The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-29

tie aristocracy which, in it's social and
economic character, made a failure, and
yet admit that if we could have chosen
we could not have had better ancestors.
They also charge that the people INDUCED
lin maniacal and trance-like religion, and
that they were led to do this by the
preachers, yet admit that the preachers
were of so large mold that they ranged
themselves with the giants and that he
would rather have known one of them
than all the political and militay heroes
we have since had. From the days of
King George, Mr. Page says, the politi-
clans of North Carolina have proclaimed
against tax. So do the politicians in all
the States. SO do all the platforms Of
all the parties.
One may well ask, viewing the course
of events in our country since the war,
(which is the better, an aristocracy $50
called which produces democracy, as
that which Southern rule was fast evolv-
ing before the war, or a democracy Chat
of New England in the earlier days.
which produces an aristocracy (alsO So
called,) to wit: the plutOcracy that now
rules this Union?
1t would require volumes upon volumes
to contain the printed records of public
orruption-national, State and munich
pal-which have appeared, and without
adequate denial, in the public press, an
| the Congressional Record and in other
printed repositories. Suffice it to say
| that in it's issue of June 4th, a great
New York newspaper stated not only
did the present Senate wish to conceal the
facts of the sugar scandal, but that that
bodys course in this respect had been
the same ''for the past thirty years, be-
ginning with the Credit MObilier. Mark
the period, Thirty years!'
And with respect to the capacity of the
New England kind of democracy to per-
petuate democracy, it will suffice to re-
peat the figures which Senator Mills US
ed in his speech in the Senate the other
day, viz: That $4,000 persons, out
of our 100000 million, own $31 $780,
100000, or more than half of the total
wealth of the Union," in contrast with
the equable distribution of wealth which
chara cterized the period during which
the South controlled legislation.
| The truth is that the settlers in our
country were influenced by their heredi-
| ty, and their subsequent history was
! the expression of their inheritance quail
! fed by their new surroundings. Settlers
in the South came chiefly from the rural
districts of Britain while those who
settled in the north were largely from the
city building districts.
Aristocracy is the first step towards
democracy, and it was very long step in
that direction which the mobiles of King
Johns time took when they exacted from
that monarch the great charter, but the
next step, a petition of rights, did not
occur until after Virginia had been set
tied, and the habeas corpus and bill of
rights were not granted until after North
| Carolina had been settled. 1t would
have been next to miracle If 1t had
Occurred to the colonists that there could
have been any other social structure
if the monarch were abolished than the
natural division of society into leaders
and those whom they lead.
! Education for an Elector does not
mean education in its popular sense. We
are all agreed, l believe, that it is the
States duty to educate all the people
to the very best of its ability, and have
no doubt that the fine system of public
schools, which we enjoyed before the war
would long ago have been enlarged upon
! in a way commensurate with the spirit
of the times had it not been for the ne
gro question which the ignorant politi-
clans of the north forced upon us.
i Education for an elector means the
| imparting of some knowledge of the
science of government. The possession
of such knowledge should be made con-
dition of the right to vote. 1t is not my
purpose to suggest where the line should
be drawn, when, or in what manner, and
shall be content if l have been able to
fill your minds with the vital Importance
of improving the governing class. This
may be done by limiting it or by educat-
1 ing it in its duties, or both
/ have endeavored to trace the evolution
of democracy and to suggest by some
thing of historical retrospect the condi-
tons under which it may be safely OBJ
tanned. Our electorate before the war
was highly educated one. Even the
unlettered under hat system, were taught
on the hastings the science of govern
ment. An educated democracy is the
goal for which we should strive, but
what we want is not the leveing down
which premature extension of the suf-
ferage produces, but leveling up which
!, follows a gradual process that prevailed
in both Carolina and England.