Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1852-08-18
THE WEsT-A CONVENTION.

enactment, and against a Convention. The issue
was distinctly put and the decision OF the people
has been of 81 Oh character that no one can mis-
understand it. Gov. Reid was known to be IN IA
vor of F,oe Suffrage by Legislative enactment for
the basis in both branches of the Assembly as it
is, and against a Convention. These were his po-
sitions both in the East and in the West. They
were set forth by him, day by day, during the can
vass in the planest and clearest manner; while on
the other hand Mr.. Kerr understood on all
sides to be against Free Suffrage by Legislative
enactment, and for Convention. Not only this,
Mr. Kerr came out in the West as the advocate OF
free, open, unrestricted Convention said he
had been for it for years. and thus constituted him
self the peculiar champion Of that measure. What
has been the result? In the West, where this
measure was supposed to be most acceptable and
popular, Co., Reid has made his heaviest gains };
and in addition to this, Mr.. Styles, Free Suffrage
Wing, is elected to the Commons from Cherokee
over Mr.. Rowland, Convention Wing, and Mr.
Munday, Free Suffrage Democrat, is elected from
Macon, a Wing County, over Mr.. Sier, Conven-
ton Wing. What do these things prove? They
prove that the Western people demand Free Suf-
frage by Legislative enactment and do not want
Convention. We say the Western people, mean
ing thereby large majority; for we know there
are many among them, nine-tenths of whom are
Wings, who have made the assertion of the
questionable right of Free Suffrage pretext for
demanding other and vital changes in our funda-
mental law. We believe large majority of the
Western people are satisfied with the basis as it
is and this clamor for a Convention would never
have been raised, but for the interested and ambi-
tious views Of Wing leaders. These leaders, with
John Kerr at their head, appealed to the Western
people against the Eastern people-Dr. F. J. Hill.
F. B. Satterthwaite and others, Wing leaders from
the East, in Convention composed almost exclu-
sively of Eastern men, rendered the rights of their
section to the advocates of the majority doctrine,
and invited the people of the West to call Con-
vention and take what they would, provided they
would give them party triumph-and what, we
ask, has been the result They hare been spared
-nnagnanimous7y, MOLLY spared by the gerry peo-
pie acao acould hare gained ooacer, large appropri
aions and supreme political control by accepting
the OFFER; and they have been told, in a voice of
thunder, uttered from the mountains of Ashe and
Cherokee, that the people of Western Carolina
prefer the repose and the welfare of their State to
any and all parties; and that, as they free and
just themselves they are incapable of grasping at
power or of seeking prosperity which must be
founded upon loss of undoubted rights by any
section acquired as the result of total uproot
ing of the fundamental law. They have been told
that the West has demanded Free Suffrage
equality at the polls, not that equality which taxes
n IL.
County which pays but five hundred, as much con-
troll over the six thousand as New Hanover, but
the right of equality at the ballot-box, and, as
necessary consequence, the striking out from the
Constitution of the odous distinction which now
exists between the landholdcr and non-landhoder
That is what Western Carolina demands-what
every non-landholder and thousands of landholders
in the East dema inland achat they shall haze!
The rebuke has fallen, and we hope it has been
felt. 1t comes from section which scorns power
at the expense of right-it comes from the land of
he mountain and torrent, proverbially the abode
If the free and the brave to overwhelm and blast
hose political tinkerers and tricksters, who would
bitch the Constitution into the arena of partizan
strife with as much GOODNESS as they would polit-
cal issue-from a land peopled with our brethren,
who say to us, by their votes, that they above
aking advantage of one portion of the people of
he East merely because they have been invited to
10 so, for party purposes, by another portion of
he same people. The truth is, all things consid-
red, the people of the West have shown them
elves by their votes in the late election, much more
on the questions of the basis and Con-
ention, than large portion Of the Wing party of
he East We state the fact, and leave it with our
eaders to be remembered and acted on hereafter.
We now say to Western Carolina what we be-
i've will be fully sustained in saying, that Eas-
ern Carolina desires to know no East and no Vest
hat the latter has roced and will continue to rejoice
n the advancement and prosperity of the former
nd that, while the East will continue TO be only
lst to ITSELF it will be generous it afford to
e, to our noble-hearted mountain brethren. So
ar, at least concerned, these are no idle
Tords-they areuttered after the election and they
pring alike from the judgment and the heart. We t
70 not expect to be-as certain Wings have been {
"a very jealous Western man once in two years,
nd indifferent or contemptuous-as these same {
ertain Wings have been-the balance of the time; s
ut expect to labor for the interests of all Sec
ons-to struggle not more ardently for the devel- j
pment Of the resources of the East than of the
Vest to strike hands with our mountain brethren
nd to hail them as friends not to he dao1+ With