Mr. Craig followed. He said, in part:

"In 1865 the negroes were set free. This was right; it was an act of justice, an act of humanity. In 1868 he was first given the right to vote. To confer upon him equal political rights with the white man was wrong; it was a crime which the people of the state will rectify and wipe out on the second of next August.

"Dr. Wilson speaks to you of broken pledges. He doesn't know whether any campaign pledges have been broken by the Democrats or not for he did not hear a single Democratic speech in the last campaign. The man who says I made any pledge that no one would be disfranchised says that which is not true. You heard me in the last campaign. Did any of you hear me make any such pledge? [Cries of "No!"] The Democrats in 1898 pledged themselves to enact such measures as would guarantee to North Carolina the supreme rule of the white people. The constitution of the United States confers the right to vote on no man; it says that right shall not be abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

"Senator Edmunds of Vermont is one of those who declare the proposed amendment unconstitutional, and this same Senator Edmunds had incorporated in the constitution of his state a clause saying that no rebel soldier shall be entitled to vote."

After explaining the fourth and fifth clauses of the amendment, he said, "No matter who you are, no matter on which side you are found, the Democratic general assembly which prepared this measure remembered you, if you belong to the Anglo-Saxon race. Is there a man here who thinks the negro ought to be the political equal of the white man? [Cries of "No!"] Colonel Lusk, I call upon you to tell these people if you think the negro ought to hold office in North Carolina? He is silent, when he knows every office he ever received he got by means of the negro vote. If the negro has the right to vote, he has the right to hold office.

"Dr. Wilson, you are the man who said 'I shall let the lamp of experience guide my feet.' Who disfranchised 20,000 white men in 1868, in North Carolina? Answer! I pause for reply. His tongue cleaves to his palate. Did the Democratic party ever disfranchise a white man?"

Dr. Wilson: "It will."

Mr. Craig: "Has it ever?"

Dr. Wilson: "It never had a chance."

Mr. Craig: "You have abandoned the 'lamp of experience' and you are groping in darkness. Doctor, did you ever know of a white man being disfranchised by the Republican party?"

The Doctor admitted that the 'national' Republican party had been known to do such things.

"After the consolidation by the recent session of the legislature of the fourth and fifth clauses of the amendment, the Republicans were silent for a time. But the mountain labored, and the squeak of a mouse was heard. Colonel Lusk said: 'Now the whole thing will fail. Now everybody will be disfranchised.' Colonel, I am sorry you said that. Here's what J. Wiley Shook said about it—now don't blame me, I'm quoting Wiley—he said he 'was no lawyer, but a d--n fool would know better than that.'

"My Republican friends, we are going to carry this amendment, in order that it may no longer be said that in all the world, save in North Carolina, the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race accompanies the stars and stripes."

Colonel Lusk said, after a few pleasant expressions by way of introduction, that but for the proposed amendment he would not have been before the people of Black Mountain. He considered the liberties of the people of North Carolina assailed, and it was his purpose to defend them. "The liberties of the poor people," he said, bearing hard upon the word "poor." I tell the poor man that this amendment will, if adopted, disfranchise at least 60,000 white men in North Carolina. Why didn't Mr. Craig read that measure to you? Why has it never been published in a single Democratic paper in the state? I read The Citizen, the Raleigh Post, and the Charlotte Observer. I have seen it in none of them." (As a matter of fact, the amendment has been published in each of the hundred or more Democratic papers in the state, including those Colonel Lusk reads so carefully. Colonel Lusk read the fourth section and declared that it would disfranchise 23 per cent. of his hearers. He became tragic over that 23 per cent. of illiterate white men in North Carolina. "Of 23 white men in every hundred, every one will have cast his last ballot if this measure is passed. O God! Pity the poor!" The colonel is not especially effective in tragedy, and this reverent sentiment was not taken as seriously as it ought to have been. But Colonel Lusk was not daunted. He drew a picture of the woes of the voter who can't pay his poll tax, and said: "The pages of the histories of bloody tyrants show no act so cruel as this. How many here have $2 in their pockets?" (Cries of "I have.") "Great God! Here's a hundred men disfranchised."

Referring again to the man without money enough to pay his poll tax, he shouted: "Who here does not feel tears in his eyes for that man?" It is painful to record that the unfeeling audience, instead of being melted to tears, at this point actually laughed, loudly and merrily.

Colonel Lusk scouted the idea that the fifth clause is to be tested by the Republicans. Any negro, he said, could test it, and that Mr. Craig would take his case.

Colonel Lusk asked if it is not the intention of the Democrats of Buncombe county to carry the election by fraud. He was informed that it was not. He then produced a letter signed "J. L. Young." Mr. Young said in effect that somebody told him that he had been informed that there were such plans. Colonel Lusk asked Mr. Curtis about Mr. Young. "I know this of him," said Mr. Curtis; "he says a negro is as good as a white man if he behaves himself."

In the course of his speech Colonel Lusk fished out that ancient red poster of the last campaign. Opening out the venerable lie he charged the Democrats with the wholesale appointment of negro magistrates in 1893.

In his reply of 15 minutes Mr. Craig demolished the Colonel's principal arguments, and many of his feeble ones, including the red poster. He gave the lie emphatically to the intimation that any methods other than straightforward ones are to be employed. He pointed out the registrars of Black Mountain and asked the Republicans present: "Do you believe those men would steal the election?" One of the Republicans answered: "I don't think they would."

"I'll tell you who did steal the vote of Black Mountain," he continued. "Pearson!" said someone. "Does anyone endorse that larceny?" There was no reply. "Does Colonel Lusk?" Still no reply.

In his reply Colonel Lusk proved (to his own satisfaction) that the Democratic party is really the party in favor of negroes voting, holding office and dominating. With which feat he rested content.