The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-01
POLITICAL INTOLERANCE IN
NORTH CAROLINA,

[ 1t has been thought by some that the
right to think was obtained a year or
| SO ago, but it seems the brethren are
| fighting this battle over again.-Greens-
boro Telegram.
The trouble with the brethren who are
now sandering the State is not that they
&c Demanding right to think as they
please They wish a right to make every
| body else take their thoughts from them.
Loudly processing their own emancipa-
| ton, and proclaiming that they were
| slaves all their lives until they recently
saw the Hanna red-light, they now de-
mand that the majority, who have az
ways both thought and voted as they
pleased shall revise their opinions and
think like the minority thinks it thinks
Because the majority of North Caro-
linians, always free men, will not say
they have hitherto been slaves, these new
apostles of free thought keep up their
! TRADE against North Carolina and false
ly assert that free thought has not been
permitted in this State, about whose people
Bancroft truly said they were ''the freest
of the free" He adds 'They were i'm
bued with passion for liberty He also
tells US that with absolute freedom of
| conscience benevolent reason was the
simple rule of their conduct" and the
great historian goes on to say:
1
care there any who doubt mans ca
pacity for self-government? Let them
study the history of North Carolina. It's
: inhabitants were restless and turbulent in
their imperfect submission to govern
ment imposed on them from abroad. The
administration of the colony was firm, HUI
name and tranquil when they were left
to take care of themselves. Any govern
ment but one of their own institution was
oppressive"
There has been little change in North
Carolinians from that day to this. In
| 1868 an attempt was made to impose
upon them a government that was not
"of their own" They therefore regarded
it as Oppressive and they were crest
less and turbulent" until they succeeded
in destroying it. Then the administration
was firm, humane and tranquil
No longer is 1t attempted to impose the
trappings of government upon North
| Carolina. but of late years the attempt
/ has been made to impose upon it new
, tralized government, administered by a
party of graft and special privilege. By
specicus pleas for "toleration," earnest
entreaty that "the State shall get away
from provincialism," admonitions to men
ito quit voting for sentiment and to con-
| suit their pocket books certain element
| Carolina from their old political princi-
pies. A steady propaganda TO that end.
helped along by Federal offices, orators,
and newspapers, has been kept up. Little
| impression has been made because the peo-
pie of North Carolina cling to "the an
Gent landmarks which the fathers have
set" Near,y every speaker and writer
who has berated the State for "intoler-
ance'' and "denial of the right of free
speech" has been trying to make the
people swallow Republican doctrine,
straight" or "sugar-coated" and because
the people gagged at the nauseous dose and
refused to take it, these new political
physicians have turned in and abused
them because of their intolerance, 1t Is
the little cotere of More Holy -Thou's
baffed in trying to make the people
think as they think who are intolerant
and who are wild with rage because the
people insist upon thinking for them
selves. declining to be guided by the
apostles of strange doctrine.
| The men who talk most of political intol-
GRANGE in North Carolina are the intellect
I ual descendants of the Puritans who. hav-
ing left England to find a country where
they could worship God according to their
own conscience, drove Roger Williams
into the wilderness because he wished to
worship God according to his own CON
science. instead of by the consciences Of
the Puritan preachers. 1t has been said
of those preachers that "they fell first
upon their knees and then upon the
aborigines'' The new and small cult
that rail at North Carolina and defame
| it, because the people will not sneeze
| when they take snuff, are the men whose
! intolerance and denial of the right of free
speech, is most marked in this good old
State. They SANDER the State because
they are baffled in their desire to seducc
lit from its adherence to sound political
principles.
OF course there are intolerant men in
| North Carolina. There are such men
| everywhere. Majorities are not very soli-
citous about tending and watering the
plants Of their opponents who are in the
minority. But political liberation and
| froodo,,, Of action &c found IN NortL Car,