The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-11-22
Good Sense.

On The opening Of the Georgia Lcgisla-
ture, the Speaker of the House, Mr.. Har-
deman, said:
Condition after condition has been pre-
scribed as the terms upon which we should
have restoration and union; but no sooner
are the humiliating requirements COM
piled with, than others more exacting are
proffered, and thus we have been led,
step by step, to the very throne of power,
where we soon discover, written over the
great door of the temple, reraounce your
manhood and yoar honor, and it shall be
opened unto you.
For one, rather than enter upon such
humiliating terms, will sit, like Morde-
cal, at the Kings's gate, clothed in sack
cloth, and mourn the fate of my people. L
refer to our national troubles for the sole
purpose of impressing upon them how lit
tic you may expect from the Federal
Government in rebuilding the ruined for
tunes of our down-trodden State.
: Upon ourselves alone we must rely,
and by wise, wholesome, economical and
constitutional legislation, stimulate her
sons to labor for her deliverance and her
redemption. Our people are depressed
and despondent. Heaven, as if to chas-
ten them more, has withheld her showers
and her smiles, and scant harvests barely
reward the husbandman for his labor and
his toll. Want and poverty is the lot OF
MANY. who have in vain scattered their
seed, hoping in due season to reap the re-
ward of their labors From mountain
and valo, from village and city, the cry OF
distress falls upon the ear, asking deliv-
erance. / trust will be pardoned the
expression Of hope that the wisdom OF
this General Assembly will devise some
mode of relief that will do justice to all,
and that will stand the tests of constitu-
tions and of courts. Let us show our ap-
probation Of their condition by curtailing
the expenses Of the Government and by
practicing rigid economy with the peo-
ple's money.
Georgia needs but little legislation; let
us enact it and adjourn. Experience has
convinced me there is more danger of too
much than too little legislation. Let us
do little, and do that little well. Not
being permitted to participate actively in
your deliberations, pardon a suggestion,
too, upon the duties of the session.
Guard we'll, with proper safeguards, these
Trojan horses that yearly enter this hall
the many applicants for chartered prlyl-
leges. Encourage, by wholesome Provls-
ions, manufacturing in our State-elevate
to the dignity of their claims the mechan-
ic arts. Rebuild your waste places, by
encouraging immigrants to settle in your
midst; bind him to to the soil by the ties
of homestead; welcome him, by repeal
ing all laws on your statute book that
deny I him the privilege Of owning the soil
he would reclaim by his energy and in
dustry. Encourage from every quarter,
capital and labor, and Georgia, under
these wholesome influences, will soon ele-
yate her fallen credit-business will re-
yive-commerce will no longer languish
our granaries will be filed with the
products of our felds-our mines will en-
rich us with their hidden treasures, and
people, revived and re-energizod, will be
made to feel athere is life in the old State
YET"