The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-08-10
NORTH CAROLINA ELECTION.

NORTH CAROLINA ELECTION.
The result of the North Carolina cleo
ton is as gratifyingas it is unexpected. AT
ter carrying the state by nearly fourteen
thousand majority year ago, electing one
hundred and nineteen out of one hundred
and sixty-eight members of the legislature,
and the entire congressional delegation save
one, the democrats now practically, If not
actually loose the state on an election of
delegates to q constitutional convention.
Going upon the supposition that the repub
lcans have actually carried the state and
have secured majority of the delegates to
the convention, as now seems probable,
there is, to our mind, but one cause of re-
greet as to the resultant that is, that the
republican delegates are pledged to adjourn
the convention site die without any at
tempt to NEEDLE with the constitution.
This we believe to he i'll advised action.
We presume no one, who has carefully eX-
amned the constitution of North Carolina,
will question that that instrument needs
revising in several important particulars.
Without specifying these particulars, ii is
enough TO say that, as whole, the consti-
tuition is an incongruous, inconsistent, jum-
bled up mess, being taken from the cons'i-
tutions of several of the northern states
and adopted as they were found without
any reference to other portions of the same
instruments and the result could not have
been otherwise than ii was-a constitution
well enough in It's several parts, but taken
as a whole an incongruous document in
consistent with itself.
We confess that, feeling as We did that
the constitution needed revising, we did
not look with the same holy horror that
others professed to, upon the attempt look
ing to its revision. We much preferred
that this revision should be made by intel
ligent republicans, but hedged in as the
democracy were, we did not see how they
could work any particular harm, even if
they succeeded in obtaining control Of the
convention. 1t is true that, by their ac-
ton, certain legal and constitutional ques-
lions might have arisen, but it is of the
utmost Importance that they should be de-
termined the determination of which,
however, if the republicans have been sue
ccssful, must now be RENTED to the fu-
ture, unless, perchance, they should arise
from some of the other southern states.
Among these, the most important is
whether or not the fundamental condition
under which the several southern states
were admitted to representation in con-
gress and restored to their former relations
to the Union, is of binding force. Another
is, how far the act of a legislature calling
constitutional convention, and the oath
prescribed to be taken by the delegates,
can bind the action of the convention and
still another, the validity of a constitution
when ratified by the people, adopted by a
convention in violation of the law calling
it into existence and contrary to the oath
of office taken by the several delegates.
But, if the republican delegates control the
convention and redeem their pledges, these
questions cannot now come up and we
need not stop to consider them.
But whether the republicans have actual
ly succeeded in carrying the state, 1t is a
substantial victory for the party, and is
especially gratifying tor several reasons,
some of which we will specify 1t is graft
flying to see an election in southern state
with large republican gains, which was not
preceded by reports of "outrages, and fol-
lowed up by cries of intimidation and
coercion, and one in which the presence
of large body of federal soldiers was not
deemed necessary. 1t is the first election
in southern state since the third term
heresy has been explicitly disaYowed, the
force bill disowned, and since the republi-
can party has emphatically repudiated the
idea and policy of federal interference in
dstnctively state affairs-and large repub-
lican gains are the result. 1t shows that
the civil rights bill is looked upon by the
intelligent people of the south as it should
be, not as an attempt to secure social
equality-for no law can ever do that-but
simply as an endeavor to enforce those
civil rights which necessarily accompany
citizenship. And it was in North Carolina
that, upon the passage Of that measure,
certain republican members of the legisa-
ture renowned and denounced the rcpubli-
can party and endeavored to draw the color
line IN favor of the democracy-hut the
voters of the state have, at the first oppor-
tunity, administered them a fitting rebuke.
And lastly, as In 1879 North Carolina led
off in the republican victory of that year
we will not stop to inquire how that par
ticular state election was carried-and in
1874 was the first state TO indicate the
changed current of political events, may
we not place some significance on the
change that another year has wrought ?
The convention, this year, was made a
party issue aad party lines were strictly
drawn, the democrats anxiously desiring a
constitutional convention, and the demo
Gratis are substantially beaten-may we not
take it as the first indication of the turning
OF the tide, the harbinger Of success to the
reformed republican party-the republican
party stripped of its dead weights and
freed from the membranes OF third
term, threatened force bill, federal inter
ference in state affairs, whisky rngs. and
partially corrupt postal service?
POSTAL REFORM
Do not be alarmed, we do not nronose to