The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-08-20
The Old War-Horse of the Pee
Dee Is Not Talking.
HIS FRIENDS KNOW NOT
Which Road He Will Take, the
Silver or the Gold.
REPUBLICANS ARE COMPLAINING
And Declare that He Has Done Them
An Injustice and the Party a
Great Wrong--H Henry for
Attorney General.

hOGkilRudhlS ~ ~ @Ahe3. - 49,
Correspondence) During few hours
STAY in Rockingham l have talked
with quite number OF Richmond
county gentlemen, including Republi-
cans. Democrats and Populists and
from all I can gather the consensus
of opinion here is that the erxtwhle
sold warhorse Of the Pee Dee" Col. D.
H. Dochery has succeeded in getting
himself in a hole from which it will
take derrick greater than Hal Aver,
Holton. Butler and Pearson all togeth-
ar can manages to extricats him.
There is a rumbling Of political dis
comforture and discomfort that
sounds I'D and down both sides OF
the Pee Dee.
One man viii hell yos that the Colo
mel will surely vote for Mckinley ana
Hobart. and has not thought of doing
otherwise. the next man you meet
will declare that he is a red hot silver
man and will support Bryan and Wat
son.
Those Republican friends who stood
by him so manfully in his fight for
Governor at the late Republican con-
vention many of them are talking out
loud and declaring without any
mincinQ of phrases that their former
chief has if not betrayed at least com
promised them and their standing as
1oyal Republicans in his recent coquet-
ting with the Populist convention.
They declare farther that the Repub-
lican STATE Commi 3tce rnat!u bad mat
tiers worse by endorsing him even a
gainst the protest of d delegation OF
Richmond county Republicans, who
came to Raleigh TO advise against such
action.
One Populist declared to me that
Col. Dockery by his silence, was be-
traving the confidence reposed in the
Richmond county delegation by the
Populist State convention when this
delegation through its chairman pledg-
ed the convention shat Col. Dockery
would vote for Bryan and Watson.
[ asked prominent Democrat II
Col. Doekery would accept the nominal
ton.
IF he does not, it will be the first
time a Dockery was ever known to
decline anything" he replied. Several
local Republicans said that COL Dock
ery's action had demoraliZed, for the
time being, local Republican politics in
the Pee Dee section, and that the par
twas worse effected by his straddling
position than it would have been it
he had gone over bodily to the Popu-
lists of he accepts the Populist nom
nation and declares for Bryan that
will put him out of the Republican
party. On the other hand it he ac-
cepts the Republican endorsement
and declares for Mckinley the Pops
will drop him like a hot potato. Ii
he accepts both and tries to ride silver
and gold he will be a menace to both
tickets, and if he accepts neither-but
that is not to be thought Of
''Col. Dockery is in trouble, said one
of his close personal friends to me, and
ST believe he wishes that he had not
seen politician or political conven-
tion this year. He has declared openly
that he would not support Mckinley
or Russell, and that if Teller was
Presidential candidate he would sup
mort him. But Col. Dockery himself
is. and has been during these past few
DAYS, as dumb az an oyster. He has
hied himself away to his country
home, twenty odd miles up the Pee
Dee. far away from busy bodies. re-
porters and others, and is supposed TO
be saving wood for the winter. He has
left q silence behind him that you
couldn't beat into syllable with gold
headed silver stick, three feet long and
vet the political atmosphere around
Rockingham is so dense with crltl-9
cism that you could take the same
stick and beat it into sixteen great
chunks of political disgust to one OF
quiet aopuiescense. The Colonel mas
his silver tongue with him, perhaps,
but at this particular Juncturs he
doubtless thinks that silence is golden
"and why he probably asks himself
SHOULD not the Pops and the Reps be
satisfied with these two; silver tongue,
and golden silence, don't they all know
that he has sixteen times as much
of one as he has the other, and then,
too what's the use in trying to climb
up on so many platforms just TO get
a little office like the Lieutenant Gov
ernorship."
1t is said that big Pop-Rep rally
mostly Pop will be held at Hines Cha
pel in this county on the Goth inst, at
which place the old war horse is ex-
pected to kick up a cloud Of political
dust, that will have a silver lining
sixteen feet thick on the crest OF which
will be setting Bryan ana Watson.
This is rumor only but sometimes
rumors are worth their weight in gold
or silver.
Mr.. Claude Dockery says that the
Colonel will speak in due time. Per
han. the Colonel's silence is attribute
BILE to Claude for it will be remember
cd that the latter sent the first tele-
gram to the Colonel telling him OF the
committees action and saying, say
nothing bill / sac you"
l met Captain General Walter +.
Henry last night returning from the
Sixth district Populist convention,
where he had been literally smashed
into atoms by the preacher Congress
nxn Il was said that a Richnond