Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1866-09-21


ing my adherence Of its nature and max
ing one effort to ward of the harm which
would result from its passage. '...
The chairman of the Special Commit.
tee declares that lie looks not to individual
cases but to the condition of the State,
and this he strives, as we should strive, to
amend His principle is correct, but his
estimates are wrong. Ind :iduals have
lost property to tho amount of several
hundred Million; but it is a Llunder in
political economy to say that the State has
lost beyond the amount Of military rava-
ges and the disorder Of its laboring power
produced by material change in political
and domestic relations. What is the
wealth Of State2 1t is its productive
power, and that in our Southern State do.
pends upon the coil and the labor. The
soil remains the same, the material for Ia.
Dor remains, the possession of labor having
passed from the whito master to the color.
ed freedman, and if the government is re-
stored the strongest intellect and the great.
est energy will control the labor. But by
interruption and revolution, and the waste.
ful spirit or expenditure engendered and
sustained by the Stay Law, our people now
stand without the means requisite to con-
duct our work. To get this, the country
must have credit, and to obtain credit. the
creditor must know that the obligations ef
contract can be enforced, and more than
that, that he lends to creditable people
who are not habituated to look to repudi-
alton and stay as the result of indebted
ness. When the gentleman speaks in the
name Of the people he must look to the
interest Of the State-for that constitutes
the public veal, he must restore credit by
denying the Stay Law and restore our pro-
ductive power by the capital which credit
will invite. # he is true to the State, az
we know bim to be, her welfare must. over
come individual claims. Our present con-
dition is the result Of an honorable effort
to sustain our constitution. Did he not
incite us to the steps which led to the
war? And now can he bewail its results
instead of enduring them, and vainly en-
deavor correction By abandoning the great
spirit Of our law which has for nearly a
century past made our credit intangible BIZ
slander and all powerful in our need 2 Is
it an argument to US to evade the Consti-
tuliop, to cite that it has been violated BY
Others; to quote from the gentlemap's
speech, 'that Republican President by
the stroke of his pen has destroyed our
property2" Does this example qualify
this legislative body to violate the Consti.
tuition, in whose support our great patriots
have died, leaving us here remnant, fee
bic in hand, but strong in heart trust, to
preserve, inviolate that portion of the Con-
stitution which the rude victor has left
unsullieda And would remind the GEN
tleman that the gift of patriots labor
was not to be offered only while the war
lasted, but should be now and after it as
was then, and that its object never dies.
The war was for what we deemed the
spirit of the Constitution, and against what
we deemed evasion Of that spirit. The
same spirit of tie people should survive
our loss or we may we'll be- told that tho
intemperance of prosperity led US to rash
war, and that fortitude 10 adversely does
not adorn our virtues. To retain our yir.
tue Is our only hope; pass this bill which
tends to destroy it and we are doomed.
Before the Stay Law was again passed in
1855, heard no citizen Of my constituen>
cy advocate repudiation Of private debts.
Since that time :tis urged by men who
one year ago would have loathed such an
insult 10 law aud morally, Now their
conscience is relieved By legislatiss action,
and repudiasion ia their ory. rts, is is, true
that the gentlemen who carried the Stay.
Law brought forward = 4 resolution rlaps,
honorabiy aud broadly denoureing repudi.
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