The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-08-23
MAI. GUTHRIE DECLINES.

Z Vi I 41NdIC ESaSOA4S AC IA DCSSAAS
the Candidate for Associate Justice.
To the Peoples Party Of North Caro-
Ina:
am informed that at your recent
State Convention in Raleigh, my name
was presented for the vacancy in the
office of Associate Justice Of the Su-
preme Court and the nomination vas
conferred on me by reclamation. Ifeel
very grateful to the Convention for the
compliment and the honor sought to be
| conferred on me by my friends of the
Peoples party. But it is due to you,
as well as myself, that | should frank
ly declare to you the reasons why l
cannot accept your nomination and
would not consent to serve even If
elected:
LIST. Because l feel that my name on
your ticket would very seriously tend
to embarrass your other candidates in
advocating some of the tenets of your
party. It is we'll known to my imme-
date personal friends that l am now,
and have for some years past, since the
removal of my residence to Durham,
been the regularly employed local
counsel for two railroad Corporations,
and it is a fact l could not deny, nor
wish to deny, that at the very time
when your delegates were assembling
in Raleigh, | was engaged in a distant
State drawing legal documents and
contracts to build an entirely new rail
road to develop the latent resources of
a large ~undeveloped section and affect
ing at least two counties in North Car
DINA.
You would hardly want to clog and
handicap you other candidates to de-
fend an avOwed railroad attorney.
Please understand me, however, as I
think my clients do, that if my railroad
clients would just hint to me that be-
cause of my relation to them I would
be under any circumstances expected
to sacrifice my liberty of Independent
thought and action in political affairs
by a surrender of my manhood for
money, they would very soon gee their
mistake, for l would in that event
sever the relations of attorney and
client quick enough to make their head
swim. | would, if l know myself,
rather live and die in obscurity and
gain my livelihood by blowing a bull
in a cOrnf1eld than sacrifice my self
respect and liberty as a citizen to cast
my vote according to the dictates of
my own judgment and consCience-fOr
the men of my choice and for the meas
ures [ think best calculated to promote
the good Of my country.
I'd. [ do not want the Office. When
l was beaten before the people for this
same office some six years ago, | made
up my mind to turn my ambition in
another direction entirely, and I have
devoted whatever of energy and talent
[ may possess to building up a law
practice in a new place. | thinkI have
gone far enough already in being a
candidate for judicial hOnOrs and office
seeking generally. Ny owns self respect
demands a halt lest l acquire the repu-
tatiOn Of becoming a chronic office
seeker-the most contemplate of all
creatures in the estimation of all right
thinking people under a free govern
ment. I would not belittle the office, |
however, though only a fragmentary
term of 1t Is now at stake for political
bidding. Though a place requiring
much hard labor, if the Office is faith !
fully filed, not very large compensa1
ton given for it either; the occupant
subject to very much censure and critic
cism at times (and sometimes deserved
tOo) it can never become anNofice of
small Importance or destitute of high
dignity and honor. The office is worthy |
of the high aspiration of every ambi- |
tiOus lawyer however much good men
deplOre the fact that under cOnsti- !
tuition and the elective judiciary sys-
tenn, it is becoming from year to year
more and more the lucky hit of a DO
litical scramble rather than the reward
Of merit. In this particular campaign |
the nominee of the Peoples party will, |
l think, stand at least an even chance
with the nominee of any other party
and / believe a better one. He will at
least have more votest to begin his cam
paign with than the Governors ap- |
pOintee has, since only one vote may |
appoint, BUTT requires many thousand
votes to elect before the people.
Sd. In conclusion, I would not wish
to be misunderstood in declining your
Tt is very far from my
purpose to slap in the face any body of
men who have done as you did, in
rendering your" confidence in nam
ing me as your choice for so high and
important an Office, and one clothed
with SO much dignity, honor and
power; but remember / have no par
ticular claim on that or any other
office. The offices belong to the people
ment established to give effect to the
will of the people as embodied in the
laws which the people through their
servants and representatives have
made. The time has come in this
country when the theory of our sys-
tenn Of government must be put in
practice and all officers must realize
that sovereignty resides in the people.
And no man who thinks at all on
public affairs can fail to see that DO
1itical power is drifting out of and
away from the handso of the pople, and
concentrating in the hands of a few.
A reformation must be had, in order