The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-03-08
ABRAM S. HEWITT.
THE SNARLER SEVERELY CRIT
ICISED.
His Ill-timed, B a DIM annered
Speech Against Southern Dem
ocrats---It Calls Forth Just and
Merited Rebuke.
Wilmington Messenger.l |

Wilmington Messenger
The Southern press is criticising
sharply Mr.. Hewitt's ill-timed, bad
hammered speech. This display on
the part OF a Northern man the South
ern Democrats had been much disposed
to think we'll of, has been a shock to
prevailing ideas of propriety and
decency. This speech following so
soon upon the disgusting treatment Of
Chairman Wilson (now very i'll, we
regret to see it s:ated) by New Workers
when invited to address them makes
self-respecting gentlemen conclude
that New York manners and ideas Of
politeness stand in great need of being
mended and improved. We think any
gathering of negroes in the South
would have acted more becomingly
and decently than the commercial men
acted when they SO wantonly insulted
Representative Wilson when their
guest and speaking by invitation.
AS to Mr.. Hewitt's recent unman-
nerly escapade we can not conceive
that any Comanche or Sioux invited to
address a Southern audience could
have borne himself with less propriety
and spoken words more mal-apropos,
with less fitness to time and place than
did the rich and able New Yorker sur
rounded in his home by all the luxuries
that are supposed to belong to the best
Northern civilization.
The Atlanta Constitution makes
these remarks in part:
The friends of the Hon. Abra m S.
Hewitt were deeply mortified by his
unseemly exhibition of his ignorance,
prejudice and impudence before the
Southern Society, of New York, the
other night.
Mr.. Hewitt is under the impression
that he knows it all. He mistakes his
delusion for convictions, and is under
the impression that his dyspepsia is a
new kind of dynamic force.
This glib banquet orators disparag-
ing comments on the Southern states
men of to-day need not disturb our
people. The New Yorker may not be
able to find Calhoun's successor in the
South. Be it so. We of the South
look in vain for Webster's successor in
in the North.
The point is we'll and aptly taken.
and dhsd Ssdeefs daa na and ff5SHss and adu cbsSS
Hills in the Senate from the South
now, surely there are no Websters,
Summers, Choates, Winthrops, Nor
tons now. In other words, there is
surely as great a depreciation in high
craftsmanship and great powers of
mind now in the North, as seen in
their members of the Fifty-third Con-
gress, as there is in the South.
But we do not admit that the
Senate, so far as the South is con-
cerned, is barren of men of eminent,
even splendid talents. While there
are not any men who in all respects
equal the great Southern men Of 1850
Calhoun and Clay-the one as
thinker, political philosopher and seer;
the other as a great party leader,
debater and statesman-there are mel
in the Senate now from the South
vino are very able, we'll equipped fol
debate, we'll read, and eloquent and
effective in public address. We doubt
if any of the most prominent men O
the past in the South surpassed in
mental power and ability TO GRASP
great political questions and discuss
them in orderly, logical form the best
men in the Senate from the South in
1894, with the one exception Of Mr.
Calhoun. You can not find perhap:
in Clay's speeches one of as mastery
ability as Senator Daniels on the
silver discussion last year. There
were greater orators in the South than
now. There are no Clay and Henry
and George McDuffie and w. c
Preston and S. S. Prentiss and Yancey
and score of others. Nor can yol
find in the North any Webster o.
Choate or Theodore Parker or Beechel
or Conkling or Sumner.
The speech of Mr.. Hewitt's was un
fortunate as to manners, taste, its il
tellectual and statesmanlke references
and even its financial discussion. H
took an opportunity to damn ths
, South because it opposed the fnancis
, views of rich Nabobs like himself ant
, the Solomons on Wall street. Th
Lynchburg Wezvs makes commen
on this aspect of the speech that
t worth copying. 1t says:
: Indeed, of the Al votes cast agains
!, Mr.. Cleveland s friend Peckham, 90 o
: them were cast by Senators from MI
t Hewitt's section Of the Union, wher
I historical knowledge and cultur
abound. AS to Mr.. Hewitt's assault
upon the public men of the South fo
their advocacy of a financial policy nc
u exactly calculated to increase his enol
nous wealth, it simply sounds grotesqu
S for this grabbed, petulant, dyspept
y old gentleman to be assailing I'll
f monetary policy advocated by Balfou
r Gaschen and other men in Gre;
n Britain whose fame as fnanciers al
= skill in statecraft are known througho'
;, all the civilized earth. Mr.. Hewitt h;
bad manners and vindictive spirit.
Fear God, tell the truth and ma
:. money is the excellent motto of Il
3 Oroville Crescent. The editor goes
i