North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-05-07
THE CONVENTION Project

"nep Gov. Reid submitted the question of EQUAL |
Suffrage to the people. and as the proposition gained
and grew on the public Judgment and affections the
wing presses and many of the Wing leaders triumph
antly predicted that the Democrats had started ball
which they could not stop, but which would roll on
until even the present basis of representation was
sweptaw Was not the ,uish father to the thought
From the very first, the Democrats have occupied
consistent position this subject They took ground
Tor Equal Suffrage, but in favor of the basis of repre-
sensations and they proposed, as they still propose,
to establish Equal Suffrage by three-ffths vote of
the Legislature, by two-thirds vote of the same
body, and then by the sanction of q majority Of the
people at the polls This plan is not only the plan of
the Constitution, but it carries on its face an appeal
to the people, in the positive and specific man
ner, for their approval dsapproval and if their
approval shall follow this appeal the Constitution
VIII have been amended by the people and according
to the forms and requirements which they themselves
hare prescribed. Is not this plain @
But 1t seems that some of the Wing leaders have
started a ball which they cannot stop, and which
threatens to complete the ruin of the former Whig
party Of the State. They took ground, as a party,
against Equal Suffrage when it was first presented
and, being anxious above all things to defeat it, they
changed their tactics in relation it until at last they
settled down, with some show of unanimty at least
in favor of some sort of Convention of the people
with view to such amendments as might appear to
be popular and advisable when the Convention should
assemble. Gradually, however, under the influence
of the counsel of such leaders as Messrs Gimer
Bynum and w oodfn, they came to agree, also with
some show of unanimiiy, in favor of an unrestricted
Convention, provided the people should so vote at the
polls. This their position at the close of the late
Assembly; but, in defiance of the ghostly warnings
OF the Register the Times, which is the organ of the
whte-basis men here, and certain leaders in the West
have recently gone several steps farther in the game
and now proclaim that unrestricted Convention
must be henceorh made the test and that they will
support no man for Governor who is not in favor of
such project. This posters and troubles the Reg
lister not little. The Editor of that paper begins 10
find that the laugh is on the other side of the
mouth; that he has had some agency in starting
proposition not merely of doubtful character in ITSELF
but which bids fair to GO forward until the few frag-
ments of Whigism that were left in the last August
election, are utterly destroyed and cast away. The
difference, in this respect, between the parties is
simply this The Democrats preached opposition
just in itself, and which, if established will impair
important feature of the Constitution and they
set about carrying it according the forms of the
Constitution ITSELF with the distinct understandings
at the tIme that they would be ready in the fu-
ture TO cooperate with the people in the same way,
in effecting any other desirable reform which they
might clearly and unequivocally demand. They re-
fused and properly, to embarrass the issue of Equal
Suffrage with other issues, for good reasons-one
because it is but just and right that every proposition
should stand fall upon its own merits; and the
other, because the issue itself involved Fundamental
principle of free government and therefore enti-
tied from its paramount importance, to be considered
examined, and acted upon by itself. The Wing lead
ers, the other hand, were opposed to Equal Stuff
rage. They left means untried to defeat it but
failing in this the late session, they determined to
start the issue of Convention, and in doing they
governed by about two leading reasons-one is,
that the people may down the proposition for
unrestricted Convention at the polls and thus defeat
Equal Suffrage; and the other that the Wing leaders
of the West, provided such Convention is called,
may thereby clutch all the power and thenceforth
control and rule the State. There other reasons
and minor influences operating in and upon the minds
of these leaders in this connections but it is not ne
cessary to aude to them now.
The following extract from an article in the Reg
lister of the 3Oh, in which the Editor takes ground
against the above and the of the Times
tnlS subject, contains one marked fact TO which we
desire to call the attention of the people of the State
That paper, deporng the division in the ranks of the
former Wing party on the Convention question, says;
IS The Democratic party has already taken its po-
siton. 1t plants itself the platform of amending
the Constitution by legislative enactments. On that
platform both Eastern and Western Democrats stand.'
Again, that paper says in the same article
'' Nor could it be expected by any one acquainted
with their tactics, that the Democratic party would
suffer many of their be drawn off from their
own regular candidate to be given one, be he Wing
or Democrat, who is nominated under this pledge,
however much they might favor a Convention. They
could easily persuade their friends that their
platform is the right one, to wit: Legislative enact
nents. By this you got Free Suffrage they would
say, and by this mode you get any thing else
You want ;"
The Register has at last admitted, what il some
lime since bitterly denied, to wit: That tic Democrat
&c party is the party Of the State, and that it neither
makes sectional appeals panders to sectional pre-
udices. In our paper of the 9Th of February last,
We said -.+-E I
s. We repeat what we have heretofore said on this
subject, that the Democratic party is the party Of
State; and that it neither makes sectional appeals
panders to sectional preudices. That party will
preserve its integrity this question: all Others
happen what may. Its principles are broad enough
cover the whole State, and its policy is just and
Is liberal towards the extreme West as it is to the
centre. to the South, the North Tor the extreme
East" .. O.. ar.-. -..
This is our platform, and this our position. That
position is as firm and impregnable the rock of
Gibralter-it will stand, and the people will flock
around it, while the vaeatng and selfish policy of