The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-20
Tke Wesserwer.
THE DEBATE BETWEEN AYCOCK
AND THOMPSON


we have never seen that we recall.
We recognize his ability, wit, dash,
brightness. He is self-contained and
bold. and has magnetism that impress
ses and holds. So w judge from many
reports of his speech making, but we
have never sat under his witchery or
beheld him in his adroit manipulation
of figures and cumming in debate. The
reporter for the Charlotte Observer, is
familiar with his style and with that
of Marion Butler. The latter we never
heard, for we have not had respect
enough for the fellow since we learned
of his character to be n Of a politi-
cal audience to listen to his windy
rhetoric, platitudinous reflections and
malarial politics. OF the two populist
leaders the reporter, we take to be Mr..
Banks, writes:
CDR. Thompson is an infinitely more
attractive and eloquent speaker h
Butler, having all the latter'S virulent
sarcasm with lone Of his rambling
t~ediousness. He is impetuous and has
the gift of humOr, which Butler lacks.
He can tell a story with fine effect.
Indeed, he is nothing like the "Dry-as-
dust" Butler is on the stump. 1t is
easy to believe the current report that
he is the Honpareil of the %populist
party's campaigners."
Mr.. Banks heard the debate between
our good friend Mr.. Charles B.. Aycock,
whose superior abilities we were
among the very first to recognize, and
whose character is high, and the secre-
tary of state, DR.. Thompson, who
stands high with the men who still
favor a sub-treasury scheme-to Dor
row money of the United States gov
eminent for the farmers at 2 per cent.
giving ~perishable products as collateral
and the United States government
owning all the railroads, telegraphs,
telephones and steamboat lines in the
country thus charging federal powers
and making the people, the toilers and
bLCdu- lLlllCIO, I'LL ulOlC ucpCHutAL,
still more slaves. From several ac-
counts we have seen the gifted ThOmp-
son found his First Manassas at Con-
cord, and if he meets Aycock again
he will receive a still more disastrous
defeat at Second Manassas. In that
battle cOnfederates could walk a mile
by stepping on the bodies of dead and
wounded Yankees, if they had so pur-
posed. In another engagement, with
the able Aycock there will hardly be
nough left of the battle-scarred
thompson to be gathered for interment.
! the first fight he was riddled and
t ken from the field wounded, bleeding,
: ffering, almost demented. Another
.ld severer experience will end him,
and instead of the picture in the News
and Observer representing him as a
hyena %ravaging the grave OF the gal
liant and honOred Coke, the gifted car
toonist may present Thompson's grave
and on it "Hic %jacet."
We understood we'll of Aycock's
mental resources, and we felt sure that
gifted and dashing as Thompson is he
would obtain no victory at Concord.
In Mr.. Banks's we'll written, animated
report it is said:
THE pOpulist committee evidently
believed that Thompson was impreg-
nable with his charges of incOmpetency
on the part of his democratic prede-
cessors in the secretary of states office.
The doctor has evidently moved heaven
and earth in his efforts to trump up
some charges of ineficiency and of
gross negligence by former democratic
secretaries of state. He attacks Mr..
Cooke, living, and Mr.. Coke, dead.
These charges are T~hompson's 13-inch
shells, and he is expected by his com
mittee to blow up the democratic party
with them. He paints a lurid picture
of this alleged negligence in such a
way as to insinuate and suggest actual
fraud, even theft. He has published
these charges in The Progressive
Farmer and reiterated them in his re-
cent speech at Clinton
But it was with Thompson as with
other overwhelmingly confident speak
ers, he counted a triumph o soon
counted his chickens before they were
Matched. They bled a-borning. Sic
semper.
Aycock was fully fortified. Elk
Secretary Cooke had furnished all the
needed ammunition with which to blow
up his assailant, and the democrat used
it with great skill and tremendous
effect.
Mr.. F. B. Arendell, of the Raleigh
News and Observers staff, makes an
elaborate report, and it is interesting
reading. He says of the discussion:
1T was a stormy battle, a fierce con-
test, a great conflict, but it is over
now with Aycock the conquerOr.
49, -~-~1~ 49,