The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1868-10-14

from Mississippi, Louisiana, and
other Southwestern States, were
at the Courthouse of my county
offering high premiums to the nc
groes to 60 West. So manyncgrocs
were influenced to 60 that planters
became alarmed, fearing that the
country would be. drained Of Ia
borers. Such was the anxiety up
on the labor question, that, on the
1st Of January. 1867, you could
scarcely find any negroes to hire.
All had places several months be-
fore the usual time Of hiring. The
only idlers were those lounging
about the Freedmcn's Bureau, and
who never will work as long as
the government will support them.
cloud laughter) Though our in
dustrial system was ovcrthrown,
our society upheaved, and our
laws, manners and customs were
undergoing a great change, yet
we made the first year after the
war near two million bales Of COT
ton, the second year two and a
quarter millions, and this year, if
we can gather it, two and a-half
million bales-worth, annually,
two hundred millions in gold to
the country. (Applause.) This
was done under an intelligent gov
ernment, wisely and economically
administered. What is the con-
dition Of the country since the
passage ofthe reconstruction meas
urcs by Congress ? By those
measures every man in South Caro-
lima, who ever held civil Office and
aided the State in the civil war,
from Governor and United States
Senator all the way down TO con-
stable, has been disqualified from
holding any Office and disfran-
chised, and every negro in the
State has been enfr;nchised. The
result is that in a legislature COM
posed of 156 members, we have
near one hundred black negroes,
fresh from the shovel and hoe and
waiting saloon, many of whom
can neitherread nor write. (Groans
and hisses.) The Governor and
all the State officers, with the one
hundred and fifty-six members Of
the General Assembly, pay a little
over seven hundred dollars taxes.
About two hundred Of this has
been paid in by few Couserva-
tive members elected from the
upper counties Of the State, where
the whites largely outnumber the
blacks; the balance is under pro-
testand execution. (Derisive laugh
ter.) A Aconstitution has been adopt
ed and ratified and government
projected, which, according to the
closest financial calculation, it will
take two and a quarter millions Of
dollars to administer. With two
thirds of the property of the coun-
try swept away at a single stroke
Of the Executive pen, and the
other third deprecated to one
sixth of it's ante-bellum value, for
lands in my part ofthe State that
readily commanded from twenty
to thirty dollars per acre in gold
before the war, and from eight to
seventeen dollars in 1866, under an
intelligent government, sell now
for only two Or thee dollars cur
rency, it will be impossible to raise
the money. With in nteligence
and virtue crushed to the earth,
and buried, and vice and ig-
norance installed into power-in
fine with the. State given over at
the point Of the bayonet and the
edge of the sword to the negroes,
such is the anxiety and uncertain
ty among all classes, that all capi-
tai is being drawn in, every dollar
of paper money reduced to gold,
and general paralysis is threat
ening everything. Only a few
months ago, while in the office of
broker in my village, seeing
number of small sealed bags
placed upon his desk, I inquired
what they contained. He replied
gold which he had just bought in
the CITY of NewYork for parties in