopt methods similar to the South Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi election laws. This went unchallenged until the 11th of - ey CE RS ey henge Te IY rare Pie UL ies _ocratic State Executive Comittee, sk aes the follow- ing denial : : " - Letter C General W. R. Cor. * My attention has | been called to the fol- “Jowing card, which, Iam informed, is being “ circulated by. on Sak State Com- LMMIiLee + eo “ Read and Talke Warning! Gen. W. R. “Cox, Secretary of the United States Senate, “in an interview published in the Washing- veto Post, September 2d, 1898, gives away “ the secret of the De: yocratic policy iz North AL Carolina, in the following words: ‘With a “return of the Democrats to power in North “Carolina, I think it is safe to predict that “ measures will be adopted, as they have been ‘in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Missis- “ sippi, looking to the elimination of a large oe per cent. of the ignorant ang G pargteeht if 4 | ‘September, when Gen. ‘Cox, under the} pressure of the Dem: “vote.” Gen. Cox is the author of the cele- ‘brated telegram : ‘Hold Robeson and save (othe States) 7 “The language employed and the idea con. “veyed is that of the interviewer, and not my “own, I made no such statement as con- tained | in the quoted extract. : “Tn the hotel corridor, the interviewer was “stating to me the contents of an article in “the Atlanta Constitution, in regard to the “deplorable _ political condition in North “ Carolina. ‘In preparing the interview, after leaving “me, from which the above purports to be ‘Can extract, together with other interviews ‘for the Post, the reporter evidently fell into “the error of confounding what was passing “in his mind, with what was said by me. I “was not familiar with the election laws of “the States referred to, but did know the Con- “stitution of North Carolina expressly forbids “the Legislature from passing any laws dis- ‘franchising any individual or class of persons. “¢ And even should the Legislature be disposed “to do so, it would be prevented by our “ Constitution. “(Signed) Wm. R. Cox.” ‘His ignorance of the Mississippi election law is sublime. ~ When this denial appeared it was called to the attention of © Mr. E. B. Smith, a Democrat, and reporter for the Wash- ington Post, who wrote the interview, and he gave the fol- lowing letter, which is now on file at Republican Head- quarters : Letter of E. B. Smith, Democrat, Reporter for the Washington Post. “ WASHINGTON POST, ‘WasHIncton, D.C., 4‘ “Sept. 13th, 1898. _ “DEAR SiR: In an interview published — ‘with Gen. W. R. Cox, appearing in the Wash- “ineton Post of Sept. 2d, written by me, he “is quoted as saying that if the Democrats - “return to power in North Carolina, it is safe _ “to predict that measures will be adopted, as “they have been in other States, looking toa “restriction of the franchise by eliminating . ae “alarge per cent. of the ignorant and purchas- — + abile vote’ I will say about this, that while “YT do not declare that they were the exact ‘words of Gen. Cox, yet am absolutely sure ‘* that in sentiment they accurately represented | ‘* his conversation with me, and 1 was greaily ns ee ised at his denial of thetr authentecity, | OW ey ae | | M(Signed) EK. B. SMITH.” What says Gen. Cox to this? Abundant proof can be furnished that Gen. Cox voiced _ the policy of the Democratic party in this State. We copy from the Charlotte Observer of July ay eos) the follow- fi " ing editorial : “THE MISSISSIPPI LAW VALID fe ae It is worthy ‘of note that “the Supreme Court of the _ “United States has rendered a decision sustaining the valid- _ “ity of the Mississippi election law, which was designed _ “to protect the State from a VICIOUS and ILLITERATE PN am ie ee A _ “Supreme Court holds that as it applies to whites as well “as to blacks it is Constitutional. _ “This means that the State has the right to impose an _ “educational restriction among other QUALIFICATIONS, "and the decision opens the way to an improved condition _ “in the local government of many Southern communities, a and UNJUST system of dig oe but will prove an edu- “by the vicious vote. te has a Sos in his ae and who has an _ “element. The law debars all illiterate voters, and the | “for it will not only bring about the relief from a peculiar — The man of property and influence “cannot read the ba in his pia neko is perhaps ji “out of the Penitentiary or off the chain gang, ey whose _ “vote annuls the one that went before. “Phe South has endured this condition of affairs so one “that it has ceased to be a matter of comment, and has been “accepted as a matter of fact. Protest ceased years ago, “Because it was found that protests were in vain, but this “ decision of the Supreme Court shows that there i ig: tenegae « “ahead if our people desire to secure it in the way indicated. ay Men of ‘Property and Influence” Vote, While Poor at Humble Men, White and Colored, are bisfranchised, Ohatlotte Observer in its issue of Raine I 5 1898, in undertakes to sustain General Cox in his denial. yee Chairman Simmons, in his speech ‘at iiveshar on the a 18th of August last, outlined the Democratic policy, and is” in full accord with General Cox’s interview. Herriot — Clarkson, the Democratic candidate for the House of Rep resentatives in Mecklenburg, recently declared the same eM thing in Charlotte publicly. Hon. C. B. Watson, late Demo- cratic candidate for Governor in 1896, made substantially the same statement toa prominent Populist in the Suprae a Court Library last March. ee Beyond controversy the Democratic policy will be, if ‘Hee: ree get control of the Legislature, to resort to the “ball -pens oe and other fraudulent methods, to impose, by constitutional — amendment, an educational with other qualifications, upon the right of suffrage, and restore their ring-rulein this State. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty! Let no man be | deceived by their hypocrisy and the crocodile tears they are now profusely shedding.’ ‘The man of property and influ- ence can always take care of himself, but the laboring _ masses should hold to the ballot for self-protection. This policy of the Democratic party strikes down th poor and illiterate white and colored voters alike, and their howl of ‘negro’? is only to blind the poor atnd illiterate voter, while they rivet forever the chains of political slaver, r upon ‘them. ; | i ee z Fats as SRA