National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1876-07-14
NORTH CAROLINA TO THE FRONT

OIltu. w utuCNC1 luCIc u uOHS Ill VIC
Old North State favorable to the Republi-
can cause the Associated Press agents in
| that section Withhold it from the Northern
public. That the nomination of Judge
Thomas Settle for Governor and eX-Con-
gresham William A. Smith for Lleuten
ant Governor is favorable news to Re-
publicaDs no one who knows anything
about the politics of North Carolina will
deny. These nominations mean that the
disquietipg elements of the party have
been overcome or pacified, and that the
vote by which Messrs. Settle and Smith
were nominated in the conventlon-over
two-t hirds-shows that they are the win
ming choice of their political cotenpor-
aries. Never before since the organiza-
ton of the party in the State has cam
paign begun under such promising aus
pices. Judge Settle is a host within him
ular men who has ever served the people
in public position. They are both natives,
both identified in the most earnest man
ner with the individual. as well as the col
lective, interests of each and every North
Carolinian, and they are both intrepid and
deserving adherents to the principles of
Republicanism.
Above all things, however, the North
Carolina Republicans are to be congratu-
lated upon the fact that they have chosen
Judge Settle as their standard bearer. He
is known the length and breadth of the
rot, ~ ho,,opI
its confines as an able and upright diploma
fist. Beginning life as he did in remote
county in northern North Carolina, he
literally fought his way to the front, and,
after winning many local honors, at the
end of the war was distinguished by re-
ceiving the first and foremost appointment
from this Government to represent it to
any foreign Government. Ga his return
from a most honorable service abroad,
during which he maintained the dignity
and character of the United States in
most acceptable manner, he entered promi-
nently into national politics, won for him
self the reputation of being the ablest
president that ever presided over a national
convention-when Grant was renominated
at Philadelphia in 1S72-and subsequently,
on the stump, in New England and else
where during the exciting campaign of
that year, earned deserved encomiums
for his mastery defense of the Re
pablican cause. In fact no one man
in the country did more than
Judge Settle, by his rhetoric, his logic
and his argument, to secure the ,o'.Inats
results that gave to the party the great y.c-
tory which crowned its efforts during that
campaign. After this he travelled in the
North and West everywhere receiving dis
tinguished attention, as the guest of Chief
Justice Waite and other prominent citizens,
thereby charging his acquaintance with
public men and his information regarding
the people and the different eections of the
country. In sho1t, there is not a man of
his age in the United St-tcs who has a
wider and more favorable acquaintance
than Thomas Settle, of Guilford, North
Carolina. With ready tact enabling him
at all times to assimlate with his personal
surroundings, of a commanding presence,
of studious habits and of great natural
abilities, he is one of the rising young men
of America progressive, aggressive man
the very embodiment of American vigor,
daring and, so to speak, thorough going
ness. Truly, the Tar-heel Republicans
could not have made better selection.
Opposed to him, as the Democratic nom
inee for Governor, is q. B. Vance, who &C.
cupied the position during the hottest as
well as the gasping days of the Confed-
eracy. Vance is one of the best stump
orators the country ever produced, at the
same time he is the veriest demagogue.
While pretending during his Confederate
GoVernorship to be opposed to 'the con-
scription," and to favor the interests of his
State-really Union State-he was con-
stantly in correspondence with the Con-
federate authorities at Richmond, and
when the State Supreme Court delivered
q decision against the constitutionality of
the CONSUMPTION act he wrote to jeff. Davis
making arrangements by which the Con-
fedcrate, and not the State, militia could
drag unwilling North Carolinians into the
ranks of JEFF. Davis srmy. In this way,
and by there covert means, he established
q reign of terror in the State, illustrated
not unfrequently by the murder of inno-
cent citizens and Union men, and finally
gave to North CGrolina the unenviable
prominence of furnishing more than her
pro rata of soldiers to war against the flag
of our common country. Since the war
Vance has been thorough going fire eater,
a persistent opponent of the changed con-
dition of affairs, and determined enemy
of the liberal provisions in the present
constitution of the State which guarantee
to its citizens many privileges not hitherto
enjoyed by them.
Against this man, and the following as
well as the principles he represents, Judge |
Settle declared, in his speech accepting the |
nomination, "war to the knife, and the |
knife to the hilt." That he will be elected |
We do not doubt. There are forty thousand |
white Republican voters in the State, com
prising many intelligent men, members Of |
the best families, and occupying social po
sitions commanding respect and confidence. |
The Ku-klux were thoroughly punished in |
1872, and if they had not been, the moral |
sentiment of the law abiding portion of the |
community is so strongly against violence
that they will not dare to attempt to repeat |
the terrible experience of that bloody year.
We are, therefore, confident that North |
Carolina will not only elect q Republican
State government next November, but cast |
her ten electoral votes for Hayes and |
Wheeler. Let the cry go forth, and echo
and re-echo from the mountains to the sea-
board, Settle and victory p