The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1906-05-10
Exit Senator Toms.
Communicated. ]

communicated.
The letter of Charles French Toms re-
signing his seat in the State Senate and
pledgIng his future support to the Repub-
lican party, shows more reasons why right
thinking people should be more inclined to
sympathise with him than to reproach him.
That he should display the courage of his
convictions, is surprising to one acquainted
with the stern and uncompromlsing Ilgor
of his habits of thought and action. In
one who is by nature and training a deep,
thorough and painstaking student of the
political and economic problems thai vex
our happiness, and who is aided in their
Just solution by an intellect of unparralell-
ed vigor and acumen, and by an unwaver-
ing decision of character, it is not remark
able that he should care little for the pub
lie estimate Of what he does. 81 long as he
knows that he has aligned himself on the
side of patriotism aud civic righteousness.
The sympathy of the public is invoked for
him because he has for 50 long dwelt In
darkness; for that he went through poliIi-
Cdl CdIupdlSu dAbOA CoWPdlShS ohO "O~SA
he had ears to hear, he heard not, and eyes
to see, and he saw not. The hunder OF
the campaigns of 1896 and 1900, the veri-
table ~avalanches of argument anu eloqu-
ence hurled from republican platforms
left him a true aud staunch democrat, un-
convinced and uuafraid. The fulmiuations
and announcements of the republicans In
1898 and 1904 of democratic incompetence
when he was q candidate for office TN the
democratic ticket, renewed him in his faith
and confirmed him in his loyalty to the
democracy. Yet the seed sewn 50 many
years ago has borne fruit at last. lie is, in
1906, convinced of the error of the Free
Silver propaganda of 1o96; and now that
Free Silver has long slept the sleep that
knows no waking, he is convinced that the
memory OF it is a menace to the safety OF
the republic; presumably, he is also oppos-
ed to the war of 1912. Full surely his c,n-
vIchons have been a long time a-ripening.
However little we are disposed TO en-
dorse his Judgement, We are all sentiment
ally inclIned to admire the heroic figure of
Ajax defying the tightening more than we
do the meekness of Moses. Humility may
be the means of inheritance in the life to
come, but it is courage that brings ap-
plaHse from the galleries. Thus, we have
no words adequate to express our admir-.
alton for Mr.. Toms courageous stand
when we and he look over his past, but,
with our passion for heroics, we stand
agast at has humility in confessing the err
ror of struggling, blinded, cropping demo-
cTacy, bleeding for "a better public-schOOl
system, lower taxes, and more Just cleo
tlon laws, and better equipped asylums, also
ri Gus other reforms" in stumbling and
falling iato his arms In the senatorial cleo
ton "a 1904. Nothing more is needed than
that fact to convict the democrats Of this
mountain district of colossal, objectionable
incompetency and stupidity. Search the
records of the Legislature of 1905 if you
WAIVER in your belief of the districts error
i'm confi0ing any of the reforms now advo-
Gated by Mr.. Toms, to the then Senator
Toms. The making of the larceny of GIN
seng a felony in rank next to capital often
SEES, is a monument to Senator Toms con-
tribution towards ''various other reforms
in the legislative session of 1905. Ginseng
is now safe from ricki lg and stealing, but
the senator's heroic silence aud i~naction
opened no new schools, purified no cleo
ton laws, but his present attitude does
eloquentlv suggest a more liberal hospi-
tally at the asylums. He conceives that
democracy is powerless to stop the Free
Silver agitation in 1896, and that the tariff
is a new thing borh since his election in
1904; but, thank God, GINSENG is sacred
from proclamation, and that, with that po-
tent herb made made holy and unapproach-
able, his work with the democratic party
is ended, and ali the rest of the work to-
wards purity and perfection lies with the
republican party, which has measured it
out so literally in the past, and which, be-
fore his miraculous conversion, he taught a
simple and %confiding public was the incar-
nation OF all evil. and which has not vet
fully recovered from the blows he dealt it
in his many democratic campaings. Maybe
he scourged it into righteousness, or may
be he expects from 1t but it would lake a
prophet, or a republican politician, to tell
that. 1t is enough to say that democracy
will profit no more from his wise c~ounsels
and yeoman's services, and must go totter-
ing to its fall without him. Democracy
has received its death blow. Let us weep
together.