The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-04-21
Diffusion OF Ignorance.


The following passage is in the Louisville
Journal.
"The State, which, of all the States of the
confederacy, is and has been for many years the
most thoroughly Locofoco, is South Carolina.
In that State there are no Wings, or at best,
they are so few as to be hardly worth counting.
And the South Carolina constitution, as might
be expected, is, beyond all comparison, the most
oppressive and monarchical one in the United
States. In that unanimously LocofOco State,
man must not only, as in tremendously Loco
foco New Hampshire, have property quaifca-
ton in order to hold Office, but he must have
property qualification to entitle him to the cleo.
tive franchise, and we do not hear voice raised
in that quarter for reform. The Locofoco pro-
perty-holders are content to hug their authority,
and the Locofoco non-property- holders are con-
tent to hug their chains"
The ignorance displayed in the above para
graph could have been expected only from
Yankee school-master-or Southern submis-
sion candidate for the Presidency.
In South Carolina there is no property qualih-
cation for suffrage. Every citizen has the right 10
vote. There is, however, representation as
signed to taxation in Districts Us well as to popu-
lation And this is the case, at least in one branch
of the Legislature in Massachusetts, as well as in
South Carolina. Indeed this principle is univer-
sal. Massachusetts very wisely refuses to give to
Boston representation in either branch of the
Legislature in proportion TO population.
In all of the States each county or electoral
district has a separate representation; plan
which secures to area, to land, to property, n
power in the government beyond the proportion
of property-holders; and no State, not even revo
lutionary France, ever rejected this principle
Asfor olfce--in some cases in South Carolina
a property qualification is required. But this is
supported by great modern authority. Mr..
WEBSTER tells us that none but a rich man or
bachelor, can afford to accept the office even of
Secretary of State, the second office in the gov
erument, with salary of only $4,000 year
Now as poor men, so far from being bachelors,
are proverbial for the number Of their children,
how can they afford to accept any ofiice--and
what is more proper than to impose the bur
thens of office on those who have property
South Carolina has, however, manifested, if
not a preference for poor men, an impartiaity
between rich and poor. She has sent to the
Senate CALHOUN and a McDuFFrE, both poor
men when they entered public life, and living in
that region of the State where property and
representation is the least And it is a curious
fact that in the richest and most aristocratic dis
tricts in South Carolina, poor man exercises
under the Constitution more political power
than in any other State of the Union.
But this attack on the constitution Of South
Carolina comes, very unluckily, from Kentucky
The latter is State not like South Carolina,
thoroughly Locofoco, but is thoroughly Wing
and has recently made new constit ution. But
the instrument was denounced by the Louisville
Journal not only for bad principles, but for
bad grammar-and ms disgrace to the State
So the city Of Louisville, which has the advan-
tage not only Of being in Kentucky and Of being
Wing, but Of having had the effulgence of the
Louisville Journal and Louisville Democrat,
one conducted by Yankee schoolmaster, and
the other by Kentucky schoolmaster--this
city recently undertook to make itself new
chartcr--and when the work was accomplished,
the Louisville Journal was filed, day after day,
with condemnation and ridcule Of it for its alb
surdity and uncertainty Yet II WINS adopted.
1t creates multitude Of Offices: insomuch that
almost any body could be elected for some one