The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-10-26
VANCE At THE FAIR.
HE kOVCES THE FARMERS TO STAND
TOGETHER AND SUPPORT THE
PARTY That REPRESENTS
Their INTERESTS.
FARMERS ARE THE SAFEST LEGI~iA- T.
TUREs--THEY CAS LEtsIsLATE IN
THEIR INTEREST WITHOUT
HELPING EVERYBODY
EEsE.
h"" Panies Are Misunderstanding Last
one Made II" Order---silyer is Our Cur
rency--The sherman Law the Only Leg
isiation ON the Books That Binds 4. to
the White Metal.

The Raleigh News publishes, as
follows, the uext of Senator Vance's
speech delivered at the State Fair
grounds at Raleigh last week:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GEN
TLEMEN:
can verj truly say that no occa-
sion of my life gives me more pleas
ure 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. Seven
ty-tive per cent. of the people of our
State are devoted to agriculture and
Its kindred pursuits-seventy-tive out
Of every one hundred -seventy-five
thousand out of 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 dependent upon
1T. 1t is, therefore, the dominant in
terest of the State of North Carolina,
and as such, recognizing that fact,
my political obligations, as well as
my lnclinations, have been in the in
terests of those who are engaged in
agriculture more particularly than in
any other direction. The people who
till the soil are the most conservative
Of any of our population. They are
more dependent upon nature, there
fore, they are more fixed in their
habits, therefore they are more fixed
in their opinions and have more pow
er 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 per-
mitted to say. | can only say that
they should be better than any other
class Of our people. At all events,
they constitute the most conservative
element in oar society, and as such,
there is d vast and wondrous respon-
sibility resting upon them. We look
to you, farmers of North Carolina,
to resist wild and impracticable
schemes; we look to YOU to adhere as
nearly as possible to the track mark
ed out by our forefathers for the pre-
servatiOn of the liberties and the hap
piness of our people. We look to
you in Church and State to resist
what has been characterized by the
Apostle as "every wind that comes
along" we look to you to help pre-
serve, rather than to mark out and
create new things; we look to you to
hold fast to those things which are
good and to eschew and resist the
progress of those things which are
evil.
Many years ago, fellow citizens, it
Was brought to my attention, as it
must have been brought to the atten-
tion 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 Unit
ed States were making the most WON
derful physical progress ever known
to the children of men; that while
they were accumulatiEg wealth and
spreading and widening and broad
ening the means of civilization faster
than any other people has ever done;
yet, that wealth was not being dis
tributed properly in proportion to
those who earned it and created it.
That natural tendency of the strong
to oppress the weak, which will! pre-
vail whenever one man has more
power to fight than another (and he
is disposed to exercise it); that tend
ency which nature has created and
provoked to an unequal distribution
of the accumulated wealth of the
country, has been fostered by law.
And for thirty-three years, quarter
of century, J. had observed and still
observe, that the legislation of the
national legislature of this country,
has been either Indifferent or direct
lv hostile to the interest of the agri-
cultural classes Of our people. In
the last thirty-three years great COR
porations have grown up that domi-
nate whole States and communities,
whose directors and controllers in
the back room of the office of their
secretary and treasurer, or their pres
ident or vice-president, levy more
taxes on our people than all our leg
islatures put together, and these cor
porations are not responsible to any
BODY. Under this system of legisla-
ton all of our banks (Which ever
since the constitution was formed
were considered al essential element
of State sovereignity), have been Gre
ated with such powers as enable them
to contract the currency or to initiate
it at their own pleasure, and the
banks and banking institutions char
tered under and by authority OF the
States have been driven out of exist
ence by unconstitutional taxation.
In some way the manufacturing in
terests of the country have procured
legislation in their favor. There is
not a corporation created for the
purpose of accumulating wealth Gre
ated in the last third of century,
that has not been created absolutely
at the expense of the agricultural
classes of this country. 1t is not
denied bv the most rabid advocates
of capital that agriculture has not
had this chance. 1t has not parti-
cipated in the general prosperity of
this great country. On the contrary,
fellow citizens, under the State legis-
lation for the last twenty or twenty