Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1867-10-31
CONVENTION OR 10 CONVENTION.

The time is near when the people Of South Gar
olina will be called upon to decide whether or not
they desire Convention to reconstruct their State
A grayer question has never been submitted to
them, and for this reason we depart from our usual
custom, in this column, of simply recording local
news, to devote q few words to its consideration.
When the Reconstruction Acts were frst passed,
in common with, we believe, majority OF the
Southern people, we were disposed to aequiesce In
these measures, harsh and CALLING as they, even
then were, and this, for two reasons In the frst
place, to convince the Northern people that we
were not oontumacious rebels, as they regarded us,
and for the sake of peace and restoration,
In the second place, and chiefly, we hoped that
by,so doing, that harmony would be preserved be-
tween the two races at the South 50 necessary TO
tho prosperity of either. We believed that the
colored people, regarding the whites as friends
and content with their freedom and with that civil
and political equality which would have been en-
sured to them, would be willing that the intellect
and worth of the country should govern it.
The events of the last few months have changed
all this, and rendered all such hopes vain Radl-
cal emissaries, headed by members of Congress,
have trayersed the Southern States from one end
to the other stirring up strife and hatred between
the two races; incendiary pamphlets have been
circulated among the blacks to foster discord and
hate loyal leagues have been established in
every town, whose only bond is enmity to white
supremacy. Everything that could be done, has
been done to excite hellish passions and baletul
hopes. Working upon people ignorant and In
Aamabe, with the fancied wrongs of slavery to a.
venee it is not strange that these efforts have been
successful
Distrust, suspicion, and hate have taken the place
of confidence and affection. All the foul things
boped for have been accomplished, and dismal
gulf now separates the white man and the black
man. This may not be universally true, and we
hope and believe it is not; but no sane person can
doubt that there is to-day that antagonlsm which
thegood linen have prayed and struggled avert but
which is now upon us and must end in the absolute
political supremacy of the one race, and perhaps in
the absolute destruction Of the other.
There is no longer any peace. Honest, quiet
and contented laborers have been changed into fe-
verish, suspicious and unscrupulous agrarians.-
And Radicaism, for the time triumphant, IS ca
perly looking forward to the day when it Is to sit
enthrened upon the PROSTATE form Of all that Is
high and pure and noble in our land
There can be no longer any doubt as to the mean
ing and intentions of this new party which IS mar
shalIng its hosts for certain victory. The recent
elections in Virginia have demonstrated that the
negroes and the Hunnicutts and that low white
scum which panders to negro prejudices, expect
to rule. No disguise has been attempted. =
Conservative Union men, like Judge Alexander
Rives, men whose loyalty was tested at time
when Unienism meant social ostracism, have been
defeated at the polls by ignorant negroes and de-
prayed whites, Notwithstanding all the efforts OF
Federal officers to change the result
In our own State, strong Radicals, like Marshal
Epping, have been driven from the party, because
they were not bitter enough against the white race
and worthless demagogues and adventures and
Northern negroes, the Bowens and Pillsburys, and
.Wlittemores and Bradleys reign supreme. just
so surely as the sun shines, ifs Convention is held
in South Carolina, it will be ruled by men such as
these, and filed by more honest but ignorant ne
groes. z
Can moderation, or justice, or peace, be expect
ed from government thus formed? No man,
not altogether blind, can expect it 1t may be
that of ourselves we can do nothing to avert from
us this doom, but we can, at least, refrain from
linking our own chains; from mailing our own cof;
fins; from waIowing IN the mire of our own deg
radiation and every man in South Carolina whose
heart beats warm for the State which bof = him
every man who has glow of pride in her not in.
glorious history; every man who wishes to see hel
free, prosperous and happy; every man who de:
sires the real interest of her people-white and
black; every man, in fine, whose soul is strong
within him, and whose manhood is not crushed
out will spurn the vile abomination.