Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-10-11
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
VIII. Rand Airs his Sentiments on
Fusion and Tells where he
Stands Politically in this Cam

VIII. Rand Airs his Sentiments on
Fusion and Tells where he
Stands Politically in this Cam
paign.
RAND's MILLS N. c., Oct. 6.
AS there has been, and is yet,
much conjecture as to where [
stand politically, IL will, if you
will allow me space in your col
umns, explain in a manner there
can be no quibbling about here
after. I confess [ have been
very much at a loss since the
coalition convention in Raleigh
to locate accurately my political
whereabouts. AS Tom Watson
would say [ did not know where
I was at, but as time passed by [
grew in wisdom and broadened
in views until [ came to realize
that my party had slipped from
its moorings and was threatening
violence to the principles it adj
vocated at its inception and in
whose defence, honestly raised
my voice two years ago.
A fusion with any party we
had before arraigned for iniquit-
Gus legislation, my better iudg-
ment told me, was a political
crime. [ was a Populist after
the straightest sect and had set
tied down in sincere conviction
that the declaration of princi-
pies we had thrown to the world
were good enough, liberal en-
ough and broad enough to cover
the earth from pole to pole, and
that the welfare of my country
demanded the formation of a
new party to enact them into a
law; and [ would have denounced
in the strongest terms coalition
with any party, it matters not
by what name you might dis
tinguish it, And I used all of
my influence with my Populist
friends to antagonize any such
baneful and unholy influences as
it would have on a party that we
considered to all intents and
purposes the salt of the earth.
l asked them to be orthodox or
take down their banners. This
course [ considered honorable
and the only one we could pursue
to successfully meet argument in
the coming campaign.
The fusion convention turned
a deaf ear to every appeal of this
kind and voted it down, not talk
ing into consideration at all the
fact that they were sounding the
death knell of the Populist
party. Right at this i~uncture.
sore and chagrined as l was, a
Philadelphia lawyer, if sworn
and put upon the stand, could
not have told where [ stood in
politics. And as retaliatory meas
ures and edicts are more or less
justified by laws human and di-
vine, [ say to my many friends
who seem to be iGquisitive about
my political Position, that shall
resent this crying injustice done
my party by voting the Demo
oA"oC ulChCU.
! The names Republican and
Populist, by the action of the
fusion convention, were made
synonymous terms. What one
implies, the other implies making
either, or both repulsive and I'M
congenial to the nature of an in
telligent, Southern born white
man, viewing it from my stand
point.
1t is not necessary to review
the history Of the two old part
les, as all intelligent voters are
familiar with them. By no means
would | say their records have
been ideal ones. However. [ be
lleve the Democratic party has
sorely repented its folly in re
duclng the country to the gold
standard. 1t has learned by sad
experience that such legislation
augmented the troubles of which
the country complains.
Fusion in Iowa with the Demo
Gratis, fusion in North Carolina
with the Republicans, destroys
the Peoples party with its pres
tige, and leaves in it's wake moth
ing but the vacuum it once occu-
pied, and the more [ mediate
over it, the more intolerable it
becomes. Vice and 0virtue being
incompatible. [ shall vote the
Democratic ticket.