The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-25
A CALM REVIE ".
VI.

During the campaign In which the
Republicans and Popullsts labored
nightly for the election OF the fusion
ticket. THE DEMOCRAT did not fail TO
point out to the Populists that If they
persisted in their course they would at
last find themselves in the clutches OF
the Republican party.
We knew full we'll that it the fusion
ticket were elected, practically it would
be Republican victory. The Repub-
llcan party would virtually be IN pow
er. The Populists who agreed to that
fusion movement were slow to believe
It. Many of them had been good Dem
ocrats and they did not want to believe
that they were, by their cooperation or
fusion with the Republicans, turning
the interests of the great State OF North
Carolina into the hands OF those who
for more than a quarter OF century
had been their avowed political enemies.
And many OF them do not admit 1t
even at this late day, after the Leglsla-
ture has assembled, sat together and
made a record, many parts OF which
any reasonable man would we'll wish
had been left blank rather than stand
as it was made.
The Legislature assembled, and such
an assembly under such circumstances
had never before been seen in North
Carolina. When were the interests Of
North Carolina ever before committed
to q General Assembly whose majority
was made up of two political parties
whose platforms of so called principles
we're in many particulars Numerically
opposed to each other, but which were
all laid aside in order that they might
get control OF the State?
Such were the circumstances under
which the fusion Legislature came In
to power by the results of last Novem-
ber's election. The POpullsts had de-
manded many things first as the Farm
ers' Alliance. which they said was
free from partisan politics. And
here let us remind the Populists that
this was the very first net that was set
by the sharpers who were pressing the
work which was afterwards to tell in
their own interests. The Alliance
declared from the first that it was and
ever should be free from partisan poll
tics ; and this was the net that caught
| hundreds and thousands of good Dem
ocrats all over the lard And be it
said to their credit for personal indie
pendence that many, as soon as they
saw that unprlncipled place-hunters
were making a tool of the Alliance for
their own personal gains, withdrew
from the order and affiliated with it no
more.
Now, these two parties came tOgeth-
er to legislate for North Carolina. The
first conclusive evidence that they gave
of being dominated by the Republican
party was the fact that they allowed
prominent Republicans with a few
Populists to form sort of advisory
board for the assistance in the caucus
legislation. And then they allowed
men who had been lifelong Repubh-
cans to lead the fusion interest in the
Legislature. And this was one of the
ends aimed at with the Republicans
from the beginning. They knew very
we'll that the Populists had very few, if
any, real leaders OF men and the
knew that if they could get their sup
port at the election they would COM
mand their cooperation in the Legisla-
ture. And this programme was pretty
we'll carried out
Consistency had been clamored for
by the Populists ever since their organ
ization. reform" was what they tried
to make their slogan. And so when
they came together in legislative Assem-.
bly, it was in order to expect the con.
sistency and reform for which they had
been clamoring and which they prom
ised the people OF the State
Now what is the record of this fu
sion Legislature in consistencyo
Let us see.
They had been abusing the Demo
cratic party from every stump of then
campaign almost. They said that Dem
ocratic Legislatures had been accus
toned to do too much of their work in
caucuses. The Populists howled against
this and promised, implicitly, if not di
rectly, that if elected they would stoI
all that sort of thing and let the work