The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-31

of all Those Crimes and is Surprised
That Any Man who Witnessed Their
Insults Can Attempt to Palliate
the Offenses of the Cafpet-Baggers.
Fayetteville Index.)
My attention has been called to a
controversy which has sprung up in
Fayetteville about the disgraceful
work Of Republican leaders during the
Reconstruction orgies, and being
surprised that any man who witnessed
the insulting work Of those leaders
can attempt to palliate their offenses,
I feel constrained to give you some
experiences of mine.
Two years after the close of the
war, ~Thaddeus Stevens, Zach Chandler,
B. F. Wade and other bitter enemies
of the South, having failed to secure
the adoption of their 14th amendment
by the necessary three-fourths of the
States-the Southern States refusing,
Of course. to assist in their own de-
gradation-adopted the Reconstruc-
ton measures" by which these States
were destroyed as States, and the man
m OF each was entrusted to car
pet-baggers' and colored men; and
this was done, too. at a time when no
colored man could vote in the States
NPA ny S1ld4lNlcI III
Wade. These voters-the carpet
baggers' not being citizens-were Or
dered by Gen. Ed. r. S. Candy, whose
"h~eadquarters' here at Charleston,
S. c., to hold an election on the 10th
and goth days of November, 1857, for
delegates to "a so-called "Constitu-
tional Convention" as if North Car
DINA had been without any Consti-
tuition since 1916.
My home at that time was in
Wayne county, and I was one of the
few white men who could vote. When
l went to register-North Carolina
had never before known such a thing
as a registration 1aw-the registrar
was a gentleman named Grant, who
was not a citizen of the State; and he
was the chosen representative of
Wayne county in the so-called Con
stitutional Convention
Every voter had to go to Colds
boro, and it is fortunate for you
younger men that you may never
have to witness what I did, and to
feel as indignant as I did.
When the hour for voting arrived, a
cOlOred man name O'Hara appeared
on a finely caparisoned war-horse,
bedecked himself with a military coat,
etc, and soon had all the colored
voters organized into a brigade. At
their head, and assuming the airs of
a c~onquering hero, he marched them
op, IiSII III Jill ~ liz WIIluOW ol
the court house, where Major Grant
received their tickets.
We, the white men, had to stand
aside until these new voters had all
deposited their tickets. How we felt
towards the perpetrators of this crime,
I shall not attempt to recall.
Next year, having moved to Clin-
ton, I witnessed the work of the new
citizens in the election Of that year.
On the evening before the election a
squad of colored troops, with a White
officer, came from Fayetteville and
cainped near Dollar Branch about a
half mile from the court house. Next
morning, before the election, the white
officer and a cOlored orderly galloped
into the town to see the election Of
ficers; but their colored troops were
never brought up to supervise the cleo
ton. 1t was reported that word was
sent them that it would be safer for
them to go back to Fayetteville; and
that they swore as "Our army did in
Flanders" S
These are some of my recollections
of DEMONSTRATION" days; and when
I reflect on the fact that my father.
with thousands of other hereditary
citizens, was not permitted to vote;
that the so-called legislatures created
in the Southern States were counted
as ratifiers of the 18th Amendment:
that the Amendment enabled the
"carpet-bagger' and other objection
able judges in the South to NEEDLE
with questions which up to that time
no Federal official had claimed the
light to settle; and hat the Little
fields and other adventurers saddled
on our shoulders the famous special
tax bonds which the courts have
found a method of enforcing the pay
ment of-in the face Of the 18th
days with the least degree Of respect
Tor the authors of all those crimes.