The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1910-07-14
Union Repu biican. ]

rrar.c- and county conventions TO he
held and / want again TO beg my Re
publican brethren to act with unusual
care IN the selection of delegates and |
candidates this year. No more i'm
porlant legislature has been held in
years than will be held at our next ,
-e-ziOn. The new census has been
aiken and under the constitution the
state must be apportionedl again into
.-uatOrial and congressional districts. |
This can be done fairly and honestly
AZ -t should be and as every member
d.. ne legislature takes a solemn oath
le sill do. but no man can look at
The present senatorial or congression-
al districts and think for a moment
that this was done when the last ap-
poTtiOnment was made. AS an evil
dence Of the extent to which the
Democrats will go in their struggle
for office | will call the attention of
your readers TO the addition of Sur
ry County to this district which was
already much larger than the 8th
from which Surry was taken in order
~ ILAohC thdL di5Al III lhOIC ttT
Democratic. The eighth district was
represented by a Democrat in Con-
gress at that very time in the person
Of Mr.. Hackett, and had the policies
Of the Democratic party or Mr.. Hack
ett's course in Congress been in &C
cord with the wishes Of that district
he would have been returned without
this shameful gerrymander of his dis
trict and If he or his party's policies
did not commend themselves to the
people of his district he should not
have been forced upon them by such
a shameful performance as taking
Surry out of his district.
Nor does this thirst for Office cease
with the political affairs. It even goes
into the judicial district as was evil
denced in the changing Of this very
district by the change made in put
ting Wilkes out and Ashe in to make
the election of a Democrat solicitor
more certain. That this unfairness
may be more apparent to your read
ers | will give just few illustrations
of the last senatorial and congress
sional apportionment. Halifax Coun-
ty was made a senatorial district and
given one senator. Edgecombe was
also given one. These counties in\the
last election cast the following vote,
Halifax, 1851; Edgecombe, 1881.
These counties were regarded as
surely Democratic and this meant two
Democratic senators. Davie County,
Yadkin County, and Wilkes County
are as surely Republican as Halifax
and Edgecombe are Democratic. The
smallest one of these counties cast
nearly as many votes as either Hall
fax or EdgecOmbe and each from the
standpoint of votes cast was as much
entitled to a senator as both Halifax
and Edgecombe, while Wilkes cast
more votes than both Halifax and
Edgecombe and was thus more en-
titled to two senators than either
of these to one. Yet in order to de-
stroy the chances of the Republicans
eleCting a majority of the senators,
they made one senatorial district out
of Davie, Yadkin and Wilkes and
cast more than twice as many votes
as Halifax and Edgecombe put to-
gether and we're as much entitled
from the votes cast to four senator's
as Halifax and Edgecombe were to
TWO. For the same reason, Madison,
Mitchell and Yancey were made into
one senatorial district, so was
Stokes and Surry and in fact, this
was the treatment given to all the
western part of the State, both in the
senatorial and congressional appor-
tiOnments.
The story is just the same as I
nave said in the congressional appor-
l0nment. l will only take two for
comparison, the Fifth and Sixth Dis
trIcts. The Fifth is comprised large
~ OF western counties, the greatest
part of which is Republican, there
fore, in order to over come this dan
ger some eastern counties that were
largely Democratic must be added re-
CARELESS of the fact that the consti-
tuition required that these districts
be as nearly equal in population as
possible, and this really meant vot-
ing population as there was no such
idea of Acknowledgement in the minds
Of our fathers when the constitution
was written. as we now have, yet not
withstan6ing this constitutional pro-
vision, the Fifth District had nearly
double the voters as the Sixth when
1t was first laid out, and yet in order
to try and make the Eighth all the
more surely Democratic, Surry Coun-
ty was taken from the Eighth four
years ago and added to the Fifth,
which was already entirely too large
and out of all proportion to several
OF the other districts. This brings to
my mind verse from Burns:
I'll not say men are Williams all,
The real hardened wicked,
Who have no check but human law
Ar0 - e.