Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1858-07-28
MIR, McRae's Change of Position.

Long articles are not apt to be read on the eve Of
IN election and shall not, therefore, make extern
Give quotations, as could do, 60 into argu-
meut to show Mr.. McRae's change of position on in
ornalimprovements The fact that he has changed
that he has set of opinions for the East and an
other set for the Vests plain palpable, undenable
WHY what was the burden of his Dancy letter, and
If his speeches in the East, until he reached Oxford?
# was that the State was in i" chronic decline ~
that she was rapidly declining in wealth and popu-
lation-that she was already taxed as high as she
could bear-that our people were leaving US on &C
count of high taxes-that our system of internal i'm
movements had proved failure; and Mr.. McRae
even went so far in his Mosely Hall speech, as
were informed by the Goldsborough Tribune, as to
complain of his taxes saying that they were as
heavy as he could afford to bear. Now these things
are certainly so. Every one of every party, who
heard him in the East, knoaos them to be SO.
Besides, if Mr.. McRae intended to be understood,
while in the East as going as far as he who should
20 the farthest for the Western Extension, and for
further appropriations for it during the next two
years, why did he argue as above sated?-and why
did he hold Judge Ellis responsible for his declara-
ton that he would fill up certain "gap," saying to
the people that Judge Ellis's proposition to fill up
the "gap" would I" make the peoples pockets cape
wide open ?"-and why did he dwell upon the cost
Of the tunnel and take the ground, and endeavor to
show, that the Western Extension to the Tennessee
line would cost ten millions? The Register, and
other Know Nothing papers in the East, it is we'll
known, took the same ground and INDUCED in the
same strain of argument. The Register went into
an argument on the basis Of the cost of some Vir-
gina tunnel, to show the enormous burden of taxes
which the completion of the Western Extension
would bring down on the people of the State; and
its cry was, vote for McRae, and you avoid these
taxes and arrest extravagant internal improvements,
but vote for Ellis and you will drive the State to the
verge of bankruptcy and ruin. Is not that SO? Ex-
anime the files of that paper, and judge for your
selves.
Mr. McRae declared at Ashevie, that he as
good a Railroad man as Judge Ellis; and "that he
was not only in favor of taking off the restrictions
on the charter of the Western Extension, so as to
let the work 60 all along the line at once but if
the appropriations already made were not sufficient
to complete the work, that then he would be in ia
vor of making such further appropriations might
be necessary to finish the work to the Tennessee
line" That is what he said at Ashevic, and that is
what he did not sag in Wayne, Wake, Lenoir, and
other Eastern Counties And yet the Register has
the assurance to say that Mr.. McRae's course is
perfectly consistent" Why, out of the Register
itself will we condemn the Register; for the Ashe-
vile Correspondent of that paper emphatically says,
that Mr.. McRae "erplaed has position to be in sab
stance precisely that Of his connection in regard to
the Western Extension" If that be so-if the po-
stion of Mr.. McRae on the Western Extension be
"precisely that" of Judge Ellis, and if that was the
case while they were in Eastern Carolina wherefore
the arguments of the Register, of other opposition
papers, and Of Nj. McRae himself, to show that the
election of Judge Ellis would result in increased and
ruinous taxation while the election of Mr. McRae
would arrest taxation and diminish the public bur.
dens?
Our readers will recollect that predicted, soon
after Mr.. McRae spoke in Oxford that by the time
he reached Asheville he would be in favor of "bor-
ing the mountains" The prediction has been veri-
lied We also informed them that Mr. McRae was
changing his position on internal improvements
Inc facts sustain on this, on former occasions
our readers may always rely on our statements Of
1acts. We have never deceived them.