Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1876-09-29
A WORD no THE WEST.

| WORD 20 THE WEST.
As is well known, the amendments
provide for the employment of convict.
labor upon the works of public inn
proyementl belonging to :, the ST. tes
The reason for putting such an amend
ment in the Constitution, is the fact
that it is doubted by some whether the
Legislature without such asgrant of
Epower expressly engrafted in the Con:
stitution has the legal authority to or
| der convicts to be taken from the pen
item tiary i And this brings US to the
first word we wish to say this morning
to our Western friends. Suppose the
amendments should. fail to be ratified
and the Legislature. be left with no
more power to put penitentiary con-
victs to work on railroads than it now
has, and suppose further the legality
of thesexercise of that power should
be called in question before the Su
preme Court of the State, composed
as it is of such Judges as Pear
son, and Reade, ard Rodman, what
hope is there Of completing any public
work ? Is the convict labor of the
State worth anything in the completion
of the Western North Carolina Rail-
road {? What say our friends from 0 d
Fort to Asheville, and from Asheville
to Paint Rock and to Duck Town
This is a practical question that bears
at once upon the amendments, and that
our western friends ought seriously to
consider. If the amendments shall
be ratified there can be 60 doubt of
the power of the Legislature to employ
convicts as they. are now employed,
but if they be rejected that power will
depend upon the will of the Republi
can Supreme Court. Are our Bum
combe and other western friends willing
to trust their future prosperity upon
any such slim security ? Are they
willing to. pat into the hands of
Pearson and of Reade end of Rodman
the power to stay for years and
years to come, the development
of the immense resources of their
wonderfully fertile but much neglect
ed country ? All the west needs
is easy access to the markets Of the
world. Until it has this, it can never
prosper, but must ever remain poor
and unknown in spite of the rare gifts
showered by Providence upon it in
such rich and bounteous profusion.
What are our friends going to do about
it Do they intend to pass the amend
ments by as matter in which the peo-
pie of the East only are concerned ?
} Or, if they do vote for them, will they
do it as mere matter of grace and
! favor TO their Eastern brethren We
) tell Western gentlemen who entertain
J such notions as these, if any such
there be, that it is not the East alone
, that is concerned in securing the rati-
: fication of the amendments. The West
also is vitality interested. If the pros.
perity of the East demands relief from
} negro rule, the prosperity of the West
no less imperatively demands aid in one
shape or another for the completion OF
it's system of railway communication
| with the outside world. Nor is convict
labor the only shape in which our
+ western friends are likely to need and
to ask aid in behalf of their works OF
internal Improvement. They have al
ready been to Wilmington for money
! to get iron for their road. and we are
glad TO say they got it; but that was TO,
few miles only, and the question that
lifs e 6 rSn tie
the road ? Is the road able to buy IT
. now or likely to be able to buy it in
the future with it's own means? Il
not, where, we ask, is the money t..
come from? Gan the East give it if
7 by the failure to ratify the amend
ments she is kept ground in the dust
by bad government? 1t is plain tina,
we can not. If the amendments be
not ratified the East is ruined, and il
Q the East is ruined where will the West
2 get money to put iron on the tracks
built for them by convict labor ?
The case is plain one. The rati-
fcation or rejection of the amend
1 ments is no mere sectional question,
, but it is one in which we are all inter
| ested, from the mountains to the sea
board, and it is time we should a.
B realize it. There be some who seei.
a to think it is the especial duty OF
. Eastern gentlemen to champion the
y amendments as mainly, if not solely
an Eastern measure, and there be some
= who seem to think when they have
f expressed a mild approval of that
g measure. dignifed consent, or rather
a dignified withdrawal of opposition
. to its adoption, that they have done
their whole duty to the party. We dc
? not so regard it. The Convention OF
q the entire party in the State
, without regard co sectional lines
cordially endorsed the amendments
and formally made their ratifcl
s ton a matter of party duty and dis
y cipline. It is true that we of the East
n are vitality interested in the success OF
the amendments, and it is true, also
Il that we intend to remember those who
8 slight them, as we'll as those who come
8 up to the full measure of their duty
+ concerning them in the present can
vass bnt it is no less true that Other
sections of the State are interested, al
t we'll as we, in the matter. Nor will il
s be either polite or just for the cham
pionship of the amend ment plank oil
, the State platform to be left solely tc
l Eastern candidates and Eastern papers
SOUTHERN DISORDERS