Year: 1875




that involved in the government of a
free and Intelligent people ought to be
cOntided to the hands of ignorant OF
corrupt men. The second proposition
Is that men of African birth or descent
are as race both corrupt and ignor-
ant. Attempt to gloss it over, as the
most enthusiastic admirer of the negro
may, he cannot escape the palpable
fact that as race the negro is lacking
not only III mental but in moral edu-
cation. 1t is useless for our purpose
this morning to enquire into its causes,
it Is sufficient that such IS the fact


This being SO, it needed not expert
ence to teach the folly of placing the
county governments in the easter n
portion ofour State, where the negroes
most do congregate, in their hands -
| There never was and never could be
any doubt as to the result Fraud and
extravaganza follow ignorance and
corruption as surely as night follows
| day.


III consequence of this immutable
law, the people, the intelligent tax pay
| lug portion of the people, i'll other words
the white people of very many of our
eastern counties are laboring under
an intolerable grievance. Their county
| governments are in the hands of men
/ elected by the ignorant, the corrupt,
/ the non-tax-paying portion of Tho
| population, in other words our county
/ governments are int the hands of men
| put i'll office by the negroes.


| Can this grievance be remedied and
can the county governments be placed
IN the hands of men for whose intelli-
gence and for whose integrity there
will be ample and abundant guaran-
tees It can and the remedy is no less
simple than efficacious. 1t is simply
| to return to the old paths, the old time
honOred paths we used to follow in
| North Carolina before the curse of Re-
construction blighted our fair land.
La the olden time when North Carroll
mans lived under Constitution made
by their freely chosen delegates in law
full convention duly assembled, the
Legislature selected the magistrates
and the magistrates conducted the af-
fairs of the counties. And was there
ever such body of men as the magis-
trates OF North Carolina Who then
heard of ignorance in county govern
ments and corruption in the expendi-
ture of their revenues? ? Then THOMAS
RUFFIN, the man whose judicial opin-
ions had been quoted with honor and
with appreciation in the most exalted
tribunals of public justice in foreign
countries, thought it no degradation
to resign the office of Chief j ustice
lima and become a magistrate in the
county of Alamance. WILLIE P. MAN
GUM, who occupied possibly a more
prominent position in the United States
when Clay, Calhoun and Webster
made that body SO ilIustrious, and who
held that position for a longer time
than ever did before or since any man
from North Carolina, hesitated not to
become magistrate in the county of
Orange. GEORGE E. BADGER, too, Le
who had adorned the bench of the Su-
perior Court of our State and whose
gigantic Intellect and whose rare ac-
Quirements placed him in the front
rank wherever he appeared, no matter
whether at the bar, IN the bench or
IN the Federal Senate or in the
Federal Cabinet, felt when he was
acting as magistrate for the
I county Of Wake that he was perform
ing he highest duty that could devolve
upon any North Carolinian. HENRY
| L. CLARK, than whom u purer patriot
| or better man never honored the Office
! of Governor of North Carolina, for
| many years earnestly devoted himself
without reward or the hope of reward
! to the performance OF the dutie, of u
magistrate of Edgecombe. Surely the
system that led to the selection, as





the hundreds of others we could name
among the living and the dead, within
our recollection, was system far pre-
ferable to the one that gives us as
magistrates, the negroes Jos. G. Hill,
Anthony Howe and w. e. Moore.


Which is to be preferred. the system
that gives us as a magistrate negro
SO stepped in ignorance and supersti-
ton as to order a prisoner charged
with murder to be taken from Jail, Can =
ried to the dead body of the murdered
man and forced to touch it in order to
test his guilt, believing that if the
prisoner was guilty and should touch
the dead body, the accusing blood
would gush from it's veins, or is that
system to be preferred that gave us
as magistrates such men as RUFFIN,
MAnGUM, BADGER and CLARK?


Let us then return to the ola paths
and as soon as the Convention shall
assemble, let the Constitution be
changed 80 that the magistrates shall
once more be elected by the Legisla-
ture, and when so elected let them be
entrusted with the management
of county affairs. Then, and moi
until then shall we have relief.


1t has been and ever shall be our
aim to speak frankly and honestly
upon matters political, as upon other
matters, and we do not hesitate to say
that if the Convention to assemble In
September shall not give us of ths
East, the relief we demand in thit
matter of our county governments We
shall regard the Convention as &
failure. It was to secure to our suf
fering people this great blessing thai
we labored so long and SO earnestly tc