Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1876-09-22
HE CANDY CONSTITUTION
WHO Nl nE IT AND HOWL

THE CANDY CONSTITUTIONS
WHO MADE IT AND HOW!
The Constitution under which we
live, was the work of the Convention
of 1868. That Convention was CON-
posed very largely of ignorant men,
very largely of corrupt men, who were
controlled by strangers in our State
and unknown to our people save as the
representatives of their conquerors III
a long bloody and disastrous war. 1t
would indeed have been well nigh mi
raculous 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 1t 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 overthrow. Power
was taken from the many and given TO
the few was taken from the people
and given to the offce~holders. The
people We're made subordinate and
their rulers were made supreme,
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 DISTINGUISHED 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 everywhere
cleaning. Federal officers everywhere
stood ready to give the word to Fede-
raj soldiers to force with cannon and
with cavalry, with bullet and with
bayonet, upon a disarmed and subju-
gated people, a constitution at once in
famous in it's origin and ruinous in its
operation
Nor was the man who did all these
things man to be loved by us. Candy,
General Edward Candy, then military
lord and master over our State, Was a
General in the victorious Federal
army, the army that pillaged and
plundered our people and laid waste
our cou ltry, that had burned our
cities and ravaged our women and
murdered our men. This man from
his residence in South Carolina gave
| orders for the arrest and trial by mill
tary tribunal of citizens of North Caro-
lima; 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
| auu tloScu Iho uaio'-AoA w Jul o'I-
zens; convened conventions at will and
seated and unseated members thereof;
appropriated by military order the
money ofsthe people in their owl
State Treasury and levied and collect G
taxes as to him might seem lest. 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.
1t would have been we'll nigh mirac
ulous, we say, had it been suited tc
the wants of the people of North Caro-
lima. That it must be changed mate
rally, is now no longer an open ques