Wilmington journal., 1876-08-25
= ...A..ox TOM sEr4a.E ANY

"A. .OIs TOM So I%xLE Any
HErEER SHAN EBa3 3s<ESEl
There may be sos<e excuse for
Northern men who have recently come
Soi.th, there may be some excuse fer
ignorant native white men deceived by
the false representations of Radical
leaders as to tho principles and pur-
poses of the two parties, and there
may be some excuse for deluded me-
groes. who refuse to vote the Demo
cratic ticket, for ignorance excuses
much; bnt if there be any possible ex-
cuse for such q man as Thomas Settle
being found in the Radical party, ten
years have not enabled us to find it.
The fact that he is a man OF intelil-
gence and man of education serves on.
ly to add to the crime of his course. He
can not plead ignorance. No man in
all the State knew better than be pre-
cisely what he was doing and what
would be the consequences thereof,
when he became hand and glove with
ing black against white, race against
race, and the bitter passions, the
burning animoSities, the terrible
crimes and the brutal cruelties that
such state of things would create.
lie knew it nll No man in all the
State knew better than be that the
success of his party involved the
degradation of the race to which he
belonged, and the ruin of the State
that had given him birth. The ad-
mission of the equality of the races
and their mingling together without
distinction, save in the difference of
color, could have but one result;
and no man knew it better than the
man who was shameless enough-to
confess himself traitor, one who
as such in forswearlng his oath OF allie
glance, had violated the most solemn
obligation that mortal man could Ike
upon himself.
But Settle cared for none of these
things. It mattered not to him that
his race was degraded; it mattered not
to him that his State would be ruined
it mattered not to him that he became
the associate and ally of negroes, pro
vided only he might fill the high
places of honor and profit.
It may be true aud it doubtless Is
true that Settle never put his hand in
his neghbor's pocket and stole his
money. But what of that? Is steal
ing the only crime a man can commit?
Is it no crime for a Judge on the
Bench, a sworn officer of the law, when
peaceable citizens, who are being out
ragged and oppressed. appeal to. him for
the protection of the law, to refuse to
give it to them? Which is the greater
its consequences and more destructive
of the peace and prosperity of the
STATE? Mr.. Settle has had many and
signal blessings bestowed upon him
Fortunate in his birth, fortunate in his
education, graded in luxury, reared in
ease and afHuence and with every Access
sorry of moral and intellectual culture,
he has never known want; never
known from personal experience during
his whole lie that without daily labor
there would be no daily bread, and all
| that he can boast of and all that he
can base a claim to superior respecta-
/ bility on, is that he has never stolen any
thing! It would be a wonder If be
had. Men who have never known the
pinchings of poverty rarely steal. Is
it any merit for man to fast who is
not hungry? No more is it merit in a
man not to steal who has ample means
of his own to crafty all his wants.
Mr. Settles claim, then, to superior
respectability amounts to nothing
! We have no patience with the spirit
that treats Radicalism as respectable
when professed by a rich man and
as disreputable when professed by a
poor man. Radicalism is disreputable
and ruinous to the State whether it be
advocated by the rich or by the poor, by
the high or by the low. The man who in
| this Southern country advocates a pol
icy that must inevitably destroy the
distir ctions of race between white men
| and negroes can commit no greater
crime, crime that is only aggravated
by the fact that he is high-born, rich and
we'll educated.
All men are not so fortunate as Mr..
Settle in social position and wealth
and education with which to build up
barriers between them and negroes; if
they were, the damage might not be so
great.
But if Mr.. Settle has stolen nothing
himself he has permitted others to
steal. He stood in silence and
permitted his party friends to pill.
lage and rlunder the State un-
til all her substance had well-nigh been
wasted. Not a word has he ever
uttered to stay their hand or to con
denim their crime. So far from this he
boldly and openly defends his
party. If Ra.licalism be sin against
the race and a crime against the State,
no man is a greater criminal than
Thomas Settle. If to reduce the State
to beggary and want be crime, if 10
oppress and outrage her people and to
rule them with bayonet and bullet be
crime, if to overturn her Constitution
and to derry her people the benefit of
her laws be crime, if to sap the
foundations of liberty and under mine
the supports of good government be a
crime, then is Thomas Settle as guilty