The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-27
THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER
ABOVE DISTRACTION OF
FUSIONISTS.


For three months up to last week
every Black-and-Tan orator in North
Carolina has busted himself telling
the voters that the constitutional
amendment would disfranchise those
Confederate soldiers who were not
able to pay their poll tax. They wept
quarts of tears over this brave old vet
ei-an who, after serving his country
faithfully in the stormy days of war,
was as they falsely claimed to
be dishonored ana disfranchis-
ed i'm the sunset of life because he was
poor in this worlds goods. Their pic
ture of this contemplated ungrateful
treatment of the best soldiers known
in the annals of history was enough
to move the stoniest heart. When it
was first printed it threw consterna-
ton into the ranks of those younger
Democrats who did not stop to think
but it didn't deceive any Confederate
soldier anywhere. The Fusionist ora
tors and the young Democrats had for
gotten that the war closed thirty-five
years ago and the youngest Confeder-
ate soldier has reached the age when
no poll tax is required. When the
Fusion orators began to beg the old
Confederate soldier for his vote, the
old man replied:
do you take me for fool? | do
not have to pay poll tax. My State
eXempts all men over fifty. 1t also
gives me a small pension and takes
care of my comrades who have no
homes in the Soldiers Home.4 The
Democratic party has always recog-
niZed the Confederate soldier in North
Carolina and | have voted the ticket
since | cast my first vote for Zeb
Vance in the army. / am too old to
change. You can't teach an old dog
new tricks Besides, if l wanted to
change my party l would never join
one that nominateS men who voted
against the bill to erect monument
to Confederate soldiers as has been
done by the Fusionists in Durham
county. He is the same man, too,
that voted to adjourn the Legislature
in honor of Fred Douglas, and refused
to honor the memory of Robert e.
Lee on his birthday. / will not vote
for any party that showed such con-
tempt for my old commander"
In other words and in other ways
the stern and patriotic Confederate
soldier in all parts of the State let the
Fusionists understand very plainly
that they would not bite their hook.
Recently they have quit fishing for
Confederate soldiers, finding that these
old patriots are wise in their genera
ton and as true to good government
now as they were to the call of their
State in 1861 and 1865.
Having been utterly repudiated by
the Confederate soldiers, who are glad
of chance to put an end to strife and
race discord, the Black-and-Tan army.
in their rage at their failure to de-
ceive them and get their votes, has
turned it's batteries upon them and is
branding them as TRAITORS and per-
jurers." Almost simultaneously in
several parts of the State comes the
base SANDER of these true men.
In Yadkin county, Mr.. Pink, the Re-
publican candidate for the State Senate.
made speech a few days ago in Joint
debate with Mr.. Chas. II. Armfield, Dem
ocratic candidate for the Senate, in which
he insulted every Confederate soldier in
the State
Mr. Armfeld, speaking about the lie
of disfranchisement which the Re-
publieans are repeating, turned the tables
on the Republicans by denouncing that
party because in 1868 it had disfran-
chised twenty thousand of the best white
men of North Carolina. In his reply,
Pink justified the Acknowledgement of
Vance and the thousands of other brave
Confederate soldiers by saying that these
men had taken an oath to support the
Constitution of the United States and
that they had violated their oaths, and
ought to have been DISTINGUISHED Think
of it, men who followed Lee and Jack
son.
The worst feature of the infamous
business was that the sentiment ex-
pressed by Mr.. Pinnix was VOCIFER-
OUSLY APPLAUDED BY THE REPUB-
LICANS PRESENT.
The position of the Republican party