Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1886-07-03
from the Durham Tobacco Plant.
A MEMORABLE SPEECH.

In Sundays issue Of the Raleigh
Meas and Observer we find an &C
count O: a speech made by Hon.
Frederick Nash Strudwi n 1870,
and first published in the Raleigh
Observer in 1878. The editor OF
this D we'll remembers the cam
paign of 1870, though then a mere
lad, and especially the speeches made
by Mr.. Strudwick. Old men with
tawny hands, turroYed cheeks and
silvery locks hung With bated breath
upon the eloquent strains of oratory
as they fell from the lips Of the fear,
less and powerful speaker. Those
were speeches long TO be reniein-
bered and we reproduce what Col.
w. L. Saunders thought OF them,
himself a prominent actor in the
stirring scenes then transpiring
Eight years after Colonel Saunders
writes
. The candidacy for Congress OF
Henry n. Brown, of Orange, re
minds us OF the only time we ever
heard him speak. 1t was at Mar
CONS, in Orange county, on the
road between Durham and Chapel
Hill, on the 19,h Of July, 1870.
The Kirk war wa Just Beginning,
or rather people were just begin
ming to realize that it was com
mencing, having been al length con
viuced that the worst tad come to
the worst, by the action OF the Su-
preme Court on the habeas corpus
question.
But Mr.. Browns was not the only
speech we heard that day W.
heard one other also, and that we
shall remember to our dying mo.
ment. 1t was logical, it was clio.
queut, it was convincing, it was
earnest, and tor the purity and ell
egance of its English, as well as fol-
The beauty Of its Exclamation, it va;
a model. The speaker stood upor
the ground under the trees in little
wood near the roadside. The audi
ence stood in clusters or sat on th'
ground around hin. There was {
solemn awe over the whole assem-
blage, tor it was there first realize,
that the constitution OF the Stalt
had been o>erthrown, supreme
power usurpe1 by Governor and hi:
arbitrary will about to be exercise,
by a lawless, brutal, cut-throal sol
diery. 1t was reported that troop
would be present before the speake
closed, 10 make arrests. The par
ties to be arrested were also III
mored. The question vas whethe
TO get out of the way or to slan'
and face the danger. Everybod
stayed the speaking out, thong.
everybody knew how utterly hell
less the court had made the people
Among those who spoke wa
Frederick Nash Strudwick, a car
didate tor the House Of Represents
tives. When it came his turn t
speak it seemed that not a lea
moved or a whisper was heard i
the crowd before him. It was we,
understood that be was marked TO
special vengeance. Military com
missions, drum-head courts-martia
and summary executions a. the stalk
; were in the thoughts OF US al
Would Mr.. StrudwIck atate Que 10
) Of the terrible indictment agains
those who had overturned the COZ
: stitntlon oil the State and usurpe
absolute power was the aue>tio
that passed through more than on
8 mind a. Mr.. S,rudwick took Ii
place. That he felt the full! soIeu
; nifty of the occasion there IS n
doubt, but man was never caime
never cooler, never more dellbtrat
i aud never more determined. At h
( feet, almost Immediately next /
him where not ever an e~xIressio
Of the tace might escape HIN, sat
= known spy, ready TO report ever
word, either 10y mail OF by tie
, egraph, "r IN PERSON, as the ca.
= might require, But Mr., Strudwic
> needed him not, and began h
: speech, deliberately enough at fire
I but 1t was no lime to waste wore
in exordlums or preludes, or form
Introdnctions or platitudcS OF al
sort. 1t was a terrible crisis in II
affairs OF the people before him, al
the speaker stlaightHay address,
7 himself 10 it.
! The arraignment OF the conspir
p, tors against tie Liberties of the re
u pie was terrible to listen to. ii
= FEARFUL, whitening inypctive IN whlt
: defiance was hurled al them W;
, simply perfect, and the weeds ;
- sounded with the eloquent tones
. his voice As he appealed 10 lis hea
ers 10 resist t. the bitter end eve
: agg'esslon upon their constitution
I, llbeltte>-aul all Ih.s while ever
; bush that cracked in the dis,an,
- was thought 10 be the approach
x the cut,hroat troops for hl> ARE
: and tr.a. before d druu-bvad ccuy
g martial.
- L. 90 ;rI,o -l ~