The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-01-08
Ghe Messrnger.
AN INTELLIGENT VIEW By A
NORTH CAROLINIAN.

municatfon In the (MaSS-)
Republican ron the able pen OF Cap
tain Samuel A Ashe. OF Raleigh 1t is
In reply 20 an editorial in that ordinari-
ly moderate and fair paper in which the
south is not wisely or Justly dealt with.
The subject hat chiefly employs our
communication is The South and the
Democracy" 1t is a pity the best OF
northern editors can not truly appre-
bend conditions in the south, and do
ample Justice to their fellow white men
In this favored section Of the American
Union. Captain Ashe shows how
things are in politics up there" how
It is a hopeless republican section, and
how the southern democrats. who are
democrats and not shams. e them
selves in the political field. We copy
one paragraph that is pointed, plain,
correct. and the north would be wise
to read and understand. Captain Ashe
gives this needed and wholesome in
sight into the trend of things in this
part of the royal domains He says:
In some measure then it might be
said h northern mind Is infiamed
against the south. and northern politi-
cal action is Influenced by that consid-
Grafton. To state it broadly, the north
Is hostile to the south-at least politi-
-cally. OF that condition. gentlemen of
h south have taken note. We are IA
miliar with it. But 1t does not move
U.S.. 1t is the condition that has exist
ed since 1860. in a modified form. We
know Ii. We it. But it does
not SwAv lis Won will not find any
similar manifestation of hostility on
h part of the south toward the north.
We are content TO do work in our
day and generation without taking the
north into the account al all. Are we
doing it well? The ouietude of. the
IA, h happiness and contentment
of l people, their emergence from the
dis; SIS n poverty incident to the
W.. and the new mills. the banks, the
raj roads, the great cotton crops the
considerable sums spent on education
these make the answer to the question.
We know. n we are content. If
northern people diSapprove. We are not
moved by their disapprobation. We re-
cognize the condition of hostility, but
we do not concern ourselves with it.
We go on with our work"
We have often noticed that the anti
democratic newspapers in h north
are prone to quote from a number of
southern dailies that in no sense rep
resent democratic principles or policy
that class of papers that stabbed MI.
Bryan in 1896, and helped to put the
ambidextrous Mckinley in power, a
result SO lamentable and threatening to
tree institutions, and to the perpetufty
OF the republic. Captain Ashe notes
the reliance ofthe Republican upon h
Macon Telegraph. n Of papers We re-
fer to. The democratic papers that
stand by the national and state plat
forms of the democracy. and are ever
ready to defend democratic principles.
and to expose he Vaccinations n
wiIes of it's enemies whether republic
cans outright Or their allies in disguise,
are not relied upon in the north as true
opponents of the democracy. h too
in face of the fact that they represent
fully 80 per cent-perhaps 80 per cent
of the rank and file of the grand old
parry.
Captain Ashe very pertinently says
Cor the information of the Springfield
Republican and all other sympathisers,
of the way democratic platforms are
made, a thing that seems no to be I'M
derstood in the north. He writes, and
1t may serve to illumine the under
standings of editors in both of the
great sections as well as people who are
not of that craft:
For you know that the democratic
platforms are prepared by a
chosen by the delegates from each
state, respectively; and you also know
that never since the war has the name
OF any southerner been mentioned in
any democratic convention for either
president or vice-president (unfess l
err. If there have been democratic
leaders of the south, it has been because
of their talents and capacity displayed
In congress-. but the party Or nation
has never been asked to invest them
with leadership. The platform is the
work of the &c states-not of the Is
southern states. The south did not
turn away from Mr.. Cleveland; he
moed away from us. He plunged into
destruction. Did he serve b country
that led to the repeal Of the Wilson bill
and the adoption of the Mckinley tariff,
and that made possible the existing
evils in the Philippine islands? 1t was
the ebound from him hat made the
action in Chicago possible. But ven
AIT Chicago the south neither made the
platform nor asked the leadership. 1t
was h west. MIR. Bryan's great vote,
outside OF h northeast. in 1896. shows
o deeply the people were moved.
And the platform was responsive to the
western sentiment. However, all that
Is in the past. The burning question
then-the money question-is now less
prominent. The immense additions to
the gold supply have rendered less i'm
portant that we should have he double
or alternate standard. And there is no
other great question Oh which southern
democrats have differed with northern
democrats"
: OF course it w a impossible in trying
to inform northern writers to overlook
the chronic negro muddle. the solution
OF which is being solved almost every
day by some northern scholar or poll
xician or Journalist who does not have
the slightest conception of the facts and