The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-09-25
RADICLLISN EXC0RIlTED,
ST1NGING LETTER FROM EX-GOV-
ERNOR w. E. CAMERON.

Congress and the Administration
Witheringly Den0unced-S Southern
Republicans Can No Longer Affiliate
With the Party of Southern Hate.
PETERSBURG, Va, Sept, 14.-Ex
Gov. Cameron has published in the
Inae1-ARpeal the following lette,
to W. S. Dasheill Of Richmond,
Va, renouncing all allegience to the
Republican patty:
"Untll now any reply to your
favor of the goth of August has
been precluded by painful illness,
from which I have had as yet only
partial relief 1t had been my
wish, in response to your queries, to
give not only my views as to the duty
OF Southern men in the political crisis
now rapidly eliminating, but to set
forth at length the reasons which form
the basis Of that concluson. AS it is,
my physical condition prescribes the
utmost brevity that is consistent with
clearness, and must postpone all
argument as to the soundness of my
opinion and the propriety my position
to some more convenient season.
have been taught by the events of
eighteen months past that men of our
atecedents and convictions can no
longer with self-respect lend our voices,
our votes, or even the negative of
support of silence to the Republican
party as it is expounded to the organi-
zation in this State, or as it is admin
istered by the present executive and leg
lstaive departments of the United States
Government. The Republican party
preserves no longer the semblance of
speaking for the entire country, but
bases its claim to supremacy on Sec
tiopal interests, pure and simple. Not
only so, but the directors of its policy
have not hesitated in attainment of
their ends to prostitute the plighted
faith of the party in sight of all the
world, and to renounce in their con-
gresional enactments the promises
solemny made in the Chicago plat
form.
SELF-CONvICTED.
They stand self-convicted, not only
of false pretense and punic faith, but
of mathematical malignancy in seeking
to retain power by reinvoking the war
sentiment of the North and West, and
by resurrecting all the stock phrases
of fanaticism and sctionalism, which
could stir the South into resentment
and retort. Their object was and is
to force the fighting as between a solid
North and solid South, and at same
time use the small contingent of
Southern Republicans in Congress to
minimize the power of the South by
such political denominations as the
Lodge bill, and by so framing a tariff
law (under pretext of protection to
American labor and American pro-
ducts) as to increase every burden of
the customs upon the weaker section,
and as to leave in force, in all
its shameless inequalities, tine revenue
tax upon the tobacco of Virginia,
Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis-
souri,. Maryland, and Florida.
WAR AGAINST SOUTHERN PROGRESS.
The utterances of Mckinley on the
floor of the House Che the patron
of the Chicago platform, and the
leader of the House of Representa-
tives, and the chairman of the COM
mittee which framed the Tariff bill) |
and the action of the Senate on Mon
day in regard to the tobacco clause,
constitute an open declaration of war
against Southern development, and |
we must realize that this action, apart
from its inherent injustice, is delib-
crate, wanton, and absolute falsihca-
tion of solemn promise given to the
tobacco States by the National con-
vention.
THE BLAIR BILL.
The record On the Blair bill is no |
better, and the Tariff act, with its So
called revision and equalization of i'm
port duties, bristles with discrimina-
ton against the South and those in |
dustries and products in which South |
ern Republicans have the same inter- |
ests as Southern Democrats.
THE LODGE BILL.
The Lodge bill is mis.called the
'Force bill," because in operation |
it would be impossible of enforcement |
10 the ends pretendedly sought. To
enact it would be to paralyze the COM
mercial progress of the entire country |
and to set back Southern develop
ment, in which Northern capital is |
largely engaged an half a century.
But the main sufferer would be the ne
gro, who by this vicious effort to neutral |
ize inevitable conditions, would be de-
prived of all the safeguards which now
surround him personally; and politi-
cally he would become the scape-goat |
in local strife in which Lodge and |
Mr.. Reed would have no con-
eern and no influence. The pas
sage of this act in law would be pub
lie calamity. Its passage by the ma
jority of the House of REPRESENTATIVES !