The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1892-05-10
The Honesty Of the two Great Parties
Contrasted

The Honesty of the two Great Parties
Contrasted.
The following paragraph taken from
recent article in the P|ogress.ue
Farmer, written, presumably, by IFS
editor in chief, Col. l.. l.. Polk, Is
very suggestive. Speaking Of the ex
isting popular complaints and agita-
ton, as connected with State and ma
tional politics, he says:
"While our State government, un-
der twenty years Of Democratic rule,
has not been all it might have been,
has not been perfect, and we need
never expect perfection in politics; yet
the contrast has been 50 great between
republican rule from 1866 to 1870.
and democratic rule since, that our
| people are 10th to let loose and risk
worse things. Many people will vote
the ticket on account Of the name; SO
we want to give them a chance"
This is the forced tribute to the In
tegrity and fidelity of the democratic
party, wrung from one who, as prom
nent leader Of the third party, is doing
all in his power to subvert that party
whose virtue he 50 candidly, if un-
consciously, admits and commends. We
accept the admission because it yields
| oil IL ha
cratic party; and. by implication, con
firms all We have charged against the
republican party; for if it be granted
by a. proven enemy Of the democratic
party hat '.the contrast between re
publican rule from 1866 TO 1870 and
democratic rule since that period is SO
great that the people are 10th to let
loose and risk worse things" what
ampler or broader conception of great
and vital distinction can be asked or
yielded
That the republican party, dGIs;ne
the peri, ferred to, as *
/ by che Spors1aas S,olat1-~. x.~s
and b. the principles of the><S<ic,
by which it was governed, was bad
dishonest, dangerous to the liberties o
the people, and destructive Of their in
terests, has been engrayen indelibly or
the history of the State. The de
bauchery of the legislature, the oper
bribery of its members, the extrava
gance in the public expenditures, the
shameless squandering of funds sacred
:, to the holy cause Of education, th'
reckless creation of an enormous Stat,
i debt that special interests might be fos
d tered or special favorites admitted to ;
share of the public plunder, the inau
! guration of a war against the loya
people of the State and their subjectio1
to mercenary force Of brutal soldier.
introduced in contempt Of law from an
other State, the overthrow of the civil
l. and the proclamation and enforcement
q of martial law, stand inefaceable mon
uments to the heights, the depths, th
:, lengths, the breadths, to which reput
q can policy could, and did, ascend G
of descend in the past history of the State
is and stand, or should stand, as perpe1
% ual reminders of the horrors they ha
ST endured, and the evils from which the
D. had been rescued by whom?
By the democratic party, to its. etc
O. nal honor be it ever remembered AZ
1e proclaimed. In the civil history
le North Carolina there has never bee
III a period so dark as that referred to
ID Col. Polk-that embracing the yea
a. from 1866 to 1870. The people hs
i'd before beer called upon to endure niue
grievous suffering from war, from a
to Inhalation of their industrial systems;b
e never before had they been called upon
be endure the humiliation of dishonc
e Their governors had revered and obey
the requirements of the constitutio
.st these, their successors, had defed al
il. over-ridden them. their judges had be
IT. learned, upright, just, impartial in t
90 administration of the laws; these b
,st become laughing-stocks for their ign'
srs ance of the law, despised for their P
'as sonal deprayity, dreaded for their
ng nality, and distrusted for their p
,n- tiality, their legislatures had been CT
- spicuous for their tender regard for
re- public rights, and scrupulous in tn