Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-06-19
BULLOCK'S CREEB
For the Yorkville Enquirer.
FROM TURKEY CREEK.


INessrs. Editors:-I have been much pleased Of
lnte to find in your paper certain letters condem-
natory of the present mode of electioneering and
suggesting the means of remedy. I regard the
interests involved in this question VITAL not on
ly to good order and healthy state of the COM
munty but, to the perpetuity and success Of any
representative democracy. ON really gratifed
to find your columns open to communications
which may, by kind Providence. tend to revolu-
tionize public sentiment on this subject. do not
know that cnn contribute much to this desirable
end but am willing to do whit can. Perhaps
1 may get somebody to thinking and talking on
the matter which, you know, will be gaining
something.
The evil which We deplore is that corrupt con-
dition of sentiment and morals, which, from the
practice of some candidates, must be pre-suppos-
ed to exist--that state which makes it possiblefor
may to buy the honors and powers of Office, to
traffic and barter for it, to the degradation and
ruin of many of his constituents. Towhat extent
corruption does exist in the community, and to
what extent the ballot box is swayed by that cor
ruption, men may, perhaps, differ in Judgment
But that it does exist to some extent, it would be
idle and disingenuous to question That the pub
lie feeling and sentiment are corrupt; that the
balot-box is the medium of giving this corruption
direct bearing on the highest civil function Of
free people, are established by one fact which
looms UP in monstrous and most ugly proportions
before the eyes of every intelligent and sober
minded citizen. Why is it that those: whom We
suppose to be shrewd observing men-.men, who
study the character and disposition Of those whose
favor they seek, and who know the influences by
which headway is to he made in an electioneering
campaign-so soon as they become candidates,
betakc themselves to a very suspicious affability-
to courtesy which is often painfully embarrassing
to the besiegcd-and to the practice of drenchirg
with fcrmenting liquors all that unfortunate class
of the community 'whose god is their belly, and
who glory in" Tint which in the very highest sense
of the term is "their shame?" Why is it that the
fawning sycophant, who is willing to spend ff-
teen hundred dollars in brutalizng his felow-citi-
zens and in ministcring to the most mlschle7ous
and dangerous lusts of the corrupt heart; con he
elected over the man who, because lie loathes
sycophancy, and has the fear of God before his
eyes and the noble spirit of philanthropy and pa
triotism in his heart, is unwilling to do SO! DO
these facts need proof! Let the skcptic on this
subject go to the various mastering grounds and
to the election precincts; let him lurk for one
campaign, if he can about the fetid purlieus Of
the dram-shop, and listen to what he may hear
and look at what he may see,-and will venture
it will require no additional effort to convince him.
What is the bearing, then, of these facts? Do
they not proclaim, in loud aud startling clearness
that there is fearful degree of corruption both
in the public mind and in the exercise of the ell
ectire franchise?