Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-06-14
RadicaIiSm1.

If there be anything manly o: akin to a
virtue in Radicalism, it is the fact that its
partisans make no concealment of their
notions of the proper theory aud admins
tratiOn Of the Government. They practice
what they preach and they preach what
they practice. The Radical theory of Gov
eminent, both State and Federal, is that
the people belong TO the Government.
| Conservatives believe the Government be-
longs to the people. Radicals preach that
the Government has a right to rule the
people by bullet and bayonet, and they
practice what they preach. Conservatives
believe the Government has no more right
to crush the people than any other servant
has right to raise his hand against his
master.
But to the proof. During the Holden
Kirk war, and before and since, the ''bul-
let and the bayonet" was the practice.
In the last State Radical convention, and
before and since, ''the bullet and the bayo-
net was their preaching.
Here is some OF the practice, and we have
much more of the same sort to bring for
ward.
William Patton, witness called in be-
| half of the managers being duly sworn,
testified as follows on the Impeachment
trial of Governor W. w. Holden:
Q. State your name, age, residence and
place of business. A. William Patton; |
reside in Melville township, Alamance
county, and L am farmer. Q. How old
are you? A. Forty. q. StaCe whether
at any time during the year 1870 you saw
any armed men ia the county of Alamance,
and if you did, state if they did anything
to you, and if so. give US an account of the
whole matter so far as you can? A. l was
arrested by armed men, Lieut.. Hunnicutt,
Aleck Ruffin and others, about three miles
from home; l was out with a threshing
machine. Q. State the county? a. Ala
nance; was carried to the camps at Com
pany Shops. @. At whose house were
you? A. | was at no house; l was in the
by-road going down to James Bratche's
farm. Q. Under what circumstances
How many men were there armed? A.
Eight men arrested me, and one black
man named Aleck Ruffin.
Q. State what they said to you. A. They
told me that l must consider myself under
arrest they wanted to make a witness out
of me, and they carried me up to the
camp. Q. What did they do to you? A.
At night at a late hour Col. Burger called
me out and told me to come to his tent. l
went in. He told me that | was a Ku-
Klux, that was along when Wyatt Out
law was hung and that would have to
come out and tell what [ knew. l told
him did not know who was along and he
said that was a God damned liar and he
intended to shoot me, and he got his pis-
tol and presented it to my breast and told
me if had anything to say to come out
with it. He then called for a rope and
tied it around my neck and swore that he
was going t" .i'ng me. He took me out to
the woods -H",t $50 yards from the tent
and threw it oTer limb and drew it up
and stretched my head up. Before he did
this he told me if had any confession to
make to come out with it. / told him
had none. He kept me for some
time and then he let the rope down.
1 tod him 1 had nothing to say and
he started back to the tent. L tainted
on the tody going back. He was around
cursing me and be tried to get me to come
out with things knew nothing about, and
ordered me to &c taken back to his tent,
and swOre that he intended to have evely
thing out of me that night. He talked to
me for some time and | told him did not