Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-05-15
For the Yorkville Enquirer.

o urbem renalsm ct cito pervram 81 emptorem 'n"e-
merit!
20 city set to sale, whose destruction is at hand
if it find purchaser" .JUGURTHA.
The above prophecy was uttered by JUGuRTHA,
on the morning he quilted Rome to 60 into exile,
while looking back from height which borders
the Campagna, and gazing for the last time upon
the domes and spires of the External City" as they
receded from his sight forever. The prophecy was
soon afterwards accomplished in the person Of
sylla, and again in Cesar; and about thirteen
wears afterwards the battle of Actium struck down
the liberties and the Republic to rise no more.
1t is q remarkable fact in the worlds history,
tL-I l-;. .AI;ono riiinot pront by lessons taught
by the dead. The people of the United States
have fully entered upon their career; yet, if
thousand Missionaries were to traverse the land
from the one end to the other for ages, and, like
the inspired Israelte upon the walls of Jerusalem,
proclaim to the people the fatal errors by which
other nations have lost their liberties, the warning
would be unheeded. How exceedingly short
sighted is man! He knows only the present, and
the warning voice of the past in vain points him
to the dangers of the future.
The fact is familiar to US all, and admitted by
all, that the governments Of the Union ore based
upon free suffrage. Upon this fundamental right,
all self-government all civil liberty depend If,
then this great right be not exercised with wisdom
and with the sole view to the public good, every
safeguard of the public liberty is at once destroy
ed ; and looking over the scene of mournful ruin,
the patriot may well e1claim with JUoUnTHA:
20 Republic, set to sale, whose destruction is at
hand, if it find purchaser" Rome found pur-
chaser and fell: and who so blind as not to know
that one canbe found for the Republic Of America,
also? The ways of Providence are indeed inscru-
table; but an observer with half an eye can see,
that the abuse of the right of suffrage is the rock
upon which this Republic will split and be lost
forever; and thus, the very element to which we
looked for political salvation at the beginning, will
prove our destruction in the end.
The people of South Carolina are just now en-
tering upon canvass for Representatives to the
State Legislature and to Congress. They have
often passed through the same ordeal, and, as
the past hos been, so we ore warranted in becv-
ing the future will be; unless there is enough of
courage and public virtue amongst US to sternly
rebuke the incipient approaches Of public corrup-
ton, and drive it howling back to its den. We
are to suppose that during the approaching can
yass, WHrsKEY will erect an altar upon the hust-
ings; that Candidaies will be the officiating minis
ters, and that, at the foot of that altar, many
Jealous votaries, inspired by the incense OF the
exhilirating "buck-eye," will bow their faces to
the EARTH Upon the same principle that prompts
the Hindoo worshipper to mutilate the aesh-that
he may prove his devotion to his idol-a harvest
of black eyes and bloody noses will, of course, he
| reaped. To these ceremonials will be added, in
due time, long Sessions dockets, Court costs-Jail
fees-aud increased taxes, levied upon the prop
erty of the sober portion of the people to pay the
insovent costs due to Magistrates and Constaoles;
all because of the boisterous worship brought a
bout by the candidates and their whiskey. The
increased taxes referred to, mark you, gentle rea-
der, are first levied upon the people to pay the
costs of these "Irish weddings" paid into the
public treasury by the Ta1-Collectors; and then
voted out of again by the successful candidates.
brought home and distributed to the claimants as
their proper fees for suppressing these ARRAYS and
ndctng the offenders. Thus candidates vrtu-
ally levy upon the property of the country, to Sc
| tlo T u1of,,
Are the people, in sober seriousness, content to
be thus taxed by the candidates, and their potent
ssbald-face?" Is this the free suffrage on which
the public liberty depends: snot this finding
purchaserfor the republic-and, besides, receiving
payment in North Carolina Whiskey measured
out by the quart: Does not public justice de-
mand, and common sense see and acknowledge 1t,
| that the candidate who thus debauches the public
morals, and by the distribution of whiskey produ-
ces every sort of breaches of the peace, and con-
seuuenty all manner of prosecutions in the Courts
to secure his election to the Legislature should be
held responsible for the payment of the costs?-
What right has he, by implication, to levy these
costs upon the property Of innocent people, who
neither drink his whiskey nor share the honors
and triumphs Of the fsti-2ufs it occasions? Is