Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-03-20
North Carolina Democrats.

A Raleigh IN. CT correspondent OF
the New York Erening Post divides the
Democrats Of North Carolina into two
classcs the traditionals " aud the
progressivcs and seems to be very
much alarmed lest the former may get
The car Of the Administration. There
is great danger, says this corre-
pondent, that Mr.. CLEVELAND, Mr..
Villas, Dir. MANNING, and a great
many other good and wise men, will not
be able to discern the subtle but i'm
measurable difference between these
two classes. The traditionsls," he
says, are old fogies. are Jacksonian
rather than Cleyelandish. and while they
are gentlemen Of dignity and probity'
"they create nothing, they carry out
nothing, they do nothing" or the
progrcssiyes he says
ION the other hand, there is mi
nority of men Of action democrats, |
mean who care nothing about public
Offices, except that they be properly
filled. but who do for very good reasons
seriously object to the political doml-
nance Of the traditionals. This mi
nority is not made up Of politicians
but of active men who, in their efforts
10 build UP the Commonwealth She-
Their As merchants, lawyers, farmers,
teachers. or manufac!urcrs-haye felt
the grieyous burden Of the past
with which the problems Of the
present are laden. 1t is against this
repressiye and sufIocating influence that
they struggle. They have no organiza-
ton; they are hardly distinguishablc
from the Others. except after intimate
acquaintance they have not sought pc-
litical influence but they have quietly
protested and labored, every one IN his
own way, against provincialism and
stagnatiOn. In politics they have not
forsaken the old Democratic machine.
deep as their disgust has often been,
because in local politics the Republican
machine was even worse, and there has
been no chance for third party. Bat
the chance has now come for Demo-
cratic renovation"
There is no doubt Of the fact that
there are in North Carolina men Of
wealth, intelligence, aud education who
arc old fogies. but we think the Posts
correspondent does the Old North State
great injustice in saying that such men
are in the majority. The history Of
Democratic rule in North Caro-
lima does not bear him out. If
the march Of events in that State is
any criterion from which to judge, the
traditiOnals are in the minority.
All things considered. no southern
State has made greater progress since
the war than has North Carolina. Much
of what the Posts correspondent says
as to the character and the work Of the
"progresSiyes is true, but the fact that
it is true negatives the idea that
they are in the minority. The Raleigh
Exposition Of last year, and the new
railroad lines and public-schOol system
of the State are, We think, Of themselves
sufficient TO show that the progressive
class must be the dominant class. If
sold fogyism, seniity, proyincialism.
and egotism " were atop, as the PoSrs
correspondent would have us believe.
North Carolina would not to-day be one
Of the happieSt and most pros
porous States in the Union; her
mountains would not he yield
ing up untold wealth; her streams
would not be dotted with manufacto-
rics. and commercial centres wOald not
be bidding for the patronage Of her mer-
chants. Nor does there seem to be any
reason to apprehend that the Admins
tration will fail TO appreciate all this.
In dealing with other States Mr.. CLEvE-
LAND and his advisers have not been at
a loss TO discriminate between the i" an
cient SpoilSmen " who would use
Federal patronage for the pur-
poses of stagnation. and the active.
and progressive element and certainly
North Carolina is not such terra IN
cogait0 that he and they cannot inform
themselves relative to the two classes
in the State. As to what the Pests
correspondent says about the old Dem
ocratic machine. we think that the result
of the last election in North Carolina,
and the work Of the last session of
the State Legislature, demonstrate
pretty conclusiyely that the Demo-
cratic machine OF our tar-heel cousins
is not only of the newest and
most approved pattern, but that it is
run by pretty competent and wide
awake engineers. 1t is hardly posi-
BILE that party which lives in the past --
hardly possible that traditionals -
could have elected Legislature that
looked so much to the present and the
future as did the North Carolina LegiS-
lature. There were few Stal questions
Of State policy, whether bearing uponin-
ternsl improvement, education, material
development, or social development,
that the body did not act upon with
intelligence.