The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-08-31
WORDS OF WISDOM.
LET EVERY DEMOCRAT IN THE
STATE READ AND REFLECT.
Democratic Good Government Sharply
COntrasted With Radical MiSgOvern-
ment and Oppression.

Democratic Good Government Sharply
COntrasted With Radical Misgovcrn-
ment and Oppression.
/ Dem. STATE Ex. COMMITTEE,
RALEIGH, n. c., 1st August, 1888.
Another campaign is upon us, and it
again becomes the duty of this committee
to address a few words of counsel to those
who are to carry the banners and fight the
battles of Democracy in the State.
We have now so long been accustomed
to the blessings of good government. under
Democratic rule, in North Carolina that
We may be in danger of forgetting the
horrors from which we emerged when our
party, by . grand uprising of our best
people. obta ned control OF the Legislative
branch Of the State Government eighteen
wears ago. To those who are old enough
10 remember the reckless extravaganza,
the unblushing corruption, the defiant
laWleSSnesS of the negro and carpet-bag
sway which all but ended in war and
bloodshed. it seems like a hideouS dream:
and in the enjoyment of the peaceful
present and in the anticipation of a still
brighter future, they might prefer to put
away the memory of it all forever. But
history is ever repeating itself, it is well
to be reminded of the past and that the
people who did these things once, will, if
opportunity is offered, do the like again.
! Undoubtedly the Democratic party is still
the party of virtue and intelligence in this
State and so long as the ignorant blacks
continue to stand together iii a solid pha
larN on one side, the intelligent white men
of North Carolina are compelled by every
consideration of prudence, and in sheer
self defense, to stand together o2 the
other No fair Minated man anywhere
can find fault with them for this. We DO
not contend that We have made no mis-
takes in the decade and half during
which have had control Of legislation
IN the Std1r. i.lt We do insist that oar
mistakes have been few and paratively
uninp9vtant, and that results on the whole
have been such as to command the ap
proyal of all fair minded men. Our State,
IN spite of the poverty from which she has
not yet recovered, has become respected
abroad. while at home ace, contentment
and comparative prosperity and happiness
ntariy every where prevail. We found the
puhIic treasury empty and our credit bank
ruut. We found that the irresponsible
strangers aud our late slaves. who, with a
few corrupt or ambitious native whites
had assumed control of our finances, had
rl three years run up, in the name of the
State. an immense fraudulent debt, to
pay the interest on which they levied
enormous taxes from an Impoverished
people, while they We're utterly regardless
If the accunulating interest OF our honest
debt We at once declared the fraudulent
debt SIG 00o, 900 OF bonds issued without
| consideration to those whose property was
| to be made to pay them. as binding Meth
er III law nor in conscience, and wiped out
/ the whole of it. Then, in view of the fact
t that the honest debt had grown too large
| for the people to pay it all, we proceeded
| to make terms with the States creditors
| aud effect a settlement which was mutual
| IL satisfactory By the Act Of 1879 our
unsecured debt of St2 627, ,0i5. bearing
! per cent interest will have been reduced
! to So $50. 51l. bearing 4 per cent: and
| the debt of 81, 195 900, for which the
| States stock in the North Carolina Rail
/ road Company was liable to be sold by
| decree in the Federal Court, has nearly all
| been extended for forty years, and the
/ States control of our most valuable rail
/ road property secured to her indefinitely.
/ The dividends annually paid OF Ter shares
! of stock are more than sufficient to meet
| the interes, on this extended debt
We found that during the three years OF
Republican rule they had handled and
wasted upwards of a million Of dollars be
| longing to the educational fNnd and had
paid less than forty thousand for teaching
| the children of the State. We have now,
fully established, a system of fpublic schools
nearly equal to the best, III full operation,
school houses in every hamlet, open for
several months in each year, and the
school sessions yearly increasing in length,
with graded schools and normal schools
in which our teachers are better prepared
for their duties, at our principal centres
of population, and every dollar Of the
money raised for school purposes iegti
mately applied.
We found our unfinished railroads, not
withstandng the millions of bonds issued
professedly to build them making no prog
ress, their ties rotting and their iron rust
ing. These reads are now, some OF them
finished, and the Others rapidly approach
ing completion, while new lines and
| branches have been begun and fniSh
since the new era dawned in 1871. Our
| mileage of roads has been nearly doubled
and the public debt not increased. We
| have built two new asylums for the insane,
| of large dimensions, and the Penitentiary
of sufficient size and strength to safely
keep all the conVicts likely to be sentenced
to it's nearing completion. And all this
| without an increase of our taxes, and Ito
paw as we go'' has been our motto. No
new bonds have been issued, nor any
deficit made for these great works. Soon
they will all be off our hands, and our
State taxes may be still further reduced,
or, if the o. oyla prefer it, the excess may
be applied in the still better education of
our children.
1t has been and continues to be the
policy of the Democratic party to use the
labor of the cony.cts sent 10 the Peuiten-
tiary in working on railroads and draining
the swamp lands belonging to the State,
for the purpose OF bringing them into
market and to avoid employing it in com
petition with the honest labor of the cOun
try There seems to be a growing disposition
to have convict labor employed in part OF
the public highways, so far as it can be
done consistently with the requirements
of the Constitution that our penal instifu
tiors must be made as nearly self support
ing as possible.
], The administration OF the executive
department of the State government since
the Inauguration Of a Democratic Governor
III 1877 has been all that could reas onably
be expected. Vance, Jarvis, Scales, able
wise and progressive so far as progress
is consistent with true conservatism - have
done or omitted little for party friends te
criticize or political enemies to complain
of They have executed the laws faith
fully and fairly, ana with justice to al
classes and colors.
AS much may be said of the administra
ton of Justice and eXpounding the law: