The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-06-10
Continued from fourth pace. }


course as a public servant of the peo-
pie of Rockingham, and would re-
| main until Christmas, if necessary, to
have the Board, whose province and
duty it was to investigate it thorough
ly. They expressed entire satisfaction.
Prof Smith and one or two others
rose and stated that it would be prop
or for the Board to give statement
in writing about the matter. l inter
rupted them by saying that l desired
no certifcate-that the Board knew
the facts, anu that it was satisfactory
to them, and their statement would
satisfy any one except those purposely
desiring to injure me.
| left the court room and went to
my law office. At noon, Mr.. Gibson,
member Of the Board, came to me
and said that some one off in another
county mi ght try to injure me and |
had better take the certificate. | re-
piled that in view of the case it might
be best to take one, which the Board
gave. A few days after the publica-
ton of the communication in " eJsters
Weekly the Board met, and being cog
infant of all the facts, and knowing
that the editor of Webster's Weekly
was present and heard my vindica-
ton, reiterated their action in exon
Grating me by the following action:
THE SENTINEL's readers are al
ready familiar with this account as it
appeared in these columns couple of
weeks ago.l
A word as to the financial history
of the county may not be amiss in this
connection In 1870 the Democratic
officials received the county govern
ment from their Republican prede-
cessors with an indebtedness Of $780,
900 piled up in two years, and county
script worth % cents on the dollar.
No public improvements had been
erected save one bridge by an oner-
Gus special tax, and at immense cost.
When | became Treasurer in 1878 |
found the most Of that debt paid and
county script about at par, and the
county officials with whom [ served
for ten Years endeavored to keep up
this Democratic policy and at the
same time make all needed public
improvements. Notwithstanding we
had a perfect epidemic of capital cases
during the time, by dint Of economy
we stopped all traffic in county script
by keeping it at par, and saved out
OF the general levies enough to erect
necessary public county buildings,
bridges, etc. to the amount of S22,-
721.73; and out of special taxes there
were erected bridges to the amount of
S13, S95. In short, we succeeded in
our efforts to make all needed public
improvements, keep good the county's
credit, and leave her out of debt when
the present taxes are paid. | refer to
the late exhibit of the past ten years
disbursements recently published and
distributed throughout the county.
[ think it proper that l should
state some facts in reference to the
animus Of the unjust attacks now be-
ing made on me by the editor of
We6ster's Weekly. In 1882, when
some of my personal friends, about
several of whom grave reflections had
been published in his paper, were op-
posing HIM for the Legislature, an
nounced publicly that while [ took no
part i'll nominations, being chairman
of the committee, yet [ would support
Mr. Webster, or any other man whom
my party put up; that we were work
ing for thousand majority and
should do nothing against our organi-
zation. In the convention, after the
nominations were made, [ delivered as
strong and forcible a speech as l
could in favor of the nominees and
tried to rally our people to their sup
port. This speech was favorably COM
mented ON by Webster's Weekly, the
Times and Patriot. During the cam
paign l canvassed the county, urging
the people to support the regular tick
ct. Usually as chairman of the COM
mittee I had the bulk OF the campaign
expenses to pay. [ expended more
for the regular ticket this year than
at any time before or since. Some
days before the election | issued card
naming our regular ticket in detail
and calling on the people to support
it. This card was published in Web
ster's Weekly.
On the day OF the election I went
to the polls and worked all day for
the regular legislative candidates, and
at one time, the legislative tickets Civ
ing out, while Col. Glenn sent to
Reidsville for more, Mr.. Pannill, Mr..
Julius Johnston, myself, together with
members of my family, wrote legisla-
tive tickets having Mr.. Webster's
name on it and had them voted until
the messenger could return with print
ed tickets. | went to Stokes court
next day. When l returned I heard
the rumor that Mr.. Webster and some
of his friends had stated that my law
partner, who had opposed him did