The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-10-14
Letter from the Fifth District-ulseussion be
tween the Republican and Greeley Candidatei
for Congress.
Rocky MOUNT, October

tween the Republican and Greeley Candidates
for Congress.
Rocky MOUNT, October 10.
To the Editor of he State Journal:
l promised you while in Richmond,
ten days ago, that l would drop you a line
in regard to the canvass in this district,
from the different points at which discus.
sions might be held.
| find, since | have been in Franklin,
that the Republican party is gaining strength
daily, and that they will give a glorious ac-
count of themselves on the 9Th day of No
vember.
According to appointment previously
made Mr.. Thomas, myself and other Re-
publican friends, met at D%ickinson's yester-
day. and found a considerable number of
our friends assembled to hear the discus
sion between Col. Davis and our candidate,
Mr.. Thomas. Mr.. Thomas, although, it
was q Republican meeting, invited Mr..
Davis to participate in the discussion, and
after Mr.. Davis refusing to open the discus
sion, led off in q speech of one hour and
ten minutes, in which he ably sustained the
administration of Gen. Grant, and demon
strated conclusively that Gen. Grant and
the party he represented, were far better
friends to the South and her industrial
interests than Horace Greeley and his adj
herents.
Colonel Davis, although a very good
county, court lapver, utterly failed to meet
the great questions involved in the present
Presidential contest.
Mr.. Thomas very happily referred to the
record of General Grant, taking it from the
time General Lee surrendered his sword at
Appomattox Courthouse to the time Hor-
ace Greeley, Andy johnson, and others
desired and asked for the arrest and prose-
cution Of Lee, Johnston, Beauregard, and
others, in which General Grant insisted
that those gentlemen had given him their
paroles at A~ppomattox Courthouse, and
unless they were respected, he would sur
render his commission and refuse to serve a
government that dlsregarded these paroles
and Insisted upon the institution of prose-
cutions against men who had uniformly ad-
hered to the terms of surrender and be-
haved themselves as loyal adherents of the
government.
He told Colonel DAYS., further, that.
notwithstanding the charges of unjust le-
gislation, brought against the Republican
party, it was a historic fact, of which he
| challenged contradiction, that while Vir-
ginia was engaged in armed rebellion
against the United States government, the
Congress of the United States, during the
year 1862, passed the Homestead bill,
granting pre.emption rights to actual set
tiers, which secured to any man, North or
South, q homestead of one hundred and
sixty acres of land, by the payment of the
survey, which amounts to about SIS and
to Virginia $500, 900 of the proceeds of
the sale of public lands, the benefits
of which are now being applied to the
establishment of the Agricultural College
in Montgomery county, for the
benefit of the whites, and the school at
Hampton for the benefit of the blacks;
and that all this was done while the Con-
federate troops invested our national capt.
tai, and within hearing of the clash of
musketry and the booming of artillery"
Mr.. Thomas effort was a triumph for
himself and General Grant in this portion
of the district. After the conclusion of the
discussion between Colonel Davis and Mr..
Thomas, t" hon. jeens patterson, " of Frank
lin, who is known by the Sobriquet of ''fet-
low-citizens,n attempted to define his posi-
ton, but, no person desiring to hear a
speech which has been delivered a thou
sand times, left the [" hon. jeems" and his
goods box alone in their glory.
The Republicans of this section are
aroused and confident of victory on the 9th
day of November. | will write you again
from Henry Courthouse.
l.. A. BUCKINGHAM.