The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-04

tation and viliiication they are at last
awake TO the fact they cannot fool all
the people all the time. They know
that as certain as the Sth of November
rolls around. the army fighting under the
banner of ''the White Man and the
White Metal" will win victory like
that which the same men and their faith
ers won in 1876.
| When this knowledge dawned upon
Senator Pritchard he FASTENED to Wash
| ington City. communicated the fact to
Mark Hanna and the President \ spe-
,, cial cabinet meeting followed, AMI it
was given out from official sources that
in his requisition, North Carolina would
be over-run with Federal troops. 1t
was believed that this publication would
| brighten the white people of North Car
Dina and they would sit still and per
nit the Republican managers &c vote
the horde of imported and illegal voters
tney nau Deell llefullS loI tlc puipoSe VI
overriding the will of the people of
North Carolina. If Pritchard had been
Il native of this State. and was in SYM
patty with the aims and ambitions that
pulsate in the hearts of North Carroll
mans. he would not nave thought to
control them by threats of bayone-s. In
East Tennessee, from which Senator
Pritchard comes. men may bend the knee
in duplication when threatened it'll
the intimidation of Federal troons liz
North Carolina the true man Of the
State would suffer death rather shan
be driven from discharging theii sacred
duty by a threat of illegal and revolu-
tionary coercion. They respect authority
and are obedient to it. They obey the
mandates of the courts. Federal, State
as any men in the world. but they know
their rights under the Constitution, and
they were fired with righteous wrath
when the attempt was maize = still
their efforts by the threat of Fedora III
reference. The time was when the Fed
eral government could supervise Congress
sional elections. That time has passed,
for the law authorizing it was repealed
in 1894. There has never been time
when the Federal government could con-
troll or have anything to do with local
elections. The humblest citizen of
North Carolina knows the limits of the
jurisdiction of the Federal government,
and they knew that to send troops to over
awe the people would be revolutionary,
and they resolved that no coercion from
determination to be free from Negro
Domination.
When even the dull and wicked mana
gers of the Fusion campaign became
aware of the fact that the plan TO ask
for Federal troops had been a boomer
ang. the next move was to ask Governor
Russell to declare certain counties in a
state of instruction. and to govern them
by the military 1t was desired that the
Governor initiate Governor Holden's ac-
ton as to Caswell and Alamance coun-
ties nearly thirty years ago. But, re-
Numbering that it was for such usurpa
ton that Holden was impeached, Cover
nor Russell declined because he knew
such a policy would arouse the white
people of the State to such indignation
as to sweep him and his party from
power for another thirty years. "There
is retribution in history" In lieu of
declaring Richmond. Halifax and other
most determined in state OF lnsurrec-
ton, Governor Russell wrote Il stump
speech to the people of the State, which
he called proclamation. slandering the
members of the White Mans party and
commanding them to commit no acts of
violence. As IA matter of fact when
that proclamation was issued, there had
not been heard pistol shot, or an act
of intimidation or violence in North Car
DINA. The only intimidation, or advice
to any body of men to lynch men for
voting their convictions, had come from
base negro leaders. And yet Governor
! Russell's proclamation sought to injure
the men of his own race by charging
that they entertained plans of fraud
, or intimidation when he ought to have
known that it requires the most siren
uous efforts on the part of the voters of
the White Mans party to prevent repe-
tition of the illegal voting and fraud that
elected Russell Governor in 1896. But
the Governor, more conversant with pub
lie sentiment in Eastern North Carolina,
did not make any call for troops. lie
knew that II call for Federal troops for
i D~AhA !