The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-21
TAFT SPEAKS IN DRIVING STORM
 AT CHARLOTTE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE n

NAOA HIN ELI IT ROh NA01 -----~~------------------- ---->----------~-----@---- in North Carolina, the home of the Meek lenburg myth, which President Taft is to celebrate, I am sorry to say
 With twinkle in his eye. after being introduced by Governor Kitchin, the Pres ident told a story. at the expense of Ma jor Hemphll, which brought shout of laughter from the audience and was en- ioyed by none more than the editor him self
 We are here" said the President. "tp celebrate a declaration of independence, regardless of the fact that there are some unregenerate persons in South Carolina and elsewhere, that for various motives have cast doubt upon the claim"
 The President declared that the man who came to Charlotte and was not will ing to accept the Mecklenburg decara- ton in full reminded him of the Tipperary Irishman who was tried for murder after he had hit his opponent a fatal blow with a blackthorn. It developed at the trial that the victim had paper or very thin skull Consequently the defendant was convicted only of manslaughter. When sentence came to be passed the convicted man was asked if he had anything to say.
 No, your honor" he replied. according 10 MT. Taft. "but, your honor, l would like to ask wan quistion: What the divil was a man with a head like that doing in Tippersry?"
 Rights of Man.
 President Taft declared that the impor- tant part of the Meckenburg declara- tion as viewed from the standpoint of practical patriotism and practical states manship was not the general declaration s to the rights of man. but the praeti- cal provision for government which was to succeed that of Great Britain.
 The declaration, the President said, showed wisdom, self-reliance and will ingness to accept the responsibility of maintaining a government of law and or der.
 MT. Taft turned from discussion of revolutionary days to more modern times. He spoke of the war between the states and said
 You in the southland here, had the troubles, the suffering. the sad losses burned into your hearts with much more emphasis than we in the northland, be- cause here was the center of the war, and 1t is entirely natural that in that 40 years which have succeeded the war there should continue a bitterness of feeling that time, and long time, could only erase; but when we look back I think we must congratulate ourselves that the feeling has so largely disappeared, and that we are now more united country than ever since a decade before the war
 Lines disappearing.
 Tt is true that political divisions have continued in such a way as at some times to seem to perpetuate the lines which were made at the time of the war, but even those lines are rapidly disap- bearing, and 1t is the duty of all of us with respect to political partisanship to wipe out those lines as far we can, and to see, so far as we may, that In each state the tolerance of opinion shall con tinue until there shall be respectable parties on both sides of the line because it is essential to have a good opposition to have a good government Now, if there is anything that I can s1o in my administration to make that feeling of union more close, l shall do it.
 ''I am anxious. of course, speaking from a partisan standpoint and leaving my of fcial position for a moment, that the re- publican party of North Carolina should be strengthened, merely to have a good fight every election, and, of course, in- solar as I may legitimately do so. should be glad to build up the republican party Now l understand that some of my re- publican friends think that l have lost sight of the republican party in putting into office in North Carolina a gentle i man now upon the supreme bench of the state. lawyer of the highest emnence ] and learning and integrity, but a demo- crat.
 Promise to South. ''I promised, after I was President-elect, not before the election, to the south that l would do the best I could to wipe out the feeling that the central government at Washington was a government alien to the southland, and ] pointed out that the only way by which the executive could cure that feeling was, insofar as in him lay, to put into office men in whom the community at large, without regard to party, would have the highest confidence Now, I am trying to do that, and I am going to appoint republicans, and I am going to appoint democrats, striving in each case to get a man who will commend himself to the community in which he lives
 "It is suggested that it is an insult to the republicans of district to appoint democrat as judge because from that it is to be inferred that there is no re- publican worthy of the appointment, anu ] understand that there are some gentle men in the democratic party who are willing to make that inference as strong as possible. But l. venture to say that when the whole account is added up that spirit will have disappeared, and the dem ocrats who seek to utter it will find that II IS not popular method of attacking the republican administration after all
 Justification of Course.
 ''I plead to my republican friends as a vindcation and justification for my course, the course of as orthodox a re- publican as ever filled the executive chair. and man than whom there never was President did so much to maintain the standard of the federal judiciary as Ben jaO1ip Harrison ha IL li duty to put democrat on the supreme bench and tMn circuit courts Q aIaranaI