Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
Charles B. Aycock (18591912)
Have you forgotten the story of Lorna Doonehow the Doones, men of high family, who had fallen under the displeasure of the Government, had betaken themselves to the Doone Valley, surrounded on all sides by precipitous mountains, and from this strongly fortified position levied their blackmail upon the surrounding country, killing and robbing and outraging the people of the land until the citizens were aroused and determined to extirpate them? Do you recall how the men of the eastern county gathered together on the eastern mountain, and the men from the western county gathered on the western mountain, with their arms and cannon ready to fall upon the Doones and destroy them, when by some untoward accident a cannon from the western ranks was trained across the valley and shot into the ranks of the men of the east, and how, inflamed by this accident, the men on the east trained their guns across the valley into the ranks of the men of the west, and while these foolish people were slaughtering one another, the Doones sallied forth and put both counties to flight and continued to rob and kill and outrage for years to come.
Let us heed the lesson, my countrymen! Let me say to Governor Kitchin and Senator Simmons and Chief Justice Clark: The Doones are in the valley. I pray you, gentlemen, train your guns a little lower.
CHARLES B. AYCOCK, governor of North Carolina, address prepared for delivery in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 12, 1912.R. D. W. Connor and Clarence Poe, The Life and Speeches of Charles Brantley Aycock, pp. 36162 (1912).
Aycock did not give the address because he died while making a speech on April 4. The story is from Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore.