The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-06-17
nrSE l., 1880. |
An AtrOciOus Attack.

'f~nOtW6ll = cdIll CdlCcl Is lOieTdDIV
well known in Lincoln, Cleaveland,
rutherford and Buncombe counties,
and if he were to run for office to-
.,Iay in any of them he could not
,,rarry a corporalfs guard. Out of the large
number of the Ku-klux that were in this
county, not one has yet wanted Office bad
enough to write a biographical sketch of
himself. They are not disposed to be
'~.yotistic aud hate men who parade them
selves before the public as martyrs.''-Lin-
roIaton Progress.
The above is from a small sheet, printed
in Lincolnton, by a young printer, we'll
known in the neighborhood as a protegee
and mouth-tube for Judge David Schenck,
who is a regular contributor to the paper,
and generally considered its chief supporter.
During the p. b. Means controversy
two years ago the little organ piped its
puny abuse, week after week, without pre-
text, or provocation, and without notice
from the subject of its splen. who was too
busy to turn aside for gnat-bites.
Possibly he ought not to do so now.
Perhaps, in consideration of the source, and
the motive, and the malice, and the impo-
tence of the assault and considering furth-
er that A. of our leading State journals
pressed the most hearty cordiality towards
Shotwell, he might reasonably allow the
above slur ID pass, with the rest, in con-
te nptuous silence.
But to a young man, tenacious of reputa-
ton and super sensitive to SANDER by reason
Of having suffered irreparably from it, the
thought that a single reader may be misled,
L single trend mystifed, by the venomed
shafts of this ambushed foe, is sufficient to
decide him to lay aside reserve, and pro-
nounce the Progress assertions as untrue, as
h. ,,%
voked.
If Randolph Shotwell has halfdozen
enemies in the entire State he knows
neither their names, nor the cause Of their
enmity. If be be 'hated" by any man in
Lincoln, Cleveland, Rutherford or Bun
combe counties, it is all new, and very
strange. The ''hater' must be either
one of those spitetul scallawags who,
in 1871, sought to CRAFTY their
envy and dislike of the respectable classes
Of four people, by heaping i~ndignities and
humiliations on Shotwell as a Democratic
editor, and a gentleman or he must be one
Of those renegades who first brought the
khan INTO disrepute by their reckless mis-
conduct then, when the hour of peril came,
crept to the knees of the very Leaguers
against whom they had ''breathed threat
eun-, aud Slaughter and secured their
own safety by ~betraytng their ~neighbors,
Such FEATURES are capable of hating any
honest gentleman. Such cattle naturally
hate ohotwell because he complained of their
wrgl- doing IN the first Instance, and de-
lounced their perfdy afterwards. But
thank God there Is bot "a corporals guard
Of them IN the whole State. The honest
"hlens men Of Lincoln. Cleveland, Ruth
ertord. and other counties, are Shotwells
Warme>t friends. Hundreds of them know
how much he had to bear, in silence, =
au1 how much his silence saved to his fell
loT-men. The true Democrats of Western
l%ar0llGa, we repeat, are his warmest
friends. Why should they dislike him ?
They know that whatever be his faults, land
all meD, alas are weak at times he was
never knOwu 70 do an unjust, unnanly, or
WpatrlgJ'c act, among them or elsewhere.
Deny i who can! They know, also, that
whatever lls Weaknesses at any time, the
best o. his strength at all times has been
gwen T. the advocacy Of their political and
materIa! interests.
le,, |'fog7ess, you are possibly right;
Shytwelrs early career mug be ~'toiera.
55y we'll known in Lincoln, Cleveland, Ruth
ford, and BUncombe Counties They have
not forgotten that a. a boy of sixteen he
aoandoned his school-books, his personal
ease AMI safety, together with every dollar
le possessed, and against the protests of
ais trends and kinsmen, trudg ed 300 miles
(54!rough an hostile country, in daily peril OF
lis life, 70 run the blockade, and take up a
uu>Se5 IN defense of his State and section.
ASigr his conduct during the war, let the
SeclaL commission ordered to him by Presi-
oe1t Davis bear witness.
HE people of Rutherford. Polk, Cleve
ana. and Mcdowell, have hardly forgotten
me Young man who Came among them, after
me Var, and went to work fighting the Red
>,fngs, Leaguers, Deserters, and negroes
IN their Banner" stronghold. At that
Ine, in Rutherford particularly, the cause
oI democracy seemed hopeless. So hope
less that when an election was to be held
"f State convention no ticket was brought
oOt. >hotwell said it would never do to
give up the struggle in that way, and be
sehe all over Rutherford and Polk counties
MAKING speeches. The District was emit.
utd TO two candidates but only one was