The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-12

VIGOROUSLY designed to pay off Chairman
| Hannas campaign obligations. If there
| be such a man, he is a Republican, and
| let him be rated as such, nor dishonored
! therefor But if, on these lines, seeking
! proselytes, this man comes among his
| Democratic constituents disguised as a
| Democrat, yet carrying across his arm
| covered basket of appointments to office
| to be doled out to persons considered to
| be of likely use, or Importance, people are
| justified in saying, this is no Democrat.
| This is a Republican. Respect his opin-
| ions for what they are, but let US have
no false pretenses!"
And this seems to us to be the case OF
Senator McLaurin. That he should pur-
sue his own bent is his undoubted right
and no reasonable person will gainsay 1t.
| But it does look a trifle hard that, in
reaching after moral supports, he should
| go out of his way to insult an old man like
Wade Hampton with the offer Of bride
so palpable that it needs not to be super
! scribed to be recognized by the blind
est. What else but indignant refusal did
he expect? us thy servant dog that he
| should do this thing?" Is nothing safe
| against the proclamation of the Money
Devil, who sits SNUG and smiling in the
ing that every man has his price; not
| whitening hairs, nor distinguished and
disinterested public service, nor honora-
bic poverty?
| The Courier Journal is neither a radi-
| cal, nor an extremist. We follow not
| Senator Tillman any more than we follow
Senator McLaurin. But we believe in
| honest politics, in fair sailing and square
| dealing, in a word, in all things open and
above board. Nay, we believe in moral
obligations in public no less than in pri-
| vate life. We cannot expect newspa-
| per conducted as our Philadelphia con-
| temporary is conducted and environed as
! it is environed, to comprehend the sensi-
| bilities which prompt man like Wade
| Hampton The Press is not alone among
| Republican organs in being q notable .eX-
! ample of imperfect sympathy 1t is case
| hardened to any other than party influ-
| enees. 1t is ironelad against external
1 pressure that does not emanate from
| Washington and Harrisburg But, still
| in Pennsylvania sthey pretend to have
some standards of honesty and even in
! Philadelphia the most veteran rogues
| keep an eye both upon the, demands of
! responsibility and the DOORS ofrthe peni-
! tentiary, so that the Press may be cred
| tied with certain perspective, and, ad-
dressing ourselves to this, let us ask
| what it would have had Gen. Hampton
| do?
He is a very old man. Little suffices
| him. The worst of it is over What mat
| ter to him the difference between his
| shabby old suit and a smart frock coat,
| purchased with equivocal, We will not
| say with dirty, money? How would he look
| in a shiny shirt-front and new, slick silk
| hat, got as the price of helping, or of
seeming to help, a trading politician out
| of a hole? Imagine this spotless and ven
| cradle man, the weight of two wars upon
| his grand old shoulders, a great and
| famous career waiting upon his lettering
! footsteps to find an honorable grave and
| an untarnished monument, ladling out
| letters to rag-tag and bob-t for pit
/ tanee allowed him by persons not fit to
| tie his shoe strings. Is it possible that
| even a Philadelphia, accustomed to swal-
! low the knives and forks of political SER
| vitude used to partisan monstrosities,
! with characteristic lack of the gracious
| ness which sometimes abides in the bos-
| oms of the least emotional--wh some
times for a moment illumines the warped
nature of the most intolerant-cannot see
that the attitude of Senator McLaurin
| has nothing in common with enlightened
| politics, the course of Gen. Wade Hamp-
! ton nothing to do with what it calls
Southern prejudice" and that from first
to last, his screed is an unpatriotic and
defamatory assault upon millions of his
/ countrymen?
We end wherezaWe began. How could
such a newspaper VS. the Press be eX-
| pected to take any view OF any aHa1r OF
life except a groveling1 party view, eX-
cept neither, money grabbing view, ex-
cept a malign, sectional, unpatriotic
view? It springs from the school OF which
Thaddeus Stevens was the oracle. 1t has
devoted itself to the propagation of the
ideas of that school. 1t would II 1t could
e-establish it's malign teaching and pro-
scriptive spirit. 1t has learned nothing
forgotten nothing these six and thirty
years Neither the honor OF man, nor the
| virtue of woman. seems to have any place
in it's moral repository; it is color blind
to everything upholstered by the party
label; and it could no more understand a
man like Wade Hampton than Hotten-
tot could understand the work of Shakes
peare. an Indian savage the words of
Holy Writ. It is related that some one
asked Pauline Bonaparte, who had sat
naked as a model for Canovas famous
statue, whether during the sitting she
did not feel uncomfortable, and that she
promptly answered. mot the least in the
, world. I had plenty to eat and drink
and the room was perfectly warmed.
of them, do great injustice 10 these TWO
/ kKFrpE