The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-08-02
RUSSELL,S EAR-MARKS
Too Well known TO be d d Unde
UewbOorne's Hat-A Letter signed
by j. W.. MewbOOrne To Chairman
simmons, RepIete with Vile ISLANDERS
Against Him and Insults to the White
People Of the state.

FeOpie Oh SN"sc
The following Letter, called an open
letter, was furnished by Rev. Baylus
Cade. private secretary to the govern
or, to Raleigh daily papers:
Raleigh, N. c., July %, 1898.
F. VI. Simmons, Esq, Chairman State
Democratic Executive Committee,
Raleigh, N. c.:
Sir-YOur various letters, written
from the democratic headquarters, and
signed by you as chairman Of the
democratic party, ask, or demand, a
large mass of figures and schedules,
all of which are usually found in the
printed reports Of the superintendent
of the states prison. When the lime
comes for me to make my report, ac-
cOrding to law, 1 will make it by the
direction of the law and not by the
direction Of the chairman Of the DEM
ocratic party in North Carolina. From
that. YOU or any other Individual, can
get the information which you pretend
to want.
If the prison clerk had the time to
make out the statement and gather up
the figures, | would be perfectly will
ing that he should do SO now, or at
any other time, at the eques of any
citizen Of the state, provided that cit
izen possessed the following qualifica-
tons:
First. He must be a man Of honor,
who makes the request in good faith
for the legitimate purpose of obtain
ing information, and not with the in
tentiOn of obtaining figures for distOr-
ton. misrepresentation and faslehOod.
Second. He must be a person, who
when he comes to ask for returns to
be made to him, will not be suspected
on account of his past conduct of hav-
ing the intention to falsify the returns,
50 as to make them the reverse of what
they truly are.
Third. / should prefer that the per-
son making the request, if he be a
politician, should be sincere in what
ne processes to be. For example, that
he should not be standing on a pOpu-
list platform when everybody knows
that he is a Clevelandite, and a gold
bug, and q mOnOpOliSt.
You are not the kind of a man to
ask an honest nan for bona fide re-
turns Of facts and figures. 1t is sim
ply wonderful that you Mould dare to
even ask again for anybody to- make
returns to you. In 1892, you, as chair
man of the democratic pOrty, got the
returns Of the votes of the freemen of
North Carolina. These returns of the
%pOpulist and republican votes you had
flung into the ditch and caused your
rObber returning boards to refuse to
count the votes that you did not like,
and to count only those that were cast
for you and your crowd. You must
have some sort of notion that you not
only have the right to question me,
but are still COmmander-in-Chief Of the
p~erjurers of the precincts and the rob
bers of the returning boards. You
seem to forget that the people Of North
Carolina rose in honest indignation in
1894 and abolished you and your ras-
caIIy returning boards, and gave to
you u final discharge from the ma
nipulatiOn of votes and voters.
But there is some information which
you call for hat / car give you with
out hiring an extra bOOk-keeper, and
/ shall proceed most cheerfully to do
so. You want to know about the plan
tatiOns operated by the penitentiary,
and the rent, or lease money, contract
ed to be paid by the state.
Well, there is a farm known as the
Halifax Farm. 1t was leased from
certain individuals, and is now costing
the state for rent under the democrat
is contract about 81 500 a year. A
large amount was expended upon it
in the way of clearing and improve
~ vi : Is " WV
tom of the Roanoke which cannot be
diked and on which crops cannot be
safely planted. It never has been
worth the rent, but it was Saddled upon
the state to be cleared and ditched and
for royal rents paid to the fortunate
lessons. After it had been improved,
cleared up and taken out of the wilder
ness and buildings put upon it by the
state, General Matthew w. Ransom,
of the county of Northampton, notified
the superintendent of the penitentiary
and the governor of the state, that the
democratic board had taken the lease
and paid out amounted thousands of
dollars in the way of improvements
and rents, and all his they had one
on property to which they had no title;
that the lease was void and worthless,
because there was a mortgage on the
property, and the mOtgagees did not
join in the lease, and the mortgage
had been foreclosed, and General Ran
som, or his son, had become the pur-
chaser of the farm at the mortgage
sale. And, after the state had improv-
ed and rescued it from the wilderness,
it turned out that it had belonged to
General E-asOm or his son. OF course
the state ought not to complain about
anything of this sort, because we
should submit to anything for the sake
of good government"
And for the same reason complaint
should not be made about the Arson
plantation. Your democratic board
q do not mean your returning board,
but the p~enitentiary board), made a
contract for the lease of about $500
acres of waste land, consisting of
rocks, gullies, and overflow bottoms,
some old turned-out fields and a on
siderable quantity of growing God 1t
stood right thick. 1t was easy to cut:
a man of your size and build, proper
ly dealt with by they law and duly
disciplined. could cut two or three
cords a day, but while we cut the wood
we cannot cut the railroads on the
freight; consequently, when we are
cutting wood, we are working for the
railroads and thereby making a, fusion
with you ana the other managers of
the democratic party and probably as
sisting to enlarge your campaign fund.
This contract provides that the stats
may buy this property for about, as
remember it, $25, 900, but the contract
mazda the state naC and il NON vel