The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-08-07
The Intelligencer Job Office.

with the cash, will receive prompt attention.
fed by character and intelligence to ex-
ercise it wisely and conscientiously. This
highest right of citizenship has been given
to large portion Of the population of the
State, who are not fit for it, by a power
which you cannot resist: and which does
not intend to be resisted. No action of
yours in voting against Convention, can
deprive them of it.
I assume, upon the general statement,
although I doubt its correctness, that there
are in South Carolina about sixty thou
sand black votes, to about forty thousand
white ones. But this black vote is not,
and cannot be made combined majority,
except in cases of q general popular cleo
ton. For delegates to the Convention,
for representatives to the Legislature, it
cannot act together. The disparity III
numbers is local. For example, if there
is a majority Of FIVE thousand negro voters
in Beaufort or Georgetown District, the
majority of the whole vote is so much di-
minished in the rest of the State, and can
count in such election no more than q
majority of five, for it can only Sc
cure the return of members from
it's own district. In fact, this dis
parity exists chiefly in the low-coun-
try. In your own district, and those adj
joining it, the negro vote is in a very
marked minority, even if itact as an unit.
If, then, the antagonism was all that
is represented by the most apprehensive,
you, the white men Of the upper-country,
cannot be deprived without your own
neglect, of your fair representation in
the Convention and the Legislature.
But, what, in fact, to-day, is this antag-
nism between these two classes of voters?
Not what it may be made-but what is it
in the opinion of practical men who gov
ern their every day action by their every
day experience? 1t is certainly not an
exaggerated calculation to suppose that of
this sixty thousand, at least forty thousand
are engaged in the work of agriculture, in
daily communication with you, depending
upon your capital and thrift for profitable
employment, utterly Ignorant and utterly
Indifferent as to political questions which
they do not understand. If you are just
in your dealings with these, have you any
doubt OF your influence? Has there ever
ever been time anywhere, even the most
troubled, in which finally brains and capi-
tai have not governed? You know these
people. For two centuries you have held
them as slaves; were they not docile, af
fectionate, trustworthy? During the war,
when in many sections of this State, there
were not at home white men enough to do
patrol duty, and when they knew as well
as you did, that their freedom depended on
your failure, we're they less industrious,
less faithful to all that was yours? You
have seen them now for two years in pos
session of their freedom-has there been
violence or riot. AS a general rule, has
there been even insolence? They rejoiced
in their freedom Was it not natural? At
first they seemed like children, to think
that their new life was to be a perpetual
holiday; but the crop of last year was
some evidence of their industy, and the
universal testimony is that they are work
ing this year hundred per cent better.
1 know there are portions of the State in
which the persistent mischief of very fool
ish or very wicked men have demoralized
them, and that among themselves there are
not few who have had excited q danger
Gus and very preposterous ambition. But
taking them IN the mass, see nothing to
cause you to fear that, with the land OF
the State in your possession, with the cap
tai of the State in your hands-with the
education and intellect of the State in your
service, you need lose the influence which
naturally belongs to you.
I do not mean to say that your position
is without difficulty. The position in which
the State is placed, is an unaccustomed
one to both white and black, and 1T VIII
take time and good temper on both sides
to adjust the new relations harmonlously.
On the one side there will be old prejudi-
ces ipyeterate hahits, rooted opinions to
he overcome. On the other, there will lbe
suspicion and an angry exactingness
of extravagant pretensions. In the Con-
vention itself, you may be obliged to
sec much done that you disapprove, and
much left undone that you think the inter