The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1910-10-27
COMMENT.
CRAIG ON BUTLER.

publican party in North Carolina
and there are many people who,
strange as it may seem, are still
deceived by him. He is worthy
of nothing save the profound
contempt of decent men. Read
how Locke Craig laid bare this
mans baseness and treachery in
a speech at Black Mountain the
other day:
THE Republicans came back.
The era of fusion was like unto
the era of reconstruction. l
would not mention the recon-
struction, nor perhaps the time
of fusionism, had not the Repub-
licans in this campaign put for
ward as their leader and cham
pion a man who is the incarna-
ton of the evil Of fusionism and
who stands today for the consum-
nation of the greatest robbery
of reconstruction. When the
bonds that he would force North
Carolina to pay were issued the
poverty of the State was not her
deepest distress.
For years she had been robed
in consuming fire and ravaged
by avenging armies. She had
exhausted her resources in sup
porting the Confederacy. One
hundred and twenty-five thous-
and of her sons had gone to the
front and 10000 of her children
had been slain. There was
mourning in every home. Her
property was gone, the recon-
struction Legislature, or, by the
org es that you call legislature,
plul dered her treasury, levied
exorbltant taxes and stole the
public money. When nothing
was left they issued bonds to the
extent of forty millions of dollars.
When the State was bankrupt
they attempted to mortgage her
future. These bonds were not
the obligation of North Carolina,
for they were not issued by a
General Asse mbly that had been
elected by the people. When
the Democrats were restored to
power all honorable obligations
that had been incurred by the
State were paid, and all of her
debts were honorably settled.
She repudiated these bonds for
the people. North Carolina re-
pudiated them by an overwhelm
ing majority. Marion Butte r
was in the Senate of the Unit, d
States as the representative OF
North Carolina. He conspired
with the holders of these bonds
to force North Carolina to pay
them. He conspired in secret
and refused, upon his privilege
as a lawyer, to tell what tran.
spired. While he was the ser.
want, the agent, the Senator Of
North Carolina he attempted tt
foreclose this mortgage thai
had been put upon North Caro-
lima in reconstruction time an(
to consummate the villany of thu
men of that era. For more thar
forty years we have been laugh
to despise the men who attempt
ed to perpetrate that great wron.
upon North Carolina in tn
sixties. But Marion Butler to
day is attempting to consummat
the fraud and the robbery.
The bonds were issued i
time of excitement when tn
greed of men was stimulated b
the passions of Civil War. TIL
men who were the leaders {
that crime were not native Mort
Carolinians, but a man born i
North Carolina, honored beyon
his desert by her people whe
the passions of the war had bee
forgotten attempted to force h
own State to pay this repudiate
debt. If the worst of the recol
struction leaders could speak the
would rejoice that at last the
names might be tax en- down fro
the gibbet of history for the
infamy is obscured by the blac
ness Of his perjury. North Car
lima, though torn and bleedil
and splendid in her destitute,
and her desolation, paid eve
dollar that she owed and cou
ageously repudiated that viii
she did not owe.
"She defed the robbers al
the guilty holders of the fraud
lent bonds. While Marion Butt
was the Senator Of North Car
lima, and bound by every sacr
obligation to guard her intere
and defend her honor, he W
hired by her enemies to ass
the integrity of his native Stat