The gold leaf., 1904-04-14
STEDMAN FOR GOVERNOR.
Shall a Confederate Solder Ever Again
be Elected to Any High Office
in North Carolina?

Correspondence News and Observer.
To the Editor: Shall Confederate
soldier ever again be elected to any high
office in North Carolina? Or shall they
be relegated into ''inocuous desuetude?
Among the twelve Congressman from
this State there is not one ex-Confederate
soldier, nor is it probable that there will
ever again be a Confederate soldier from
this State in Congress. North Carolina
is the only Southern State that enjoys (0
this unenviable distinction, and yet she
boasts of having furnished more soldiers
to the Confederate army than any other
State
This year is the best opportunity of
electing an ex-Confederate soldier Cove
nor OF this State. Four years hence the
cry will be raised that no one is suffi-
GENTLY vigorous to make the campaign
and too old and feeble to discharge the
duties OF Governor. The Confederates
feel that this is their last chance to have
one of their number our Chief Magistrate,
and therefore they are terribly in earnest
and have selected as their candidate one
who is in every respect worthy of being
the Governor OF our grand old State
All true North Caroliniam proudly
boast that our soldiers were ''the first at
Bethel and the last at Appomattox, )"
and it is eminently appropriate that the
old soldier candidate should be. one who
was literally and truly one of the first at
Bethel and one of the last at Appomat-
tox. They present as their candida te
one who volunteered in April 1861, as q
private in Company H of the Bethel
regiment and was paroled at Appomat-
tox as Major of the 44th regiment, and
who served most gallantly and faithfully
all those four years from Bethel to Az
pomattOx. He is a true and magnificent
type and representative of those brave
men who offered up their lives in defense
of their State, and is also the type and
representative of the courtly Southern
gentleman of whom the old South was
so justly proud. And with that he is
splendid type and representative of
the progressive business men of the
new Southland" and is one who has at
all times and under all circumstances, in
peace and in war, been true to every
trust and faithful in all things.
Are the survivors OF the gallant Tar
Heel soldiers asking too much when
they ask for the nomination OF SO dis
tlngulshed cOmrade? 1t is all very
right and proper to erect marble mOnu-
ments to our Confederate dead, but WHY
not honor the living also? Why not
honor the dead and rejoice the hearts of
the living soldiers of North Carolina by
electing so worthy a representative as
the Governor of our State? And especial
ly when this is the last opportunity of
thus honoring either the dead or the
living
With all due respect to the other most
worthy aspirants for the nomination,
the old Confederates appeal to the young
Democrats of North Carolina to give
them this, their last chance, of honoring
one OF their number The old Confeder-
ate will not long be in the way of the
younger aspirants. The long and thin
gray line' is rapidly growing thinner,
and our ranks are sadly depleted and
not many years hence the Confederate
soldiers will be only memory, and all
those battle-scarred heroes will have
crossed DER the river" and be at rest
with their immortal leaders, Robert E.
Lee and StOnewall Jackson.
Let Us make unanimous the nomina-
tion OF the brave soldiers. that courtly
gentleman, that unswerving Democrat,
and that true North Carolinian, Charles
Manly Stedman.
H. A. LONDON.
Pittsboro, n. c., March 81, 1904.