The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-04-20
Are We RetrOgrading.
Especial Cor. STATE CuEoSICLl

Especial Cor STATE CHRoNICLE.l
Ihe Hickory Carollnian, if the Raleigh
Signal quotes it correctly, has some very
unklnd remarks to make in reference to
the recent endorsement of Judge Shipp for
Supreme Court Justiceship by the Will
son Mirror. To add that the Carolinian
also INDUCES in certain unjust and un-
generous reflections on the Judges charac-
ter for sobriety will be no surprise to those
who know on what strictly straight jack
eted principles of teetotalism that paper il
conducted. To defend incbrietv in those
engaged in discharging high official du-
| ties indeed, to defend it at or in any time
or place-wOuld be of pernicious example,
but no reader of judicial history can fail
to be aware of how the legal annals of
England and America have been blazoned
and gloritied by those great luminaries of
the bench and bar who have "gone down
like suns, and left even on the noun
tain tops of Death a light to nave them
lovely" and who yet have had taste
too seductive for 1.-the sweet poison of mis-
used wine If we leave out from Anglo
American history such names as Pitt,
Sheridan, Eldon, Stowell, Webster, Luther
Martin and S. S Prentiss-not to name
those of our day, and especially North
Cardinals greatest judicial intellect, it
will take a hundred to one of cold water
medlOcrltles to make up" for them Let
there be no misunderstanding If We can't
have temperance, let us have even the tee
totaiZer's intemperance rather than intox-
icatiOn; but what is here al attempted is to
show that our most virtuous aqua bibulism
does not demand of us to sacrifice the
benefits resultant from utiliz ng the talents
of our otherwise bibulous legal geniuses
Pitt, Martin and Webster neither pre-
rod 6ali hni
when intoxicated, and neither did great
judges like Eldon and Stowell prepare their
opinions in such condition. If they did
the stock of human wisdom ould be vastly
augmented by advancing drunkards to all
our high preferments. But those who
have known Judge Shipp much more init
mately-and in professional relations
than his aspersors, are agreed with the
Carolinian that he will be fou d loaded
with weight of BRAINS, however, that
would break down half his adversaries to
carry. Wait to see his Supreme Court
opinions in press, oh, ye modern Festuses,
and you will find him neither mad nor
flown with wine, but dealing in words OF
truth and soberness that will refute and
confound you.
1t is a source of regret and modification
that it should become necessary in North
Carolina to repel charges of so gross a
nature against the private character of
respectable gentlemen, simply because
their friends attempt their political ad-
vancement. We had thought such things
! were relegated to the days of 1868 go,
when the rancor of political animosity
made adversaries almost forget that they
were gentlemen, and when such epithets
as g scallawag," radical" :" - ku-Klux"
and "rebel'' were heard on every hust-
ings. Hard indeed it is to relinquish the
hope that such things have passed, and it
will need more than one painful revival
of them to confirm an apprehension that
iating. B.