The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-09-20

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nor the record of patriotic and unselfish
counsel prevalent aught against the meth
DDS of the ring that rules the Democratic
party. There is only one road to eminence
! -one test Of greatness it is devotion to
| the ring. 1t has converted the whole ma
| ehinery of our government into an engine
| to perpetuate its rule. In nearly every
county it has it's followers who select the
| officers to govern the people. A little ring
| in each county reyolves around the big
ring at the Capital.
| Fellow Citizens; In what respect are
these little rulers superior to you 4? Where
in are they better able than you to select
your magistrates and commissioners and
school committeeman Under the plea of
keeping down the negro, will they forever
dictate to you what you wish and how to
get it? Fellow-citizens, the true reason
why YOU are governed in this summary
fashion, is because the present leaders of
the Democratic party know it to be the only
way to retain their leadership. They in
tend to rule the Democratic party while it
remains in power. They have adopted the
plan best suited to their genius and char
acter.
The present system Of county govern
ment, if honestly administered for the pur-
poses for which it was proclaimed to be in
tended, to wit : the protection of property
in q few localities, might possibly have
been productive of some good. [ am sat
islied that such was not the intention Of
its promoters. 1t has not been so admin
istered. 1t has been used sorely to estab-
fish a chain of political schemers. The
negro is not the objective point of attack,
but every man who has the courage of
opinion, the aspirations of freeman OF
the longings of humanity-every man that
dares to call his soul his own. If, in the
palmy days of Reconstruction, when the
Republican party was i'll universal power
and it's majority in North Carolina over
whelming !; if even then, the negro never
held the office of sheriff in a single county,
or OF treasurer OF register OF deeds i'll as
many as two counties, OF majority of the
board OF County commissioners in two
counties, or clerk of the Superior court in
any county, OF majority of the justices of
the peace III any county, OF a single place
on the State ticket, it is idle vaporing to
pretend that the present unjust, tyranical
and selfish system is aimed at the negro.
There are men in the Democratic party
whom / know to be shocked and disguised
by these things of intellect and liber-
ality worthy of this century and this
country. They are ashamed of their party
leaders and disguised with the policy that
has reduced Conservative majority of
$4,000 to a Democratic majority of less
than 1000. They vainly hope for
change. My friends, am 10th to leave
you with your necks under the yoke, but |
can follow no further. l have neither the
stomach for such work nor the genius to
stem the tide. You will never breathe the
breath of freedom in the Democratic
party. You are the yictimslof the meth
n.Icf HAITI Nov, how 4ol - ho
against the Republicans
TIE DRIFT AND TENDENCIES OF DEMOC-
RACY.
Methods may become Observation-Disclosures
are changed or die but the general drift
and tendencies of a great party continue
the same; especiallysof q party whose
boast it is that it is the same yesterday,
to-day and tomorrow. 1t forgets moth
learns nothing. 1t is finished from
the start
THE FREE-TRADE TENDENCIES OF DE-
M0CRACY FATAL ToNoRTH CAROLINA.
From material standpoint the most
deplorable tendency of the party is that it
impedeS the development of the great nat
ural resources of our State. In thirty years
N orth Carolina will cease to grow cotton
except in quantities which size herself can
manufacture. She will not be able to COM
pete, except along the river bottoms, with
the States of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Alabama and Mississippi. These States
can raise twice as much cotton to the acre, /
on an average, and the crop ripens there
and goes to market from 80 to 60 days
earlier than here. 1t is q mere question
of time when these States will supply the
world with the raw material. The pros
e I, Il on hnl
becoming manufacturing State. Her
climate, her soil, her minerals, her forests
and her water power, all point out this des-
tiny for her. But what is her rank as Il
manufacturing State, and what will it be
when the free-tfade tendencieS OF Democ-
racy prevail? We have several manufac-
turing towns in our State, whose energy,
thrift, rapid growth and beneficial in
tiuence on the surrounding country sug-
gest the possibilities OF manufactures III
North Carolina. Is there any man that
would not rejoice to see i'll our State a
thousand towns like Durham, Winston,
Salem and Henderson? We are already
entering upon such q career. Is it not in
sanity second only to secession to try to
destroy the protective tariff Shall sense
less prejudice and passion keep us blinded
to our true interests, until we are utterly
ruined ? Are we prepared not only to pre-
vent the establishment of new manufac
lures in our midst, but to destroy those
already in existence ? Shall the South OPP
pose protective tariff when all her manu-
features are in their infancy? 1t is SIM
ply suicide.
II-DEMOCRACY DEPRESSING THE LA
BORER.
The Democratic party also tends to the
oppression of labor by class legislation.
The poor man and the laborer have nothing
to hope from it in North Carolina. The
legislation of that party has tended to keep
the laborer in a sort of servile subsection
to the landowner. Its leaders, in their
blind sellishness, have forgotten that the
hope and strength and wealth of State is
it's laboring population. Instead OF pro-
tecting the rights of the laborer, who is
generally too poor to protect himself, it
has adopted system of penal legislation,
putting it within the power of the employer
to Cypress him by Indictment. 1t has even
passed law to indict man for not paying
his poll tax. 1t legislates the laborer into
poverty and then makes poverty crime.
Instead of attracting to our State the tide
OF immigrants that are enriching other
States, it has adopted a policy that IS
driving out of North Carolina every day
it's energetic young men. Some of it's lead
ers openly ana boldly declare that they do
not wish Immigration to North Carolina,
and that they hope never to see manu-
features flourish here. We may pity these
men and pardon their devotion to the old
slave system OF large estates and landed
aristocracy but what hope is there in such
a system for the mass of the people-forl
the laboring people of North Carolina? 1t
is little wonder that North Carolinians
have done more in other States than in
their own.
1t is not a contest between the white
race and the negro. The same policy that
Expresses one laborer Expresses all. 1t lisa
contest between wonld-be ariStocracy
and all the men that labor-between. the
selfish preiudces of a small class and the
rights and interests OF the people.
III-DEMOCRACY OPPOSED TO EDUCATION.
The Democratic party also tends to
hinder intellectual growth. When the
General Government proposes Il generous
and benevolent scheme of public educa-
ton by granting aid to the States ill pro-
portion to illiteracy, 1.-The Democratic dog
ma of State-Rights is interposed us bar
rier, and that too in State whose white
population is more illiterate than the Eng
iish speaking population Of any other
tcountry on earth. The Democratic lead
ers not only fail to educate our children,
but even refuse to let others furnish the
money. The last General Assembly drove
the entering wedge which is soon to de-