The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1896-10-08
land ambidextrous hands. =.
The farmers were ripe for revolt
and IN the late Leon:das L. Polk they

's'~' hHS ILuU-.
The farmers were ripe for revolt
and IN the late Leon:das L. Polk they
found leader whose sa gaeity aud
skill In organization should have
mad the reward Of which they were
cheated By his opp-rtune death.
But the uprising that he had TO-
mented and directed lived after him.
and the vacancy which his death
created was young Buffers opportu-
nifty. He had been preparing for it
and when the time came he seized it.
he was then about twenty-eight
years old and a member Of the State
Senate. He had been elected to that
Office when he was twenty seven.
DIR. Butler himself says that his
political career was entirely an acci-
dent, that it was not the one he had
picked ont for himself, and tina. it
was due almost directly TO the death
Of his father when the young man was
attending college. He was born and
brought up on farm and received
the larger share of his early edHca-
ton from his mother. From her,
with the occasional aid of neigh
boring ssademy-the free schools of
North Carolina are g. comparatively
recent innovation-he he received his
preparation for the University of
North Carolina. Graduated from
the academic department of that in
stltution, ne entered its law school
and was on bis way 10 his chosen
profession when he was called home
by his fathers demise to undertake
the care of the farm aud large and
dependent family.
His Intense and lmpetuouS energies
could hardly find fun employment on
the farm, even though ne conducted
an academy for the tutoring uf his
own family and that Of the neighbors,
and ''ttle later became proprietor of
the Village weekly newspaper. He
| was twenty-five years Old and pro-
prietOr and director Of THE CLINTON
CAUCAsIAN, when he Joined the newly
organized Farmers Alliance. i =
A supporter of Mr. Cleveland in
| 1858, the latter's renOmInation in Chi
cago in 1892 drove Butler out of the
Democratic party, and the Populist
campaign Of that year in his State
/
Though Cleveland carried the State
the POpulists cast A, 900 votes, and a
fusion with the Republicans would
have neen successful. But all over
lures for union that year were de-
feated by the .obstinacy OF the chair
man of the Republican committee
who headed faction of Office seeking
Republicans who had descended from
the carpet bag era. Two years ago
however, Butler had not only become
supreme in the councils in his own par.
ty, but succeeded in rOusing the Re.
pubiicans to the benehCent results Of q
combine, and the two parties fused
The campaign that followed was any.
thing but like novel of Henry James
and Butler was in the thick of the
fray. The Democrats had the count.
ing machine, however, and relied upOI
their ability to work that machine iI
an appropriate and sufficiently indus.
trious manner to fOrestall any evi
results. But the day of the election
found every polling place prOperlJ
manned by two fusion watchers an(
three witnesses. Every fusion voter
received his ticket from One of tht
witnesses. and cast it in their pres
ence; his name was registered in a lit
tie book, and when the voting wa
done the accuracy of the books was at
tested by the witnesses, and they wer'
mailed to the central committee.
was for this reason that the countin.
machine failed TO develop it's usua
mysterious capacity for beautiful ma
jOrities. The mannuvre was a com
plete surprise, and before the machin
had time to recover the Fusion ticke
, was declared elected. There were tw
, United States SenatOrships for tn
legislature to choose, and of these MI
,, Butler appropriated the long one an
gave to a Republican ally, Jeter {
Pritchard, the short. ::
OF Buffers work III the present con
test, the public has heard but little
5 You will remem Der that the first bril-
{ liant blunder of Jones was to invit
! the Populists Ito go with the negroe
where they belong" a little late
= Jones learned of his mistake. 1t
clear now that without the full strengt
: of the Populist party, Bryan cannt
6 be elected. YosWing this full strength
b to concentrate it, to fuse with tf
Q Democracy and free silver Republ
g cans at every possible point-in
+ word, to make every free silver vO1
! count, has been Buffers chief tasl
He had nc party to educate. At TT
:, beginning Of this campaig gn, the POI
Il ulsts were really the only men wi
actually knew what they were abou
:, The Republican and Democratic con
t mittees report an enormous demaL
r for literature for educational pu
8 poses. 1t is part of the fact that tn
J. campaign is being fought on Populi
n tic issues that the Peoples Party con
mittees have felt no such demand.
|" But the work of fusion has been f
q from easy. 1t has had to deal with tt
l. most diverse situations, the strOnge
n antagOnisms, the most deep seat.
<. prejudices. For the task was requir,
l. all that knowledge of human natu
T. and ability to play upon its weakness
!, and it's passions which is allotted
the subtlest of men. In my intervie
10 with him in Washington, Butler ga
} me graphic sketch of the situatio
S, He said:
s. "You will understand that eve
to different section, indeed almost eve
is State, has presented different pro
ht lem. In the far West the POpuli
q, strength has been drawn from the r
10 publicans; in the South from the Del
~ ocracy; in the middle and Northe
40 Staoes from both. More or less,
le many sections, the man who bro
d. with his old party and joined Q
In ranks has been under ban. He
n. been subjected to every sort OF per:
Sc cution, petty and great, that 1t was
o. the province of his neighbors to |
. stow. In the South it was social Ostl
- cIsm; in the West if man had de
10, he was harassed with it if he could
lal Everywhere, alike in social and bu
'iy ness relations the Popuiist has been
ad a disadvantage. He is only human
an many times it has made him bitt
re At any rate 1t has served to deeI
4 the hostility natural to political CT
'th tests, and when we have come to eff
=. a union of all these estranged and 8
Ia tagOnistic elements we have had
nu deal with the strongest passions
en- human nature. A mans devotion
he his party may be great, but he is o.
RI human il his enmities prove strOns