Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-05
NORTH CAROLINA POLITICS.

VI tllS IlOutg power Vi II6 OIilOSu DIdtcS.
NORTH CAROLINA POLITICS.
The call for convention to amend the
Constitution Of North Carolina was defeated
before the people by the active interference
of the Grant administration. This result
afforded the Radicals a great deal of COM
fort. They had interpolated into the Con-
stitution some features that bore particu-
larry hard upon the people. They had
created a multitude of Offices unknown to
the State before the advent of the Radical
party, and the salaries of these officers
largely increased the taxes of the people.
The Radicals knew very well that if the
people of the State could get a convention
| to amend their Constitution, they would
wipe these offices out of existence, and that
with the loss of these and other offices
which would result from the holding of a
Constitutional Convention, they would lose
control Of the State, hence the desperation
with which the Grant administration fought
for the office-hOlders. Thousands of the
white voters were deferred from going to
the polls by the threats made by Attorney
General Alderman, and the call for the con-
| vention was thus defeated. OF course the
Radicals were greatly elated, and claimed
the result of the election as a Radical
triumph. The Democratic Executive Com
mittee of North Carolina, of which
Gov. Bragg is Chairman, has recently
issued an address to the people Of that
defeat of the call for a convention was a
Radical success. The committee says the
| election was not in favor of or against any
political party, and that it turned on collat-
eral and immaterial issues, and not upon
| the merits of the issue submitted to the
people. After suggesting the legislative
mode of amending the constitution, and
designating the various features - num-
bering ten in all-in which it should be
amended, the committee thus arraigns the
the constitution and its Radical trainers:
"Under this organic law the people are
| subjected to an intOlerable misrule at the
hands of the Radical party. By means OF
notorious fraud, force and the sword, that
| party had absolute control of the COnven-
| ton that framed the present constitution,
and like control of the first Legislature
that assembled under it; and, although the
| people were impoverished, this Radical
| Convention and Legislature increased the
| public debt from 100000 to near S20,-
| 100000 in less than eighteen months. OF
this S2O,O0O,0OO less than $4,000 have
! gone into the public works or to the benefit
of the people. This party placed in Office a
| Governor who absolutely suspended the
constitution and laws of the State. He ar
rested scores of innocent citizens without
warrant or any authority Of law. He sus-
| pended the writ of habeas corpus and de-
| fed the Chief Justice of the State. He
made his warrant from time to time on the
| treasurer for large sums of money, without
the sanction Of law. He raised a lawless
! and mercenary horde of desperadoes and
armed them at the public expense to exc
cute his despotic will. This party elected
to the State Convention and the Legislature
scores of men notorious for their ignorance,
| RIGHTEOUSNESS, dishonesty and corruption,
! who, at the beheSts of their party and
knavish spectators, increased the public
| debt to the enormous sum already stated.
This party degraded and disgraced the judi
ciary by electing to high judicial stations
men shamefully ignorant and corrupt and
others who have not scrupled to manifest
the most blatant partisan feelings while
holding their offices. This party have
| ruined the credit of the State; they have
blasted the hopes and prosperity of the peo-
| pie in the most shameless and defiant man
ner; they have made every department of
| the government a byword and reprOach.
To establish the truth of these charges we
need but to point to the history of the State
for the last three years and appeal to the
observation Of every intelligent citizen"
The address attributes most of the crime
and outrage that has recently occurred in
the State to the prostitution of legislative
and Judicial departments of The government
by Radical partisans, and charges these
with endeavoring to fasten on the Demo-
cratic party the connivance at and encour-
agcment of such crime and outrage. This
the committee unqualifiedly denOunceS as
false and infamous in the last degree, and
urges its friends to set their faces against all
| lawlessness and violence, and to be espe-
cially active in preventing secret outrages
by disguised persons Of any and all political
parties. On the subject of the national
politics the address says:
at is to be regretted that the people of
this State have failed to take any very ac-
| tive interest in national politics since the
| close of the late war. In our Judgment
this is unwise. The people are of the Union.
| 1t is our government and to it we must
! look, as we have the right, for support and
protection in our rights, liberties and prop
| erty at home and abroad We owe it ale
| glance and support, and it is a patriotic
| duty to yield these. 1t is as much our duty
| to ioin our fellOw-countTymen in shaping
! and controlling the policy and destiny of
| this great common national government.
| We have all the rights that any of the
| American people have, and we aIe false to
| the country and ourselves if we fail to re-
connie, exercise and act upon them. The
| people have rights; let them exercise them
| firmly and respectfully, and when need be
| assert them as freemen and American Citi-
zens in the councils Of the nation, in politi-
cal assemblases and everywhere. If we
consent to be a dwarfed and ignored ma
uonality, then, indeed, We may expect to
be for all time to come"
1t then enumerates all the political evils
and grievances Of the country, which it
charges to the Radical party, and says:
alt is essentially party inimical and
dangerous to the constitution and public
and personal liberty. 1t is founded unon
the despotic dogma that there is a ,hiGher
law than the constitution; it is empbafbic-
ally and essentially higher law party. This
dogma is its life and soul, and it proceeds
on the Jesuitical maxim that "The end