Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1898-09-29
AYCOCK AND THOMPSON.

The ARGUS man has heard many
great speeches from the Stump in
North Carolina: Vance and Fowle
and Jarvis and Simmons and Ran
som and Glenn and others, too
numerous to chronicle, but the great
est speech we have ever heard fall
from the lips of man, verify the
greatest speech ever delivered in
any campaign anywhere, was that
which fell from the impassioned lips
of the intrepid Aycock at Hood
Swamp Thursday, where he met the
adroit and cunning DR.. Cy Thomp-
son, the Populist champion of fusion
with Republicans ION mutually
agreeable conditions" and fayed
him to finish.
Those who heard Aycock and
Thompson in their recent joint de
bate at Concord Were-eyen with the
Populists who heard them there
thrown in-almost unanimous in
their verdict that Aycock had so
thoroughly annihilsted Thompson
that it was greatly doubted if the
latter would be on hand for the Joint
debate Thursday; and if the publ
cation had not been made prior to
the speaking at Concord, it is more
than probable that there would have
been no ':joint speaking" at Hood
Swamp Thursday. But the publica-
ton having already been made the
life of Populism in Wayne county
depended on it's fulfillment, and 50
word was sent out" all over the cour-
ty, and adjoining counties Of Greene,
Lemon, Wilson, and even Johnston,
Sampson and Duplin, for Populists $
to rally to their banner-bearer and
leader into the Republican ranks
''on mutually agreeable conditions, )"
the great Cy Thompson: and yet
with all their efforts to rally their
ranks Fox Person and old man
Caldwell found on the field of action
Thursday when the tocin sounded
for the fray only about fifty Popu-
lists and thirty negroes and some
dozen white Republicans-ofice-
holders or office seekers: the balance
of the great crowd gathered there
were Democrats. And when the
speaking was over there were less
Populists and more Demo Gratis than
at the beginning, for quite number
of Populists were convinced of their
error and converted to their first love
by the unanswerable argument and
sublime eloquence of Aycock and his
fervent appeals to white men, to their
conscience and their Judgment, to
return to the Democratic party, the
81 h. 1a 4ho ri ali,
is the people. He showed SO con-
clusively the folly of white men ar
raging themselves against one an
other in North Carolina when they
have a common enemy to fight, when
they have such odious conditions
existing throughout our State to-day,
with negroes reveling in official pow
er as direct consequence of fusion,
with negro insolence on the increase,
and extravaganza in Office rampant,
that every white man present real
lied his duty fully and every honest
one determined then and there to do
it at the ballot box in November.
When DIR. Thompson took the
stand to reply to Mr. Aycock his
countenance plainly showed his sick
ness of heart and hopeIessness of re-
suits, and he slowly and keenly
scanned the upturned faces of the
great crowd, vainly seeking for some
glimpse of encouragement to nerve
him for the fray, but he foundit not.
Even the most stole of the Populists
were depressed and could not con
cea1 their discontinue. The few
negroes in attendance, and who had
kept well in the background while
Mr.. Aycock spoke, had now crowded
to the very rim of the rostrum ano
stood glowering at this Populist
Moses who had led them out OF tht
wilderness of political ostracism into
fat Offices all over the State and witt
the promise of yet more, and in hi
slow survey, as his vision rested OF
these, his political confreres and off
cial associates s'on mutually agree
able conditions his soul seemed tt