The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1885-12-03

point men TO Office in North Carolina who
have shown their capacity at least by hav-
ing earned their own living and who are
part of the best impulses of the State. He
answered that he was glad to see al! men
who came in such a spirit and did not
come to beg-especially young men Of the
South of to-day and he talked and en-
couraged me to talk as freely as If he had
been as small man as an, or | as great
a man as he Is.
From that day to this il has been my
business to watch every public act that he
does, to read every public word he speaks,
and it has been pleasure and benefit
TO me (like the benefit tl.t man gets
from reading a great hi ~ for he is
making a great history to study the prog
ress Of his administration; and at every
step he seems to NE TO warrant the trust
that the great Democratic party put i'll
him
This is one picture. Now wish 10 draw
one to put by the side of it.
Somewhere (no matter where, | VIII not
tell on him) in little town III North Car
Dina, "a fellow prints every week Il hun
dred or two copies of little paper that
does the village the useful service of chron
icling the deaths and marriages, the price
of eggs and the decisions Of the county
court. The editor, | have no doubt, is a
a good citizen and a good man. Certainly
he is engaged in a good business, a bust
ness that enables him if he does it right to
be of service to his community. But nat
urtlly he does not know much. If he was
a man of broad information or of great
power he would not be engaged in business
at a place where at most he can barely
earn IA living He is capable of deciding
whether it is well for the county to build
a new road or for a man to raise hogs in
stead of buying meat from Chicago. For
giving a good opinion on all matters of
loc;, concern, | have no doubt he is capa
BILE But that does not satisfy him True
he knows nothing about the great ques-
tions Of government. he never read the
civil service act in his life. lie does not
know what the duties or the difficulties of
the President are Yet the little village
editor has big thoughts in his brain. He
knows something is wrong. He sees that
the country is going to the bad. The
party has been betrayed May be some
friend of his who did noble work last year
has not got the office he wants. Whatever
is the matter, he fills column of his little
paper that ought to be filed with news
about his neighbors with fierce TRADE
against ''Cleveland.' He does not even
call him "President," or "Mr." And in
that column all the great and good work
of the President is shown to be as moth
ing, and the great man in the White House
is abused as a traitor and Spat upon.
Now, funny as this is, it is also very
sad Ignorance is always sad. This man
has readers who if they know no better,
get it into their heads that the President
of the United States is q scOundrel
Now if this little fellow God knows
grieve that the generous soil of the old
State holds such ignorant men on tiff
he were ali, nobody would care. But so
far from being all, he is only one of a hun
! dred. Read your exchanges. Don't you
see the same inappreciation, the same ig-
| nOrance, the same narrOWneSS, (Which they
mistake for Democracy IN many, many
more!
| The conclusion that forces itself on the
minds of all thoughtful men who love
North Carolina, is that the State must
/ either throw off the yoke of this tyranny
of opinion and intolerance of difference
with it. or it must follow (amOng the hind
Smost) the other States in this great Union
which do thinking on present problems
| and contribute to the advancement of the
Republic.
| take it that it is a great thing for a
man or people to have youth and enthu-
siasm. | take it as a great thing that 4
| Indll OF d people call SEE iItl grasp duC
! follow a great cause. | take it as a great
service and in the public gaze broad
enough, great enough, patriotic enough tc
inspire us. ] count it a very great thing
to follow where the noble and the siron2
| lead. To me and to you (and to all them
that think as we think President Cleve-
land fills the measure of a great leader
/. his distinctive policy of Il radical non par
tisan reform of the civil service fills the
| measure of a great cause; the men about
him. Lamar, Bayard, Garland, and the
rest, are inspiring examples Of great fol
lowers of greater leader; and these who
are among the foremost figures of tn,
great Democratic party of to-day and tn.
cause they work for fill our lives will
fresher hope, broader patriotism, highe
purposes and deeper faith than we have
ever before felt. do not believe tina
there is ali ambitious young man between
the Potomac and the Rio Grande that be
lieves in this reform who does not feel ant
feel for the first time in his life how prout
the distinction is of being an American
cltizcn-and has that inspiring feeling th;.
in the old days gave such fire to th'
speeches of our own Dobbin and Miller ant
Graham and the other great and create
men who in those times brought to th
pubic SCIN ice tdltllS anu Cd
as our Southern Representatives Gas a rule
now bring mediocrity that is uninspiring-
the feeling that Gales and Hale (the elder
wrote with when the whole Nation reat
what they wrote-the feeling that all mel
have when they enthusiastically follow tn
great cause of their time and keep full
abreast Of the worlds movement. Intel
lectually and politically our old common
wealth, though it is richer than it eve
was, has fallen back nightly.
1t is the profoundest sorrow of my lif
that the good old eyes that misfortune ha
darkened, the aged hearts in which th
blood now runs feebly, the stunned fait
which is slow to be reawakened-tha sue
men as the editors of the Star and tn
News and Observer see nothing in all thl
but the exuberance of youth. The exu
berance of youth is dangerous if del
cious quality, that in this matter as in a
others is regarded with suspicion and
suppressed in North Carolina; but its SUP
preston is the suppression of the State
best life.
You and your readers must forgive ME
| write over my own name and on my Ow
responsibilif y-if write very plainly.
: am sure / write with all modesty and wit
, all proper distrust of my own opinion.
know | write with the profoundest respee
for men older and wiser than | am an
l with no other purpose than to further th
foremost cause of the time and to strength
en- the thought of the most ambitious me