The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-16
Ex-SECRETARY COOKE SNASHES
THOMPSON,S FIGURES.

right man of unqueStiOned truth and
fairness. But the Raleigh papers are
quite disposed to dispose of him in an
other way, for they denounce him in
very severe terms as a manufacturer OF
falsehoods, as a liar, as a s~landerer, as
a human hyena, as wicked, etc. The
News and Observer tells him plainly
that Captain Cooke might have done
we'll to have cow-hided him, and that
if Captain Octavius Coke were liv-
ing he would have assaulted him.
When we read the charges against
Captain Charles NJ. Cooke in the Ram
pant Farmer at Raleigh we said if
these things are true hen Cooke is
badly damaged, but they are false and
yet should be replied to. We have
eve estimated DR.. Thompson as a bad
man and vicious traducer of the lea
and the living. 1t is really a very Sc
riOus matter to attempt to rob a live
man of his character. 1t is more seri-
ous because more i~nexcusable and flag
itious to try to rob men of their good
lame who are beyond the reach of re-
ply and can not heal the evil
words spoken against their characters.
He is a very cruel hearted and bitter
enemy who will go into the grave to
pOur maledfctIon, or to go back for
thirty years to dig up the sins of some
r%epentant sou and try to hound him
to death. We are surprised at DR..
Thompson, but would not be surprised
III men of more damning nature were
to play the game he is represented as
playing. We are sorry for him that
he has undertaken such wicked, de-
PRAYED work.
We nave read ex-Secretary Cookies
calm, deliberate, carefully prepared
reply to the assaults of DR.. Thompson,
snd if we are capable of understanding
: mple bookkeeping, and a plain, di-
ct statement Of facts the reply is
: nple, thorough, complete. He meets
"'o "a CT SfCl poihC d11u Will
entire lucidity and satisfaction.
Of course we could not accept
ThOmpson's gross accusations before
Captain Cooke had spoken. Every
man is entitled to defence, and the old
Latin maxim-hear the other side
andi alteram partem-Was never
important. The charges were open,
bold, ingenious, plausible, damnatOry,
and they had to be met. The replica
ton is most successful, the exposure
of ignorance and duplicity on the part
of DR.. Thompson appears to be ~irresis-
tible. No man in Franklin county,
where Captain Cooke was born, has
lived and served the people with so
much of integrity, fidelity and useful
ness, enjoys a better name, and nc
man of character in that county would
question it in the least and "listen
with credulity to the whispers of
Observer does not exaggerate in say
ing:
Hon. Charles Mather Cooke is a
man who enjoys the confidence of the
people of all parties in North Carolina.
He is a Christian gentleman, a patriot,
and is as honest IS any man that lives.
From the day that he donned the con
federate uniform in his boyhood until
this hour he has borne an unsullied
o~a Tn LN-o ylxlir oO,,ntu ho -,
his friends by the number of the in
habitants of the county"
We have known him for thirty years
and we lave never heard a word to his
detriment until the campaign malign-
ers openedupon his track. He has spok-
en- and what he says deserves to be
credited by all honest and just men. He
proves as he goes. He shows that his
assailant made deliberate charges he
knew to be false, and that in SHINING
he sinned with open eyes.
The charges and the examination of
them are too volumnious for u col
umns. They would occupy all of the
reading space in the Messenger. 1t
would be very difficult to give such a
resume as would be Ineligible and
satisfactory. We repeat deliberately,
that the Thompson charges are clear
ly, s~quareiy, fully met. There is no
hedging or avoiding as we can see. He
literally proves that Thompson SLAM
dered and misrepresented when he had
the official books before him to fatty
contradict his statements and expose
his ignorance or malicious falsehOods.
Captain Cooke nearly at the beginning
of his elaborate reply and thorough
exposure of many reckless accusations,
baseless and false, says this: