The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-06


to do it after this second experience, they
will deserve to suffer again more Sc
verely than ever. If they do not know
now what Republican rule in this State
means. they cannot be taught even by
n revelation.
| / have said nothing about those for
liner infamies, concerning which the old
er men here present are fully informed,
| for the reason that it was my purpose
this evening to confine my remarks to
the one overshadowing issue which con-
fronts us; but the past history of the
Republican party in North Carolina af
/ fords an exhaustless theme for indignant
ldenunciation by every honest and inteli-
gent citizen of the State. That history
! has been one of unmitigated dishonOr--a
history of fraud and corruption, of eX
| trayagant expenditures and disgraceful
| incompetency, of low morals, of shame
less trafficking in offices, of ceaseless
prostitution of every department Of the
public service, and continual aggrayatlon
of hostility between the races. rms Is
moderate language when one considers
/ that history generally ana IN detail.
When that political lepcr, the carpet
Dagger. fleeing from the wrath of an out
ragged people dropped his foul garments
| in his fight, the native scalawag picked
| them up and decorated his own person
with them, and seems TO be proud OF the
costume. He does not possess the
breezy abandon Of his impudent predeces-
| sor The one was a wolf; the other IS
| a hyena The one openly proclaimed
himself theft and robber-the other
sinks about, feeding on offal, and digging
Into graves The one was a freebooter
the other is sneak. The Zone was II
condor, the other is a buzzard. The
one made no pretence of having any
| sense of honor or any regard for the
public welfare-the other loudly claims
to have both, and Immediately begins
| to organize a conspiracy with any one
who will unite with him to betray de-
cency and trade himself into an office.
| The field of his operations has grad
ually contracted until it is now chiefly
confined within the limits of this state
And here frightened by the swelling
tide which threatens to sweep him from
the land. he is making frantic efforts
to save himself. If the people Of this
good old State have not degenerated,
his efforts will be in vain. They are
very slow people as all their history at
tests-they never act precipitately-Dut
Having once entered into a fight they put
all their soul and strength into it, and
stay to the bitter end.
That has been their record from the
beginning and there is no reason to
suppose it will be changed. If the vic
tory on the Sth of November is not
complete the struggle will be fiercer
and fiercer until the last vestige of Rad
feT4 r4eal
our forever The people are aroused as
they have never been before since the
days of reconstruction, and a settled de-
termination to rescue their governments,
State and local, from the hands that
now disgrace and pollute them is in
their minds and hearts They are in
dead earnest, with one fixed purpose as
inexorable as death, and the gang of
Iunprincipled scoundrels who have traded
and trafficked. and barterer away the
Honor and good name of the State, may
well tremble in the presence of the hurri-
cane which has begun to blow Be
fore the might of its rushing wings
they and the foul work in which they
have long been engaged will disappear
like thistle down. and the old State.
cleansed and purified. will again lift her
E UUNPu HGdu, anu IcSulut AitA AASAtlluA
place in the sisterhood of common
wealths.. God knows she has been hu-
Initiated and degraded long enough, and
her true sons-many of whom, hon
estly believing that they were promoting
her welfare, helped to bring shame upon
her-have put on their armor, and the
thunder of their tread, as shoulder to
shoulder they come marching to her res
cue, fills all the air. and thrills the pa
triot's heart.
Tt would be an insult to your man
hood to ask if you are marching with
them. The men of the Cape Fear,
whatever else may be said of them, have
never been recreant to duty when they
heard from their good old mother a cry
for help. and they will not be now-now
when her honor il in the dust, and when
the appealing voices of her dead sons,
whose spirits walk disturbed among us,
seem to be borne to our ears on every
breeze. No, we are not degenrates. We
hear, and we are ready.
My heart instinctively leaps out to
the man who, in this crisis, talks and
Iacts, not like the wretch who fears he
will lose n dollar, or n customer, Tor
a vote, if he be candidate), but like an
lAnglo-Saxon who, stirred by. the proud
consciousness that he belongs to Il race
that dominates half the earth, and is des-
tined to dominate the whole of it, feels
that he is the sovereign and the master
on the soil which he treads, and dares
all who question it to put it to the test.
Away with all temperizing expedients,
or weakened concessions. We are the
sons of the men who won the first victory
of the American Revolution at MOore's
Greek Bridge, who stormed at midnight
the rocky face of Stony Point, who stain
ed with bleeding feet the SHOWS of Valley
Forge, who swept the field at German
town, and only left the service Of their
Icountry when it's Independent sovereignty
was secured.
We are the brothers of the men who
wrote with their swords from Bethel
to Bentonsville, the most heroic chap
ter in American annals; and we our
selves are men who, inspired by these
memories, intend to preserve, G< the cost
of our lives, if necessary, the heritage
THAT is ours. We maintained it against
Overwhelming armies of men of our own