The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-01
Great Educational Speech,
elizabeth CITY Economist

Last Tuesday was q bi gday for Pas
quotank county His Excellency, Chas
=. Aycock was in our midst He came
| for the purpose of making an educational
ADDRESS. This fact had been duly pub
| llshed and long before the appointed
hour people began to arrive from the
country. They, together with the town
| folks, wendell their way to the Academy
OF Music, and when the town clock doled
out the hour of two the vast auditorium
was thronged to its utmost capacity
COL r. B. Creecy, DR.. Palemon John
Hon. j. B Leigh, Prof. S. l.. Sheep, J. c.
Commander. j. E. Davenport, N. r. Par
j ker and W. M Hinton occupied seats on
the rostrum.
Prof. Sheep in few fitting words in
troduced the Governor. Then followed a
speech of marvellous power. 1t was real
ly a great speech great in it's concep-
ton and great in it's delivery; great in
it's depth, it's beauty, its moving power
its thrilling eloquence, its broad and
statesman-like utterances.
His eulogy of the "Old North State
flushed the cheek with pride and called
forth rapturous applause. His vivid
and truthful portrayal Of her education
al condition bowed the head with Shame
and made the patriotic heart bleed. His
appeal to the people to keep inviolate
the sacred pledges recently made by the
bright-eyed boys and rosy checked girls
of our beloved States was cogent a1si
stirring. But the climacteric point il
this great speech was reached when
with dramatic art and impassioned elc>-
quence he depicted the black and damn
able sin of the possible wrenching, by
our eulpable negligence, the ballot from
the descendants of the chivalrous heroes
who followed Stonewall Jackson and
Robert e. Lee, and after dyeing the
CORY heights of Gettysburg with their
rich blood at last with broken hearts,
laid down their arms at Appomattox.
The enti,e audience was visiby and
deeply moved, and many doubtless ST.
lently swore that no such dark crime
should ever mar the hitherto beautiful
and stainless escutcheon of North Caro-
lima.
1.-The chief article of my faith,'' said
the Governor, lis this: My four years
in office shall he devoted to placing
every boy and girl of the Old North
State in school ] am for universal edu-
cation. All are ready to help the strong.
/ want to help the weak. Lift the whole
mass, but do not change its relative
constituency. u4 The Anglo-Saxon race,
with its thousands OF years of liberty
and civilization Will ever be in the lead
Do not rob the humblest of this race of
scholastic advantages for fear of help
ing the negro.e Bid the negro God speed
and at the same time put forward all the
marvellous powers that are locked up in
the big brain and throbbing heart of our
own superior race
He drew in graphic colors the unifying
and peace making power of the public
school He asserted that when the son
of the millionaire and the son of the day
laborer sat together in the same school.
hung over the same books and learned
the same lessons OF history, both sacred
and profane, the gigantic struggle be
tween labor and capital would cease.
Then organized capital would release it's
death grip upon the throat of it's down
trodden labor; then the glittering blade
held in the hand of organized labor to
deal death blow to capital would be
shivered to atoms.
brilliant effort of our chief executive. 1t
is bound to be productive of much good.
May it become one of the prime factors
in establishing well organized, fully
equipped graded school in our town.
God bless Charles B. Aycock as he
pleads for the noble North Carolina boys
and girls of humble homes and limited
means,