The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-17
The PhiIadelphia Convention. n.
speech OF the Hon. b. F. Perry, or
south Caroline, In Fun. !"

speech OF the Hon. B. F. Perry, or
South Carolina. in Fun. 4
RHnADELPRIA, August IA, 1856.
Elk Governor Perry, of South CarOli-
ma, addressed the Johnson Clymer Club
this evening at National Guards Hall.
The Club Is an organization adYocat-
ing the election of Heister Clymer, the
Democratic candidate for Governor.
The Club announced that Senators
Cowan and Doolittle would address the
meeting but neither were present.
Governor Perry opened with a COM
pliment to the beautiful city of PhilR-
delphia, and the great honor he felt in
being called upon to address SO large
an assemblage'of of Its citizens. He said
he came from South Carolina. He came
in the spirit indicated by our great sol
dter, Gen. Grant, who said that nothing
could be-more Beneficial at this time 70
the whole country than for the inhab-
itants of the different sections to mingle
with each other and exchange VIEWS.
The North might have prejudices
against the South and the South against
the North, but those prejudices would
wear out as soon as they met and in
terchanged ideas. They were one peo-
pie, having one origin, speaking one
language, having the same religion, lit
ouA anu
they should be one people forever. He
had always been Union man,
and believed that the Union OF.
the States was the great pal
ladium of our liberty. 1t was proper
that he should speak of South Carolina;
what her feelings had been and were,
and what It was to her Interest and the
interest of the North should be accom-
plished. South Carolina had accepted
in good faith the logic OF events. She
had bravely and gallantly contended
fora principle which she believed she
had alright to'exercise and was defeat--
ed. Now her people had abandoned all
notions of Secession, and they were
to-day as loyal as the people of AIassa-
chusetts. They had sworn allegiance
anew TO the Constitution and Govern
ment ofthe United States, and they were
a people, however impulsive, however
wrong they might be, who had most
tenacious adherence to honor and prin-
ciple. When such a people swore alle-
glance to the Government under which
they lived, they would protect that
Government, they would protect the
flag of that Government abroad, and
defend it in war and in peace, as we'll
people of the South had accepted the
terms proposed by the President. They
had assembled their conventions. South
Carolina was the first State lin the Union
to adopt the amendment to the Consti-
tuition abolishfng Slavery. That was
! her evidence of q vii illingness 70 come
back into the Union and be loyal. She
gave up two hundred millions ofdol-
lars by the adoption of that amend
ment. South Carolina might have been
wrong; she might have committed
many sins; but 1t was the characteristic
of an enlightened and Christian peo-
pie to forgive sinners when they
ed the Preside lent and done all
that he asked. She had amended
her Constitution and made it much
more popnlaI and republican than it
was before, and she was entitled, and
had a. right to expect after doing all
into the Union and her loyal represen-
tives received on the door of Congress.
But they had been kept out because
the party In power were not disposed to
see them come forward and share the
power which belonged to the people of
the Republic: We're the Southern
States, or one-third Of the Union, to be
made the docile, the humble and the
sobedient slaves of great central pow
err? No, weshould follow the example
of the great Roman Republic which
never conquered "a province but that 1t
became part of Rome, and its inhabi-
ltants Roman citizens. All he asked
Why were the Southern States kept
5outf Had the North any apprehen-
sions of the people of the South? What
danger was there of rebellions or revo-
lutions in the South? a voice
s'Noue.n1 The South was proStrate-.
destroyed, he might say. She had been.
conquered, her houses destroyed, her
cities burned and devastated, her fields
laid waste, her crops ruined, her bank
and railroad stocks lost, her railroads
broken mp, the property she held
in slaves; set free, and her Peo-
pie were an impoverishe and desolate
people. Her planters for the last
three years had had no crops. Thesea-
sons had been against them. They had
had visitatfons from war, famine and
the pestilence, and some of them were
almost at the point of starvation. An
erroneous opinion prevailed in the
North in regard to the negro popula-
cruel to the negro, there was not re-
spectacle man in South Carolina who
did not feel anrfnterest in all the people
whom he formerly owned, an interest
which would lead him to defend those
people IL they were Imposed upon.
They, we're disp posed 70 give the negro
equal Justice, to let him have equal ctv-
IL rights and to see that those rights
were protected by laws which are to be
enforced as well against the white man
as the negro. He knew the opinion
was universal that the General Govern
ment haVingset the negroes free, it was
its duty to see that they were protect
ed. He granted that was true, but he
contended9 that the people of South
Carolina were better able to and would
give them, thBt protection more effec-
lively than could be done by the Gen-
eral Government through all the Freed
mems Bureau agents that could be sent
down there. The Freedments Bureau
agency. was offering bounty to idle
ness aud vagrnncys5 Congress had not
appropriated money TO relieve the poor
white people. Congress had done moth
ing of that kind, and yet Congress had
made large opriations OF S10, ,000,- :
900 or $15 900, ,0O0, to snpportsand protect
negroes who were too lazy to work, and
who could not work. Was there, itiss
ticef in that Was there any euf1al-
| ityi in that ? That the citizens df Penn
sylvania should be taxed, and their
money taken by the tax gatherer and
sent to- South Carolina to protect the
EhegToesiin idleness, who, If they would
work, could support themselves The
fields in, many, sections of the State were
lying uncultiyatedi the best land In
South Carolina, because the negroes
will not cultivate them while they have
the slFreedmen'B Bureau TO depend
Impon for prsupport; and while ON this
snbiect he IA estred TO say that consider.
| ing their. esolated condition there was
no fineFioppo ppoEtunity for the Investment
of capital fnlthe United States than was
now pre- ented IN South Carolina. "a
great many of the, planters almost all
the planters-were largely indebted,
and had nolmeans topRy their iIidebts
edness,s They could not cultivate their