The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-06
/" THE MOTLEY CIRCUS"
I" A LOT OF DIRTY SELF CONSTITUTED
LEADERS, IN CONTROL.
A Montgomery Republican Tells Pritchard and
his Vampires that they will Reap a
WhirIwnd on 9Th Of November.
Mt. Gilead, n. c., Oct, %. 1898.
IL Il IL,


Hon. j. c. Pritchard
Marshal, \. c.:
Dear Sir: Allow me to trouble you
with a few thoughts about the present
political situation | have for thirty
years thought that bicnnially ii was the
duty of the rank and file of a political
party, and especially the Republican
party, to meet, discuss the situation, re-
solve what was best for the country, and
name some of their fellow partisans to
carry out their resolutions, but in the
present campaign this long cherished
thought of mine has met with Il radical
reversal, which fills me with disgust and
creates in me IL profound contempt for
the chief actors in the motley circus.
You doubtless remember, that the first
week of the existancc Of the present Leg
islature. when all of us had worked day
and night for whole week to get
enough Populist members to stand to
their bargains to elect you to the United
States Senate, that, you in answer to the
sentiments of disgust at Populist dupli-
city, which rang in your ears from MS
all, vowed that in the future you would
''burst fusion" and yet the Republicans
of this, the Seventh Congressional dis
trict, as well as other Congressional dis
trlcts in the State, are called upon to
support advocates of the free coinage of
silver at 16 to 1, which you, with the
rest of us say would be Il calamity to
our country, in order that John q.
HOlton, candidate for solicitor in this
district, and II few candidates for SUI
perior court judges, might secure few
Populist votes-an attempt to sell out
Republican voters and what you could
not sell, give away.
This course was resolved on by you
and other leaders of State reputation as
early as last March. and your dictatiOn
Of an unprincipled policy has gone out
to local leaders who have packed Coun-
ty Conventions, and thus constituted
themselves leaders, who have, and are
still making all manner of deals with
Populists, putting negroes in office and
promising them more and better offices
if they will support them, and because
you have found that intelligent self-re-
speeding Republicans will not howl
every time your diabolical and dirty
henchmen hotter, you have asked the
President for Federal troops to intimi-
date, if possible, as many Democrats
as you will lose of eelf-respecting Repub-
Leans, who do not want to see their
country ruled by negroes any more than
they want to be dictated to by lot of
dirty self-constituted leaders.
Now Senator: If on the Sth day of
November next, you and your vampires
reap Il whirlwind, remember that you
sowed the wind, and that you can charge
it all to men like myself, who have
voted the Republican ticket all their
lives, and in national politics will con-
tinue to do so, if the Republican party
shall have principle enough to nominate
decent men for Congress and for Presi-
dent.
As for myself, for the past thirty
years my fights for the Republican party
have been many and very bitter, as the
Democratic party of this Montgomery
county, well know. but SO far as county
and State matters go. the Republican
party will have to do without me.
1t is very strange that a man of your
intelligence would think that Republi-
cans were all menials or fools, but, then,
men as great as you, have been carried
away by infatuation for negroes before,
and all of them have sooner or later
paid the penalty.
Hoping that this campaign will teach
you to listen to- your friends instead of
your enemies, | am,
Very respectfully,
WALTER NJ. BYRD.