Year: 1868

|


BILE connection with the Free Public


School system of the State" Will yor


open its doors to negroes or will you ta1


the people of North Carolina to build and


endow another University for negroe:


alone You must do the one or the


other-allow negroes to go to Chapel Hill


or build a new College for them. IF yor


build q new one, will you tax white people


to build it 4? You are a lawyer, distin


guished one, especially learned in the Law


of Real Estate. You are a candidate


and therefore 1 have right to question


you. If elected Judge, how will you de


eide upon the constitutionality and validi


ty of law which appropriates the lands


and franchises belonging to the Universi


ty, to the education of negroes? Will ol


will not the lands granted by private indi


viduals for the purpose of educating white


boys revert back to the grantors and their
heirs when they are no longer used for the
purpose for which they were granted p


You are estorped from refusing to answer


by saying Judge ought not to decide a
case until it comes before him in Court.
You have made me an elector !; you have
asked me as one of the people to vote for
you. [ wish to perform my duty intelli'
gently. [ wish to know what will be the
result Of my vote if cast for you. there
fore ask the question, How will you de-
eide L?


Your Constitution provides Commis.
sion to report Code of Law Of North
Carolina. Hon. SAMUEL T. PHILLIPS and
A. W. Tourgee were nominated for that
Commission. Tourgee was elected. Did
you vote for Tourgee or did you vote for
Mr. PHILLIPS Did you have it in your
heart to vote for such man as Tourgee In
preference to such man as S. T. PHILLIPS.
to prepare Code of Law Of North Caro-
lima, and that, too, when you were a candi-
date FOR seat on the Supreme Court bench
you, who knew so we'll that, as Mr.. HoDNETT
said, Tourgee is nothing but boy, and a
stranger boy at that


Your other communication is 81 igned by
yourself and one Geo. ". Gahagan, and
processes to be Il brief statement of the
most important provisions and changes in
the Constitution. In excuse for creating
the Office of Lieutenant Governor you
plead the precedent set by the proposed
Constitution of 1865. Do you forget that
the people rejected that Constitution ? In
the creation of the Office of Superintendent
of Public Works, you plead economy and
the necessity of the case. Do you forget
that your party has nominated G. L. Harris
for that office I? You do not mention the
two new Judges of the Supreme Court.
You boast that the Convent on have not
disfranchised any one. You boast that
" after bloody and devastating civil war,
in which wrongs and outrages were endured
that can never be forgotten" Constitu-
ton was framed GO in which not trace of
or vindictiveness can be found.
Is it possible that you, COL Rodman, late
G. S. Army, can bring yourself to boast of
not disfrancising men for trying to estab-
lish the independence of the Confederate
States of America =? Have you forgotten
in which army you fought in that civil
war? Have you forgotten the color of
your uniform Have you forgotten whether
you fought with or against the perpetrators
of those "wrongs and outrages never to
be forgotten" Have you forgotten that
at the demand of the Union mep of the
Western part of the State your Convention
repealed the Amnesty act passsd by the
thus placing Confederates at
their mercy, no matter whether they acted
with or without orders Is there no vim
dictiveness, no animosity in that repeating
ordinance ? Did you either vote or pro-
test against that repeal? You say your
Constitution does not "require (still
harping upon that word require) whites
and negroes to be mingled in musters and
schools. That all these matters are left
now, as they were by the proposed Consti-
tuition of 1866, to be regulated by the rep
resentatiyes of the people in the General
Assembly. Any one who denies the pro-
priety of thus le aving them, both impeaches
the wisdom of our ancestors and distrusts
the people of the future"


You still forget that the people rejected
this proposed Constitution of 1865. I do
not know Mr.. Gahagan, your co-signer.
Neither do I know his ancestors, or
whether, indeed, he ever had any. Your
ancestry, however, do know somewhat.
It is one to be proud of. Honest blood,
adorned for generation after generation by
honorable deeds and upright conduct, is
indeed a priceless heritage. would be as
far as yourself from impeaching the wis
dom Of your ancestors. If, however, you
had any ancestors in the Convention of
1865 am not aware of it indeed, it seems
to me strange form of expression for the
men of 1868 (March) to speak of the men
of 1865 (December) as their ancestors !
Upon that same proposed Constitution,
made by our ancestors in 1865 and rejected
by ourselves at the same time, how did
you vote? Did you vote for or against it ;
did you favor or oppose its rejection


You say to us, if you approve the gen
eral scope and object of the Constitution.