The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-10-01

| y@HA ME$ nOW-S One OF
| N fNN one sort and some
| Il CN ~ another. Some oi
| Af% it good and some
~ N<ZY>R of it not as good
~. MV1l| as it might be.
| %-AzfSAHM But whatever ma y
| \/@-.e% be said of the
words of counsel volunteered by some
men the following open letter to the
Farmers Alliance of North Carolina,
from Col. Wharton ]. Green, is worthy
of careful reading and serious consid-
Grafton:
FAYETTEVILLE, N. c., Sept. II, 81.
To the Farmers alliance Of Noyh
| Carolina:
Brothers, as one of you, l venture
to express opinion on question af-
fecting not only the good of the order
but the good of society and of the
State, not for day but for all time.
Let it be promised that l am in en-
tire accord with you in all rational
and patriotic purposes looking to the
betterment of our condition as a class.
My membership is almost coeval with
the inception of the order, and was
taken deliberately and under the con-
viction that coalition and mutual i'll
terchange of opinion on social and
economic questions would enure to
the amelioration of the agricultural
masses. Especially that it would lead
to right conclusion on one of the most
vital of questions affecting freemen-
Taxation. That opinion has undergone
no change and is not likely to, so long
as the original and proclaimed objects
aimed at are are observed in all sane
tity. These, however, once disregard
ed or the metes and bounds once over
stepped, it is, to my limited ken and
forecast, fraught with incalculable
mischief to the farming in common
with all other classes, callings and
professions. Adopting the postulate
of statesmen and historians that love
of liberty has ever been the pre-emi-
nent trait of land owners, | address
you from that standpoint, assuming
as co-relative that kings, kaisers and
trlcksters are the sole gamers by abate-
ment of that inherent principle; and
of all most dangerous the last. Deliver
us good Lord from overzealous friends,
especially when they come in disguise.
AS is we'll known, nonpartisanship and
freedom of thought in party matters
was fundamentally inculcated in our
constitution and for awhile religiously
maintained. How is it now? The
tendency in certain quarters to disre-
gard it now is thought by many judi
cious friends to be pernicious in the
last degree, disintegration to the broth
erhood, and dynamitical to unity,
good government and liberty.
Let US then cry halt, and counsel
together, lest, perchance, that fatal
blunder is committed. In the incip-
iency of the Alliance, and until quite
recently no intimation was let fall Of
its resolving itself into Third party.
That was purely after-thought and
one of the most questionable paternity.
Judged by the inevitable result which
would follow its adoption by any con-
siderable offshoot Of the Alliance, the
motives of its projectors may we'll be
impugned. African domination, re-
turn to the dark, disgraceful days of
reconstruction, the amost certain ef
feet; personal emolument, pecuniary
or political, the actuating impulse of
those who set it a-going. Brothers OF
the Alliance, are you prepared for the
sequence, sure to follow, if your worthy
organization sinks into a mere political
machine to be run regardless of your
true interest and sound State policy
by selfish schemers of the sort referred
to? Are you willing to become a
stepping stone for knaves and dema-
gogues in their mad reach for power?
Are you mbitious to wear the dog
collar of dogmatic and dictatorial
leaders who go cunning on their own
account or to take the i'll concocted
nostrums of charlatans and quackS as
an unfailing panacea, universal cure
all for existing political ills? If SO,
then count me out, for so am not
and so are :: y. nine -tenths of the AL
lance, unless mistake who prefer the
homely teachings of farmers Jefferson
and Madison and Jackson to the clap
trap and crude conceits of such as
these. That the idea of the Third
party, or to be more exact, of split
ting the Democratic party, which in
our State probably makes up nine
tenths of the Alliance, should have
had birth in another political latitude,
and been indoctrinated in cur midst
by teachers heretofore inimical to our
preconceived tenets and line ofthought,
should at least "giye us pause" Life
long Republicans of recent importa-
ton or instantaneous conversion are
dangerous leaders to follow and natur
ally come under the heading Of "sus.
pects." Beware of such, for sinister
purpose and transparent are at the
bottom. The movement took root in
a recent Convention in which oul
State and in fact the entire South wa: