Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1856-06-18

The Know NoTHNa PARTY SECTIONAL N THIS
STATE, AS IT IS IN THE UNIoN-ln 1S4S Gov. Reid In
troduced to the attention of the people Of this State
the question of Free Suffrage 1t was plain PROPOSE
ton to change the State constitution by legislative
enactment so as to allow all persons who were
titled to vote for Commoners to vote for Senators
ALSO 1t did not propose to trench upon existing
rights, to take away any right but merely to
tend privilege 1t did not, and could not, in the
of things affect the basis of either branch of
the Legislature. The basis of the Senate it KNOWN
is taxation,-and thus all property is represented
and the basis of the Commons is popuhtion,-and
thus the people, including three iths of the slaves
are represented Gov. Reid advocated this arrange
ment, and, the result of it. argued that Free Suf
frage should be added. He declared, and showed,
that property and persons were abundantly protec-
ted in the basis and he insisted that as all persons
were taxed and as they thus formed the Senate ba-
Sis it was but just to them, and right in itself, that
they should be allowed to vote for Senators thus
created in great measure by themselves. He
showed also that according to the existing theory
of freehold suffrage, but small portion of the lands
were represented at the polls, for whether a man
owned fifty acres or thousands of acres he could
by the temptation to create bogus freehols in order
to carry elections in closely contested counties, was
the of fraud and evil; that the Senate voters
or landholders, in addition to the ample protection
afforded them in the basis and in the requirement
that all Senators should possess three hundred
of land in fee allowed to vote for both Senators
and Commoners while the other class of citizens
were restricted to box-thus giving to class
opportunity to control both branches of the Leg
slature.
How was this question met by Mr.. Gilmer and the
leading Wings of that day? Some of them acknowl-
edge the correctness of the principle of Free Stuff
rage; but the greater portion of them opposed and
ridiculed it, and at resorted every means in
their power to defeat it. In the East, they de-
nounced it as an insi dious attack on the basis in
the West, they took the ground that this kind of
Free Suffrage was an empty form-that real Free
Suffrage meant not merely Gov. Reids proposition,
but change the basis, to give to the white
men of the West preponderance in the Senate, as
they already hao in the Commons, over the negroes
of the East and under this view of the matter,
knowing that Free Suffrage was popular, they con-
stantly proclaimed that their candidates for Govern
and other Offices better Free Suffrage men
than Gov. Reid" They started the project of con-
vention to amend the Constitution, denouncing the
legislative mode. though expressly provided for in
the Constitution, dangerous and anti-republi-
can" They defeated Free Suffrage repeatedly that
they might hold it up and use the strength 1T car
ried soth it to get Conuention,-ther avowed pur.
pose being if Convention could be called to strike
out the federal and taxation basis of the Houses
and insert the white, and thus give to what was con-
sdered the Wing Vest supreme control in the State
Legislature About the same time they took ground
in avor of dividing the School Fund according to
white population and while their leading men in
the East contended 70, the present mode Of dstrbu
ton their candidates for Governor and their leading
men in the West were making capital against Gov
Reid and the Democratic party, by violently urging
the white basis as to the School Fund as we'll to
representation in the Legislature.
These are facts, about which there can be no dis
pute. We could establish them by incontestible
necessary to do So We shall pursue the subject in
future numbers of the Standard; and shall show,
only the sectional character of the X. n. organ
zation in this State but also that Mr.. Gilmer, the
K n candidate for Governor, has been first among
the foremost, since lS4s in opposition to Free Stuff
rage by the legislative mode, and in attempts to es
tablish the white basis and thus unsette the COM
promises of the Constitution and impair the vested
rights of shareholders.
ENTHUSIASTIC MEETING IN RALE1GH.-On Monday
evening last after short notice, large and enhusi-
astic number of the Democrats of Raleigh met at
the Court House, and were addressed by w. w.