The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-11-06
SIMMONS FIRST AND LAST
A R0USING ENDORSEMENT MEETING
HELD IN new EERN.
4 Mass Meeting OF His Followers
In New err and the Surrounding
Country-Resolutions Laudatory OF
their Candidate and Setting Forth
His Qualifications and Claims Upon
b People Adopted-Alle9ed Mis-
representations DepIored
Especial to the Messenger.)

VSpcclal TO n Messenger
New Bern, November THE largest
n most enthusiastic mass meeting
ever held in the old City Of Films as
sembled tonight at the county court
house to endorse Hon. F. NJ. Simmons
candidacy for the senate and TO set
the attitude Of the city and county
before the people of the state in its
true character.
The mass meeting was held, not to
arouse a sentiment for Simmons, but
simply to show the people of the state.
n have, perhaps. been misled by the
peculiar utterances of our home paper.
which, under the management of its
present owner, a never correctly rep
resented the people who support it,
that New Bernians. without exception,
are first, last and always. for Simmons.
Nor was the meeting intended to
show Mr.. Simmons that his once fellow
townsmen have not forgotten his
worth. Mr.. Simmons would be the
last person on earth to believe that his
home people has deserted him, and has
known all along that New Bern n
Craven county were his own.
During the day the following notice,
signed by a score or more prominent
citizens was circulated.
1T appearing from rumor current
through certain portions of North Car
DINA, as we'll as from the attitude OF
our home paper, that the city of New
Bern is ~unfavorable to the candidacy
of the Hon. F. NJ. Simmons in the
coming senatorial primaries, and it
also appearing that the apparent in
activity of Mr.. Simmons friends in
this city is a fact unjust to them, to
him and to the city;
Therefore, in the interest of the can
didacy of the Hon. F. NJ. Simmons we
call Upon all friends of Mr.. Simmons
to join in a mass meeting at the. court
house on Thursday night, November
1st, at s o'clock, at which time reSolu-
ions will be offered, addresses made
and. other steps taken to show North
Carolina that the former home of Mr..
Simmons is loyal to his candidacy"
The result was greater than any one
expected. The big court room was
packed and damned to it's utmost ca
pacity, and the grounds outside pre-
sented a panorama of humanity yell
ing itself hoarse for Simmons. +
There were no Interruptions and a
perfect unanimity of purpose moved
the assemblage as one man. A great
man. people from the nearby country
III PiNSSiiNF OiiN Ho ING
driven twenty miles in order to give
a cheer for Simmons.
The meeting was called to order by
Mr.. Romulus A. Mum. after which
Mr.. c. T. Watson. chairman of the
county executive committee, was call
ed to preside.
A committee en- resolutions was ap-
poir ted and in a short while reported
the following statement which was
unanimously adopted:
I'VE, the democrats of the city of
New Bern. in mass meeting assembled,
desiring to voice cur true sentiments to
the people of North Carolina in the Sc
lection of a senator in the coming pri-
maries and especially of using the oc-
casiOn as a mean of transmitting our
honest convictions to the democratic
voters of the state, as our only news
paper is the organ of the opposition in
the senatorial contest, and especially as
through this organ, while indirectly, a
false impression is created concerning
our choice for SENATOR: therefore be it
Resolved, That in the Honorable F.
M. Simmons we have ever found an
honest ~tOWnSman, a gentleman of I'M
improbable character. a lawyer, bril-
liant, able, and conscientious and a
statesman uneXcelled in ability, and
love for his native land.
w have known him as a youth en-
tering upon his chosen profession at a
time our community was, as it
w a been, the seat Of personal
ability and eloquence.
we have watched him mou all
obstacles and rise to the top of a great
profession; we have seen him enter a
congressional race in our district at a
time when the enemy were supposed
to be strong to conquer, and through
his magnificent ability to Jake his vic
torious seat on the democratic side Of
the congressional halls.
W. point with low and pride to his
great achievements for his state and
section during the term in which he SO
brilliantly maintained his growing
repute, and we remember in that bril-
liant congressional term his heroic
fight for the farmer of our state against
that trust whose powerful hand snatch
ed from him his second term, and with
unstinted gratitude and highest ad-
miration we remember his glori-
Gus, courageous fight against an allied
force in 1898, deemed by many too
hopeful for defeat and, recall his
matchIess victory with fervent thanks
giving. And as democrats and white
men we have enshrined him in u
hearts for the establishment of perpet-
ual supremacy of white manhood in
North Carolina n of the total polit-
ical humiliation of ignorance and vice.
We are thankful to him for erasing
Butlerism from the pages of u his
tory and for offering to the democratic
party that seat in the senate of the
United States which for so many years
had brought ignominy and shame upon
the fair name of our beloved state.
1T is with feeling Of deepest regret
that his senatorial aspirations should
have called forth ingratitude and
abuse from the party he loves so we'll
and for which he has striven so might
lily, and that in justice to him we are
called to denounce that abuse as un-
true, unjust and ungrateful. We espe-
cially deplore the call from the grave
Of our beloved and revered Vance, IN