National Republican., 1882-07-13
The Bourbon Breakup in North Car.


The Charlotte Observer is the ablest
and one of the Oldest Democratic papers
in North Carolina. In its last issue the
editor, Charles r. Jones, announces him
self as candidate for Congress for the
sixth district-the strongest Democratic
district in the State He says he does SO
as q Democrat, and adds:
There may be those who think it would have
been better TO have waited until a convention had
been called for the district. This have deliber-
ately decided not TO do, and if i shall be charged
with party insubordination / rep'y that have
neither the time nor the inclination to go into the
campaign by attempting to control the primary
conventions. My sin so far consists in saying that
am willing to represent the district If shall be
elected. The people will decide that question and
shall cheerfully abide their decision.
The address of Mr. Jones to the voters
of the district is three columns in length,
and is very able, eloquent substantial,
and patriotic document. No Southern
man has administered a severer rebuke
70 the abuses in Southern politics or ex-
hibited deeper contempt for the stolid-
ity of Bourbon modes of thought than
are contained in this address. He first
predicts that the people will, in the COM
ing contest in North Carolina, rise in
theii might and throw off the incubus of
caucus dictation. He says: II shall bear
the banner of the freedom, liberty, and
sovereignty that belongs to the people
under the Constitution, both of the State
and Nation, and l promise that it
shall not trail in the dust" He then
bic pppucfipnc tl,a lanli ~
questions of the day. He alludes to the
charges made of foul election methods
in many parts of the country, and places
himself fairly upon the platform of alb
Bolute fairness in elections, to the end
that the precise will of the people shall
be established in the count SO plainly
that he who runs may read" He adds
And Inow 9ire notice Ma, ONLY BY SUCH A PRO-
CESS WILL ! BE COUNTED OUT AFTER THE PEOPLE
sHALL HAVE SPOKEN AT THE BALLOT BOX,
(Which executes the freeman's nod,
Aslishtning does the will of God"
- He then, in strong language, advocates
the restoration to the people of the right
TO choose their own county governments,
and in response to the plea of the Bour-
bon centralizers that the present system
prevailed before the war, says:
Many of the wise provisions of the Constitution
Of 1885 are no longer suited to the genius of our
people. l live in an age of reform of railroads,
telegraphs, and in an era Of commerce and bust
ness enterprise unknown to our fathers. Il
A century of the enjoyment of civil liberty, add ed
TO the practical lessons we have been taught
IN the last twenty years, has given practical ev-
idence Of the great moral truth that, under free
government the power of the intellect is the only
power that rules the affairs Of men, and that vir-
tue and intelligence should be the only passports
tOpTelernent
Is not this fresh breeze? and will it
not dispel some of the miasmatic vapors
that float above the stagnant pools OF
Bourbonism? 1t is as though blooded
nag had broken loose from the plow in
which, regardless of the fitness of things,
he was being worked.
Mr.. Jones then most earnestly advo-
cafes the cause of general and free edu-
cation. OF the colored race, in this con-
nection, he says
A very large proportion OF our population were
only few years ago set free from scrvilude that
had extended over period Of three hundred
years. The question before us to.day Is whether
these people shall be educated up to n standard OF
u
ship orwhether they shall continue to fill the jails
and pententarics of our own as well Il. those o
future generations. Ours is an Anglo-saXon civil
izitlon aud Gol forbid that 1t should ever be any
thing else; but stern duty points us to the pail
of universal education Of The white as wei
as Llacx. elybody Will join me in saying tha
however great the necessity, the people ofthe Soutl
have not the ajRHy to do this now.
He then enters strong plea for United
States aid to the cause Of free education
in the South, eulogizes the late Senator
Burnside for his educational bill" and
advocates the measure of General Logar
now pending, The colored people viii
not object to Mr.. Jones's attachment t
an "Anglo-saxon civilization" when they
see that it is one in which they are to
participate and have the equal rights o