The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-01-13
TWENTY YEARS OF GOOD GOV
ERNMENT,

Twenty years ago this month the great
est man ever born ON the soil of North
Carolina was inaugurated Governor of
the State. Never before or since has
such a gathering of patriotic people of
Tho commonwealth gathered to see 4
Governor enter upon his duties as as
sembled to greet Zebulon +. Vance ON his
inauguration as Chief Magistrate of his
State. He had been chosen its Governor
in 1862 and again in 1864, when there
was need of the stoutcAt heart and wisest
head to be at the helm. When carpet
bag and scalawag rule came to disgrace
the State, the great Vance was sent into
retirement, and base sons, in league with
robbers and thieves, took command.
They had wel-nigh scuttled the ship
when the white people of the State raj
lied and put an end to the pillage of mil
lions. They needed their best man to
drive out the pirates In command, and
they found him in the person of the great
war Governor.
His successors received his mantle, and
for twenty years North Carolina has had
as near model State government as was
ever enjoyed by any people. There have
been no scandals, NO defalcatiOns, no ex-
trava gances, none of those evils that are
so often connected with government.
The school houses, which were closed in
order that drunken legislators might be
paid three hundred days in the year, have
been opened and improved steadily and
as rapidly as the people could afford to
increase their taxes. Two new insane
asylums, one for the whites and one for
the colored race, have afforded a refuge
to the unfortunate insane, and the old in
stitution at Raleigh has been enlarged.
A large and splendid school for the deaf
and dumb has been erected-A. and NJ.
Colleges for the practical instruction of
the youth of both races, and splendid
Normal and Industrial School for women
have been created; an Agricultural
Department and Experiment Station es-
tablished and placed in handsome build
| ing, with the best State Museum in the
| South; the railroad mileage wonderfully
extended; railroad corpora tons taxed and
checked by Railroad Commission;
manufacturing increased an hundred
| fold; a Supreme Court building erected
and a large State Library collected; the
penitentiary made selt-supporting; inn
| migration encouraged; safe local govern
ment secured; the University, which he'd
been closed, reopened and strengthened;
normal schools provided; capital and Ia
Dor protected alike; and every interest Of
the State conserved and protected. 1t
is a record for fidelity, honesty, and pro-
gress unsurpassed in the history of this
| or any other State Mistakes have beea
made, but they have not been many or
material
Yesterday the Republican party came
| into power, receiving no heritage to EN-
| barrass or incumber the administration
| Of public affairs. Those who believe that
q party where eight-tenths of its mem
bers are negroes can long remain in pow.
er in North Carolina, no not understand
the genius, the temper and patriotism
| Of the people Of this commonwealth
Four years will mark the duration Of its
tenure of power. Let us hope that it win
emulate the example set by twenty years
of Democratic rule.