The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-03-18
4 REPLY 10 Mr.. PAGE.
THERE IL INTELIECTHA FREE
DOM IN NORTH CAROLINA.
A Statement 10 the fleet That There l.
wore Liberty of Opinion Allowed in
North Carolina Than Elsew here.
Special Cor. STATE CHEoNICLE.

AhEthlhg ne writes y worthy of consld-
Grafton. Ii he had signed the article his
name would have insured a careful peru
sal, for 1t alone Is a tower of strength
EDITOR
MARCH -, 1886. Your New York cor
respondent, Mr., ". II Page, seems to
have a grievance against the State o.
North Carolina which be is seeking
TO avense through your columns If
what be says III your paper of the 1th
OF This month is true, no self-respectIng
young man ought L. remain i'll North Car
DINA where there is no tolerance or free
dom of speech, but he should go at once
TO, what Mr.. Page calls, ''freer States" "
He quotes Census statistics To show that
293, 305 North Carolinians, are in other
States, and he explains why says he,
Why do they go there There is but one
explanation left There is an intolerance
III North Carolina that Is oppressive Men
do not have the chance to rise in life that
they have elsewhere They are not al
lowed to express differences of opinions
without having their motives questioned
or their characters assailed &c, &c"
Now is this true Is it true that men
are not allowed to express their opinions
in North Carolina 1t is not only not
true, but | venture to assert that there is
not State in this Union, except possibly
Tennessee, the daughter of North Caro-
lima, where there has been as much free
discussion of public questions as in North
Carolina. Will any one say that Demo
cratic and Republican candidates for Gov
ernor could enter into a joint discussion
in Massachusetts,, or Maine, or New York
and address the people from the same
stump (or rostrum or platform as our city
friend would perhaps call it, as did Vance
and Settle, Jarvis and Buxton and Scales
and York Is there a single New England
or Northern State where candidates for
Governor, for Congress, for the Legisla
ture, for Constable enter into Cor can enter
into)joint and free discussion of all political
questions, as they do in North Carolina
Do they have joint and free discussion in
any of these States e? These joint discus
sions prevent falsehood, expose misrepre
sentions and keep the people we'll inform
ed on public questions and the broad toll
erance, freedom of thought and speech
which prevail in North Carolina, would
be as great a stranger to the narrow, self
righteous mind of the average New Eng
lander as political virtue would be to
well, to B. F. Butler, or a national patri-
otism would be to G.. f. Hoar. Joint dis
cussions and free speech would put an
end to the occupation of many leaders of
thought and they would think the liber
ty to expose falsehood, oppressive and in
tolerance.
Imagine that free thinker, Tourgee, in
joint discussion with that narrow and in
tolerant son of North Carolina, Governor
Vance. Imagine Tourgee in such a dis
cussion charging that thirteen negroes had
been killed by Democrats, because they
were Republicans, and thrown into one
mill pond or imagine that lover of free
speech, Judson fitzpatrick, in a free dis
.I, hot Ln
had seen thirty Republican negroes driven
from the polls on election day at Iender
son The ready and scathing exposure
of such falsehoods (Which find credence
and ready currency all over the one sided
North) would drive the slanderers, dis
graced and burning with shame, from the
stump in North Carolina, but they would
be ready to swear to one sided audience
in Boston or Philadelphia that there was
| no such thing as free speech in North
Carolina and the one sided audience,
knowing no better, would believe 1t true.
| suppose if Mr.. Page were editing pa
| per in North Carolina, the chief object Of
which was to show that the people were
| intolerant and that free speech and free ex
| preston of opionion were not allowed here,
| he would find very few subscribers, be-
cause the people, being free, would prefer
not to read such a paper, and yet he would
| find in this fact proof, satisfactory and
| conclusive to his mind, that freedom of
thought does not exist in North Carolina.
Mr. Page is industrious and has found
in the census tables statistics to show that
a great many people have left North Car
| olina and he finds a reason for this in the
fact that the traditionalists who suppress
free speech and dwarf public opinion, have
| dominated the thought and intellect of
| ba Stata and hat Sstharn iS iptplar-
ance in North Carolina that is oppressive"
| and he promises to show ''neXt week and
| for several weeks, in other ways than by
statistics Of population, how we are hinder
ed by this petty spirit of provincialism,
| &C., &c.
Now Mr.. Page processes to love North
Carolina, and let me see if | can not sug-
geSt to him a more agreeable taSk-one
| more congenial to his love for the old
State-(before he leaves this field of sta
tistics) than that of finding reasons or ar
| guments to show that our intolerance has
driven people from the State.
If, instead of looking for faults, he will
look-just look-at the other and better
side he will find that while the average
per centage of increase of population in
the United States from 1870 to 1850 has
been 30 53-100, the increase in North Car
olina has been 80 65-100-he will find that
the per centage of increase in North Caro-
lima has been greater than in any one OF
the original thirteen States, except South
Carolina. He will find that 1t has been
greater than any Northern State, East Of
the Mississippi, except Michigan greater
than in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware
Georgia. Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio
Pennsylvania Rhode Island, Tennessee
Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. | fea
he has not been III a frame of mind to fine
or to enjoy such statistical facts, but
shall be glad for him to enquire, ascertain
and report why il is, that with all the op
pressive intolerance in North Carolina
She has increased in population at create
ratio than any of her old sisters excep
South Carolina. OF course in the new
States of California, Colorado, Iowa, Min
nesota, Kansas, Texas, etc, the increas
, was greater, but the increase IN North Car
olina was largely above the average of tn
old States and more than twice that 0
( New England In North Carolina it wa
: 80 65-1OO, in Maine only 3.50-100, in Ne'
Hampshire only HOO and in Vernon
: only 52-1OO-less than one per cert.
: has been suggested that this State has bee
5 / frozen out by the cold breath of Mr.. Ed
e munds free speech and liberal thought
t buy do not believe this. | think kno'
: a good reason (but | will be glad if NJ
e Page will find it, why the population IL
creases more rapidly in North Carolln