The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-02
vANCE's WARNING AND PROPHECY.


Vance. broken with the cares of 4 life
spent in the service of his people, adj
dressed to them from bed of illness a
letter that was full of fatherly advice
and almost prophetic in its revelations of
what has since occurred.
Referring to q declaration of Pop
Mist otIice-seeker who said he preferred
negro rule to that which then prevailed
Vance said:
Il am forced to believe that if this
be true. there are very few other white
men in North Carolina who are outside
of the penitentiary, and who ought to
be outside. who entertain sentiments so
foul and brutal. Our peaple know that
under Democratic rule they have had
good laws, low taxes, economy and pur-
ity in the administration of their affairs,
and hope and believe that they will not
risk its overthrow.
They did subsequently risk its over
throw, and what that overthrow
brought upon the State it is better that
Vance should not have been compelled
to see. Speaking of the Alliance, he said:
Never was there a political movement
of our people founded upon better
grounds or more reasonable complaint.
But that which / feared and against
which Warned them soon came to pass.
Men who had little interest i'll asrlcul-
ture. and much interest i'll their own
fortunes aspired to be its leaders. OFTEN
men who had failed to obtain office from
either of the old parties concluded to
farm the farmers and raise personal
crops of honor and profit out of them. "
Never was there a cleaner and more
scathing characterization of the men who
are trying to force the farmers of the
populist party to vote for gold bugs and
negroes in 1898.
The venerable Senator added:
u can but believe the good judgment
of our farmers will enable them to see
where these leaders are taking them,
and that their native honesty will inn
pei them to draw back in time to save
their country.
Many good men then thought the old
Tribune was wrong. To-day they know
he was right, and can not fail to see
"where their leaders are taking them,
and where they hope to keep them.
This last appeal of Vance closed with
these words:
1T seems to ME fellow citizens, that
the path of duty was never more PLAIN
or the necessity of walking in it more
imperative than it is at this mo-
ment. Let me beg your earnest con-
sideration Of the situation before you vote
in November, and before YOU cut loose
from the old constitutional Democratic
party. which in times of our extreme per-
il has so often brought us forth out Of
bondage, and abandon its shining ban
ners to follow reckless and incompetent
men into the wilderness of their unreal
schemes. Think well of the possible re-
suit of your action; how easy it is to
destroy. how hard to rebuild. l recently
cut down in my mountain home, in about
five hours, n tree that had taken five
hundred years to grow.
The Democratic party is strong and
able and willing to help you; its arm is
not shortened that it can not save you;
to cherish and uphold it is the dictate of
patriotism. and common sense"
Can any honest man deny that the
dying statesman did not herein forecast
the evils that have come to pass and
point out what was then, as now, the
only remedy!
ITO follow reckless and incompetent
4
schemes of good men must
now realize that as the only result they
have accomplished by abandoning the
banner of the Democratic party.
The structure has been destroyed and
however hard it may be to rebuild it, it
must be done. None but the party Of
the white man can accomplish the task.
1t is therefore meet now, more than ever,
that there should be earnest considera-
ton before you vote in November"
SO confident is it of the justice Of its
claim to support. and so large is its con
fdence in the right-mindedness of the
white voters of the State, that the Dem
ocratic party entertains no fears as to
the course of that man who in this
crisis, stops TO consider.