The weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1869-18??, 1870-10-05
rhe Future-Its work-A Convention.


recent article in the Wilmington journal
with the above caption, SO thoroughly re-
yeals the purposes and spirit CT the Kuklux
Democracy. as to warrant US in giving it
more than passing notice. We can not
doubt, from its tone of authority and its
aristocratic airs, that it is the utterance of
the Great Cyclops himself. And weare con-
firmed in this opinion by the fact that all
the petty Kuklux journals in the State, in
GLIDING one that is not so distant from us
as to need naming, recognize the crack of the
whip, and fall into line at once like a gang
of old fashioned field hands.
Whatever merit this remarkable paper
may lack, there is one that it possesses: it
is eminently fresh. The writer is a man of
most vigorous imagination. He not only
invents arguments, but has no difficulty what
ever in inventing facts to match them.
He assures us, for example, that the recent
Kuklux victory in this State was the verdict
of the people. A petty majority of four
thousand in a voting population of over
hundred and ninety thousand, is claimed
as a decided expression of the popular will,
in the face of the we'll ascertained facts, that
the State is decidedly Republican, tina. many
votes were lost to the Republicans by local
divisions, and that many, many more, to the
lasting and damning shame of the successful
party, were withheld through fear of that
unseen, but dreadful power that haunted
our forests and shighways, that sought to
build the walls of its strong holds with
bones and to cement them together with
blood For the first time has political
party in America accomplished coup d etat,
and established itself in power by organized
murder And this is what this extremely
funny and original genius terms, o verdict of
the people. Thank Godl the people of
of North Carolina are not responsible for
either the deeds or words of these banded
hlghwaymen. 5H ~.
The people of North Carolina have indeed
expressed their will, but not in the late cleo
ton. They expressed their will, when in
April, 1868, by an overwhelming majority of
10000, a vote fairly and openly polled, they
abandoned the rags and tatters-the offcast
clothing of an old aristocracy; when they
rejected the dead ideas that were the out
growth of monarchy and were the natural
form in which monarchy invested itself, and
that even Great Britain herself is little by
little abandoning; when the State, turning
in her maidenly indignation from her insul-
tiers, welded herself to freedom, and robed
herself in the bridal purity of her NEW Con-
sTITUTIoN.
But this Cyclops, speaking to his party,
announces to them their work. And first,
lest the clovcn foot should be too conspicu-
Gus, he declares that there is no intention
to interfere with the Homestead Law, or to
interferfere with any right guaranteed to the
colored people by the law Of the land, or to
interfere with the operation of the Recon
struction Acts of Congress" %
Well, well! What declaration is that.
o, most gentle and amiable monster, how do
you know all that? Who gave you author
ity to speak? All, we bethink ourselves.
There is certain oath by which the men,
bers of the Khan are bound to obey all orders,
and so when the Grand Cyclops takes snuff
let all loyal Kuklux sneeze
1t is comfortable, however, to have these
assurances, especially as the people do not
propose to give up the homestead law;
nor will they soon abandon that party
which gave them that great and benefcent
law. This it is that makes the people Sc
cure and indifferent to the threats of the old
landed aristocracy. The people have not
forgotten that under the old system, the
recollection of which makes old Cyclops
lick his bestial and bloody lips, it was not
the negroes alone who were slaves, but that
much more were slaves the poor, landless,
uneducated whites, who had practically no
voice in the legislation, nor even the pre-
lection of slaveholding master Nor will
the people believe that the party which looks
solongingly back to the old system, is not
preparing to return to it. They will not be-
lieve that party, aristocratic by instinct
and education, will not rob them of their
Homestead Law, the first darling child of the
free republic of North Carolinai ~ ia3
And they are not going to rob the colored
people of their guaranteed rights We
think not Our uncle Samuel will have
word to say when they begin to do that.
We tell these aristocrats that the colored
people would scorn to receive freedom at
their hands. A higher power gave them
freedom 1t is Gods gift, guaranteed by
the Constitution of the United States and
by the new Constitution of North Carolina,
and guarded by the ballots and bayonets
of the Republican party. Old Cyclops
would better not propose to interfere with
that He must find some other morsel for
his hungry chops ID 10 big
won't--interfere- with--the
reconstruction of-Congress l'-
Well, if that doesn't cap the climax
We heard of twopenny township COM
missioner, the other day, who was con-
sidering the propriety of multiplying the
State taxation laws, by refusing to perform
his sworn duty. He is clearly no relation
of this virtuous Cyclops. For this chap, in
consideration of the fact that the recon-
struction acts are the voice of forty millions
of people, the thunder of whose cannon
eyciups is possibly old enough to remem-
Der, very properly proposes not to interfere
with the reconstruction acts
But he does propose to call Convention.
He does propose to impeach the Governor
and the Chief Justice-and Judge Tourgee.
Well il is good thino IN he candid Eoro