The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-05-01
NORTH CAROLINA.
THE GRANDEST STATE IN THE
UNION.
An Eloquent Tribute to the Old North
State by One of Her Talented Sons.

An Eloquent Tribute to the Old North
State by One of Her Talented Sons.
The completion of the Cape Fear
& Yadkin Valley Railroad to Whining
ton; was celebrated by grand ban
quet in that city April 18th. Among
other toasts was, "North Carolina ::
Her resources unfathomed, with mines
rich and inexhaustible, forests un-
bounded, and ability to feed the
world"
Governor Fowle was down on the
program for response to this toast,
but in his absence, the Hon. R. I.
Gray, of Raleigh, was called out in
his stead.
The Messenger reports Mr.. Gray's
speech as follows:
To be required to stand in the place
assigned to the Chief Executive of the
State, is embarrassing to me, and to
disappoint, as | know | must, the ex-
pectations of feast Of oratory which
were justly excited when it was an
nounced in the printed programme
that the silver-tongued Governor of
State would respond to the sentiment
just pronounced, is doubly embarrass-
ing to me. But l recognize and yield
to the fact that no son of North Caro-
lima, wherever the place or wha tever
the time, should fail to lift his hat at
the mention of her name, or, however
feeble may be his utterance, should
shrink from endorsing and testifying
to the truth of anything that may be
said in her praise. Let this be my ex
cuse, if any be needed, for my temer-
ity in attempting to stand where Gov
ernor Fowle was expected to stand.
To tell how great North Carolina
is, is too great a task for an after-din-
ner talk. TO sing of her glorious peo
pie, her valiant men and her lovely
women, her climate and her resources,
her riches possessed and potential, her
history and her future, would require
paean longer than Judge Gaston's
and minstrelsy more perfect than
that with which Highland harper told
the legends of his native hills, or Jew
ish captive, in far off Babylon, sang
the glories of his beloved Jerusalem.
North Carolina! what is it? Simply
&c a strip of land between two States"
as it has sometimes derisively been
called? A State whose chief products,
according to some biographies and
some, l am sorry to say, now in use in
our schools) are tar, pitch and turpen-
tine? A Rip Van Winkle, stretching
his laggard legs in sleep while others
are awake, alive and forging ahead in
social, moral and material prosperity?
God forbid! Where is the Common
wealth with the history she possesses?
At Mecklenburg, declaring against ty-
ranny, and at Cowpens, Moore's Creek,
Kings Mountain and Guilford Court
House, and on all the battlefelds of
the Revolution, making good her dec
laration by her muskets, her cannon,
her pixies, her swords and her blood
and after the battles had been fought
and won, standing in the Federal Con.
gress and at her convention in Fay
etteville holding out to the last and
contending for constitution that
would preserve for posterity, the fruits
of the victory; and later, and within
the memory of all of us, you know how
the boys from the Cape Fear and Pee
dee and Albemarle sections, with their
brothers from the hills and mountain
coves, unframed to feats of arms and
gladiatorial sports, rushed to the con-
secrated fields of Virginia and the bat
tie grounds of the Coniederacy, and
stayed, and stayed and stayed-some
forever, (more than those of any other
Southern State) and Others, until their
Chieftain said, Enough, go back!"
and whether dying or surviving, illus
trated on every field by their daring,
their courage and their soldierly quail
tiles the noblest traits OF Southern
manhood, until an allusion to or COM
parison with Thermopylae became
tame and commonplace.
Such is a short record of North Car
olina's past-than which no common
wealth or people have more brilliant
or enviable history!
What is North Carolina now?
Stretching from the sea coast on the
East to the mountains on the West,
capable of every variety Of natural and
manufactured products, she is said to
be the only State that fills every blank
in the census reports. Her sounds
and rivers and soil can iced the hungry
mouths and clothe the naked limbs of
an empire, while her coal and iron can
heat and feed enough blast furnaces to
meet the demands of half the Union,
while locked in the bosom of her rug
ged hills are gold and gems and pre-
cious stones enough to tempt the ava
rice and make green with envy the
eyes of Crusus or Montezuma!
Her colleges are being endowed and
patronized as never before and as in
no other State, without foreign aid,
and churches and school houses, those
foes from which ignorance and vice
fee as from blighting pestilence, are
increasing in every town, hamlet and
township.
Railroads, the great arteries of COM
merce, are being built everywhere until
it can soon be said that no country is
without such communication with its
neighbors and the outer world