The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-26


and have been all my life and always will
be. If there is any sin that l am afraid
of it is the freeman's hate of Grover
Cleveland and ALL OTHER GOLD
BUGS, Wall Street thrown in. If the
Good Lord will forgive me for that, if
it be sin, then l am right as a Chris
tian.
'If any of my friends hear of my ad-
vocating the gold standard / want them
to send me to the asylum before l do
any other crime, for there is nothing In
my judgement that would be a greater
crime than to advocate the gold stand
ard
In 1894 he 'hated Grover Cleveland
with the freemans hate because Cleve-
land opposed free coinage at 16 to 1. In
1902 he goes about the State slandering
Cleveland and falsely charging upon him
the responsibility for the 1898 panic.
port Pritchard with that record? Not
without public qualification and abase'
ment 1t was with such public declara-
tions that Pritchard was elected to the
Senate. After his election-in 1S95-he
said in the Senate: 81 am a friend to
silver. and believe it should be restored
to its dignity as a precious metal, and
he signed with Teller and others a paper
declaring that 1.-The unlimited coinage
of silver at 16 to / by the independent
action of the United States is the only
method possible of securing the people
of the United States from the impending
danger of the difference in exchange be-
tween gold standard countries
When did Senator Pritchard quit being
"a free silver man, 16 to l. from the
head, so help me God" quit hating Gro
yer Cleveland and all other gold-bugs,
Wall Street thrown in go to counting
the disaster of gold monometalism, be
guilty of the "crime" of advocating the
gold standard" which he said would be
evidence that his friends should send him
to the insane asylum? And when
did he make a public confession
OF his miraculous conversion, and
the scales fell from his eyes? When
did he discover that he was wrong,
that the gold standard was right, and
that free coinage would never bring pros
perity? His conversion was as sudden
as that of st. Paul on the road to
Damascus, if we accept his own brief ac-
count of it. Here are his words, spoken
in the early part of the campaign of
1896:
II went into the Republican National
Convention, and after carefully studying
the situation l became convinced that
free silver will not give the country pros
perity."
That was in the early part of the cam
paign. After the election. when he found
that he needed nineteen Populist votes
to secure reelection to the Senate he
took the back track, and on the tenth
day of December, 1896, wrote a letter to
Col. Harry Skinner, in which he made this
pledge:
II will vote for free silver by inter-
national agreement or independent ac
ton at the ratio of 16 to 1, and will take
pleasure in voting to amend the national
banking act so as to permit farmers 10
borrow money upon land and staple
crops. Any statement that | have been
or am, now a single gold standard man
is without foundation"
With that record of processing loyalty
to silver to get Populists votes, and de-
cIaring himself against it when he
thought he did not need their votes, and
then returning to pledge himself to 1e
to / and a Sub Treasury to lend money
to farmers, no advocate of the gold stand
ard who puts his devotion to Sound mon
ey' above party will support Iritchard
Indeed the Senator cannot even appeal to
them without insulting their sincerity.
And SO he makes no appeal either to
the advocates of free coinage or the gold
standard He 'dares'nt"
For the like reason he cannot appeal
for support upon any state issue. In
1898 he defended the appointment of q
negro postmasters and nearly LOCO other
negro officials by his party, sat by approx
ing Congressman Whites declaration
"More negroes are being made to or
der to hold Office had no word of de-
nunciation of the infamous misgovcrn-
ment he had put upon North Carolina He
cannot appeal to that record, particularly
when he promised in his Smithfield speech
to turn out all the negroes now in of
fee. thereby confessing that his partys
course deserved the castigation given it
in 1898. And so he can make no appeal
upon the record of his party in North
Carolina.
In 1900 he went all over the State de-
nouncing the Constitutional Amendment
and exerting every effort in his power to
compass it's defeat His real opposition TO
it was based upon the knowledge that
with the elimination of the negro, he saw
his own defeat and retirement from po-