Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-01-30
tbs InfAmou, Traitor Orr.

While Georgia boasts her noble Jen-
kins, aud Alabama detests in the con-
trast her Patton. Tennessee her Brown
low, aud Missouri her Fletcher, South
Carolina alse has like reason TO bow her
head in shame. Her Governor, James
L. Orr, addresses the convention OF
mongrels enforced on his native State;
"Isay TO you very frankly, that i regard
this body as invested with the sovereign
power OF the State, and that the constitu-
lion which YOU may adopt for the PEOPLE
of South Carolina is one which will not
only be ratified and accepted by Con-
eress. but one under which al classes in
South Carolina will live for years TO
come"
The high toned aud renowned old
Charleston Mercury thus terribly and
unanswerably impales him;
"Governor Orr, in his recent speech,
says: / say to you, very frankly, that
regard this body as invested with the
sovereign power Of the State. II this is
true, and the reconstruction acts Of Con.
qress are constitutional, President John
sons reconstruction measures must be
las Congress afiirms them to bel uncon-
stitutional. They swallow up President
.Johnson's reconstruction measures as
usurpations and void. Now, OF all the
men alive, the last man in the South to
admit that President Johnson's recon
struction measures are usurpations is
Governor Orr. He championed Presi.
dent Johnson's convention. He entered
il. He claimed for It that 1t was the
sovereignty OF South Cariolina-he made
a constitution by IL. He set up elections
by this constitution; and had himself
elected by il Governor Of South Carolina.
Most assuredly, il in all these mea-
sures Governor Orr was right-he must
now be wrong, in claiming sovereignty
for the negro convention. II the negro
convention is the sovereignty OF the
State. then the johnson convention could
not have been sovereign, and the constr
tuition made by il was without authority:
Has Governor Orr mistaken himself all
this while Was be no Governor at all 7
Was he humbug-an impostorf What
was be when be walked arm In arm with
the Massachusetts Delegation IN the
Philadelphia Convention What was he
when he went North to beg terms from the
Radical rule in Congress2 What was
he when he praised General Sickles,
after his manifold tyrannies over our
State2 What was be when he, last
spring, at a public dinner denounced
the Democratic defenders Of the Consti-
tuition, and lent his countenaEce to the
Republican party2 What is he when he
now Affects TO speak for South Carolina,
as her governor before the negro con-
yention. He is q goyernor-(f gov
ernor at all) of the white race of South
Carolina, who alone placed him in office.
His efforts now TO tear of his own
robes of office, and to strip the State OF
her sovereignty, and to invest it in me-
groes, is singular feat of consistency
and gratitude, which only Governor Orr,
we presume, can justly elucidate. He
is the only instance we have ever known
of Governor who stultifes himself, and
at the same time destroys all claims to
the affection and esteem Of the people
who once loved him and honored him,
and who gave him oil the power he has
used to harass, debase and destroy
them"