History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest Part 14

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.

In an interview with a World correspondent at that time he expressed himself as grateful to Americans.

In July he issued a proclamation fixing the 12th day of that month for the declaration of the independence of the Philippines.

In November Aguinaldo defied General Otis, refusing to release his Spanish prisoners.

The Cabinet on December 2 cabled General Otis to demand the release of the prisoners.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EMILIO AGUINALDO, MILITARY DICTATOR OF THE FILIPINOS.]

AGUINALDO THE MAN.

In his features, face and skull Aguinaldo looks more like a European than a Malay.

He is what would be called a handsome man, and might be compared with many young men in the province of Andalusia, Spain. If there be truth in phrenology he is a man above the common. Friends and enemies agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave, self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He possesses the quality which friends call wisdom and enemies call craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished, thoughtful and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is insincere, pretentious, vain and arrogant. Both admit him to be genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular and capable in the administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of history irrespective of race.--The Review of Reviews.

FACTS FROM FELIPE AGONCILLO'S LETTER IN LESLIE'S MAGAZINE.

Sixty per cent, of the inhabitants can read and write.

The women in education are on a plane with the men.

Each town of 5,000 inhabitants has two schools for children of both s.e.xes. The towns of 10,000 inhabitants have three schools. There are technical training schools in Manila, Iloilo, and Bacoler. "In these schools are taught cabinet work, silversmithing, lock-smithing, lithography, carpentering, machinery, decorating, sculpture, political economy, commercial law, book-keeping, and commercial correspondence, French and English; and there is one superior college for painting, sculpture and engraving. There is also a college of commercial exports in Manila, and a nautical school, as well as a superior school of agriculture. Ten model farms and a meteorological observatory are conducted in other provinces, together with a service of geological studies, a botanical garden and a museum, a laboratory and military academy and a school of telegraphy."

Manila has a girl's school (La Ascuncion) of elementary and superior branches, directed by French, English and Spanish mothers, which teaches French, English literature, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, topography, physics, geology, universal history, geography, designing, music, dress-making and needle-work. The capital has besides a munic.i.p.al school of primary instruction and the following colleges: Santa Ysabel, Santa Catolina, La Concordia, Santa Rosa de la Looban, a hospital of San Jose, and an Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul, all of which are places of instruction for children. There are other elementary schools in the State of Camannis, in Pasig, in Vigan and Jaro.

The entire conduct of the civilization of the Philippines as well as local authorities are in the hands of the Philipinos themselves. They also had charge of the public offices of the government during the last century.

There is a medical school and a school for mid-wives.

"All the young people and especially the boys, belonging to well-to-do families residing in the other islands go to Manila to study the arts and learn a profession. Among the natives to be ignorant and uneducated, is a shameful condition of degradation."

"The sons of the rich families began to go to Spain in 1854" to be educated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FELIPE AGONCILLO Emissary of the Filipinos to the United States.]

When the Spaniards first went to the islands "they found the Philipinos enlightened and advanced in civilization." "They had foundries for casting iron and bra.s.s, for making guns and powder.

They had their special writing with two alphabets, and used paper imported from China and j.a.pan." This was in the early part of the sixteenth century. The Spanish government took the part of the natives against the imposition of exhorbitant taxes, and the tortures of the inquisition by the early settlers.

The highest civilization exists in the island of Luzon but in some of the remote islands the people are not more than "enlightened." The population embraced in Anguinaldo's dominion is 10,000,000, scattered over a territory in area approaching 200,000 square miles. The Americans up to this time have conquered only about 143 square miles of this territory.

What takes place in the South concerning the treatment of Negroes is known in the Philippines. The Philipino government on the 27th of February, 1899, issued from Hong Kong the following decree warning the Philipino people as follows:

"Manila has witnessed the most horrible outrages, the confiscation of the properties and savings of the people at the point of the bayonet, the shooting of the defenseless, accompanied by odious acts of abomination repugnant barbarism and social hatred, worse than the doings in the Carolinas."

They are told of America's treatment of the black population, and are made to feel that it is better to die fighting than become subject to a nation where, as they are made to believe, the colored man is lynched and burned alive indiscriminately. The outrages in this country is giving America a bad name among the savage people of the world, and they seem to prefer savagery to American civilization, such as is meted out to her dark-skinned people.