The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-10-26
Senator VancG's Speech.
DELIVERED AT THE STATE
FAIR LAST WEEK.
Says He Does Not Know Much
About Agriculture, but Talks
About the Silver Question and
Other Matters---His Advice to
the Farmers, &C., &c.

the Farmers, &C., &c.
Following is the full text of Senate,
Vance's speech delivered at the Raleigh
State fair on Tuesday of last week, a:
published in the News- Obseyver.
Chronicle
Mr.. r. H. Battle, president Of the
State Agricultural Society, in appro-
pirate and touching words presented
to the audience the speaker of the
day, Hon. Zebulon B. Vance, and as
that venerable and white haired
statesman and tribune OF the people
rose to his feet a wave of applause
swept over the audience SO that it was
some time before he could speak.
Senator Vance said:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLE.
MEN:
| can very truly say that no occa-
sion of my life gives me more pleasure
than to respond to the call of the
people of my State whenever they
have occasion for my services. 1t
does me good to look into your faces
and | am reminded that agriculture is
the great and dominant interest of the
State of North Carolina. Seventy five
per cent. of the people of our State are
devoted to agriculture and its kindred
pursu!ts-seventyfive out of every one
hundred-seyenty-five thousand out ol
every one hundred thousand of our
population that is to say, out of every
four men you meet three of them are
engaged in agriculture and are depend
ent upon it. 1t is, therefore, the
dominant interest of the State of North
Carolina and as such, recognizing that
fact, my political obligations, as we'll
as my inclinations, have been in the
direction of the interests of those who
are engaged in agriculture more
particularly than in any other drec-
ton. The people who till the soil are
The most conservative of any of our
population. They are more dependent
upon nature, therefore they are more
fixed in their habits, therefore they are
more fixed in their opinions and have
more power to judge than any other
class of our people. They are nearest
to the God which created them.
Whether they are better or not, am
not permitted to say. l can only say
that they should be better than any
other class of our people. At all
events, they constitute the most con-
servative element in our society and as
such there is a vast and wondrOus
responsibility resting upon them. We
look to you, farmers of North Caro-
lima, to resist wild and impracticable
schemes; we look to you to adhere as
nearly as possible to the track marked
out by our forefathers for the preserva
tion of the liberties and the happiness
of our people We looked to you in
church and State to resist what had
been characterized by the Apostle as
"every wind that comes along;" we
look to you to help preserve, rather
than to mark out and create new
things; we look to you to hold fast tc
those things which are good and to
eschew and resist the progress of those
things which are evil.
Many years ago, fellow citizens, ii
was brought to my attention, as ii
must have been brought to the atten.
ton of every man who looks at the
state of our country and the things
which are directly before his eyes, that
while the people of these United
States were making the most wonder
full physical progress ever known to
the children of men; that while they
were accumulating wealth and spread
ing and widening and broadening the
means of civilization faster than other
people has ever done yet that wealth
was not being distributed properly in
proportion to those who earned it and
created it. That natural tendency OF
the strong to oppress the weak which
will prevail whenever one man has
more money than another which will
prevail whenever one man has more
power to fight than another (and he is
disposed to exercise it y that tendency
which nature has created and provoked
to an unequal distribution of the accu-
mulated wealth of the country, has
been fostered by law. And for thirty
three years, quarter of century, |
had observed and still observe, that
the legislation Of the national legisla-
ture of this country has been either
Indifferent or directly hostile to the
interest of the agricultural classes OF
our people. In the last thirty-three
years great corporations have grown
up that dominate whole States and
communities, whose directors and con-
trollers in the back room of the office
of their secretary or treasurer, or their
president or e-president, levy more
taxes on our people than all our
legislatures put together, and these
corporations are not responsible to
ANYBODY. Under this system of legis-
lation all of the banks (Which ever
since the constitution was formed
were considered an essential element
of State sovereignty, have been created
with such powers as enabled them to
contract the currency or to initiate !,
at their own pleasure, and the banks
and banking institutions chartered
under and by authority Of the states
have been driven out Of existence by
unconstitutional taxation. In some
way the manufacturing interests o.
the country have procured legislation
in their favor. There is not corpor.
alton created for the purpose of ac'
cumulating wealth in the last third o.
a century, that has not been created
absolutely at the expense of the agrl