Wilmington journal., 1876-07-14
II HI E CANBK CONSTITUTION
WHO MADE 1T AND HOW!

FhlDA JILL H. 1916.
r m E CANBY CONTRIBUTION
WHO MADE 1T AND HOW!
The Constitution under which we
live, was the work of the Convention of
1868. That Convention was composed
very largely of ignorant men, very
largely of corrupt men, who were con-
trolled by strangers in our State and
unknown to our people save as the
representatives of their conquerors in
a long bloody and disastrous war. It
would indeed have been well nigh
miraculous had the Constitution
framed by that body been adapted to
the wants and condition of the people
of North Carolina for the simple reason
that the men who composed it neither
knew nor cared what those wants
might be.
Nor was the mode in which the pre-
tended ratification of the Constitution
was accomplished, calculated to sugar
coat the bitter pill. Change every
where and in everything was the order
of the day. Our entire system of
government was overthrown. Power
was taken from the many and given to
the few; was taken from the people
and given to the Office holders. The
people were made subordinate and
their rulers were made supremes
In all things the servant was put above
the master. The white race was
subjected to the rule of the black race.
Thousands and thousands of our best
white citizens were disfranchised and
kept away from the polls while vast
hordes of ignorant excited negroes
were permitted to crowd to them,
breathing threats of vengeance against
their late owners. Watchful bayonets
and ready swords were every where
cleaning. Federal officers every where
stood ready to give the word to Fede-
raj soldiers to force with cannon and
with cavalry, with, bullet and with
bayonet, upon disarmed and subju>
gated people, constitution at once in
famous in its origin and ruinous in it's
operation.
Nor was the man who did all
these things a man to be loved by
by us. Candy, General Edward Candy,
then military lord and master over our
State, was General in the victorious
Federal army, the army that pillaged
and plundered our people and laid
waste our country, that had burned our
cities and ravaged our women and
murdered our men. This man from
his residence in South Carolina gave
tary tribunal of citizens of North Car
olina; appointed and removed at will,
and merely by an ordinary telegram,
even the very highest officials of our
State, our very Governors indeed; by
military order he held the civil officers
of counties Irresponsible" to himself
for the discharge of their duties;
opened and closed at will our citizens
places of business. and permitted and
forbade traffic at will; at will he opened
and closed the ballot-box to our citi
zens; convened conventions at will and
seated and unseatcd members thereof;
appropriated by military order the
money of the people in their own
State Treasury and levied and collected
taxes as to him might seem best. Such
was the body that framed and such
was the man and such was the power,
that forced upon US the infamous Con-
stitution under which we live.
It would have been well-nigh mirac
ulous, we say, had it been suited to the
wants of the people of North Carolina.
That it must be changed materially, is
now no longer an open Iquestion.