Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1868-01-25
P O l. I II I O "A. T..
KEN From tho Columbia Daily Phoenix
Proceedings Of tho Convention.

CHARLESTON, S. c., jan. 15.-The Con
vcntion today perfected permanent organi-
zation by cleoting DR.. A. G. Mackcy, Presi-
don't; Carlos j. Stolbrand Secretary; (both
white) Assistant Secretary, Engrossing
Clerk, Door. Keepers, Sergeant Arms and
Messengers, all coorcd.
i. A. Sawyer, Of Charleston, Collector of
Internal Revenue, resigned his scat us del.
tgate, for the reason assigned that the press
Of official daties prevented his attendance in
tho Convention.
In assuming tho duties Of his Office, Dr.
1 Mackcy addressed the body as follows:
ss3, Gentlemen Of nc Courention While
/, return you my thanks for the honor that you
I Sfsvc Conferred on mo, by soliciting me to pre-
i side over your deliberations, | confess thnt 1
assume tho Chair Rith}great diiidenee as to
my capsbilty to discharge its Duties can,
however, safely promise determination to
perform tho important task with the strictcst
iInpnrtulty, anu with all the Judgment in my
p,wcr.
!. Tho position in which your Kindness has
placed me will necessarily preclude me from
general participation 10 the debates Of the
house, and will con lc.nn me to silence on ma
ny questions, on which, if were on the floor,
] would wish to bo heard You will, per.
haps, therefore, pardon me, if take the pres
ent occasion, once for all, to define my position
and to express my scntimcnts on some of the
great topics which are now agitating our ooun-
try.
"a The Convention in which we arc now sit.
ting is marked by two pecuiarities, which
ssaSpye distinguished no other Convention that
EySas preceded it in South Carolina-p pcculiari-
SSk;es which demand for it the commentator of
every lover Of liberty and respcctcr of human
rights.
u Convened, as I contend it has been for
sasaslss I had not been hore -by competent legal
Authority, it is the first Constitutional Con-
vcntion in this State, in the selection Of whose
members the ballothox, the true palladium
Of national liberty, has been made accessible
b to every man who was not disqualified by lc-
I. gal or political crime. In the call for the five
South Carolina Conventions which have pre-
cedcd it. and which were held 1G, in 1777,
f1700,in 1850, md in 1866, but portion Of
! Tho people werc permitted to exercise the cleo
tive franchise, because slavery, that vile relic
Of barbarism, had thrown its blighted influ.
eaoe upon the minds of the people, and, for
tho noble doctrine thot governments were
constituted for the good of the whole was sub
I, stltnted that anti-ropubloan one, that tt y
were intended only for the benefit Of ono class
I atthe expense of another. But in the call for
this body, every true man who could labor for
the support or fight for the defence Of the
Commonwealth, has becn invited to repro
sontationa Manhood suffrage has, for the first
time, been invoked to convene body which
isto make tho fundamental law for ALL This
~, then, truly and emphaticalIy, peoples
! Convention--a Convention by tho represcn.
tativcs of oil, who have minds to tliuk- --anti
s to think for themselves, or muscle to work
and to work for themselves. s&
Again, In tho five constitutional Convou.
I tions hold in the State toswhieh I have al.
roady alluded, the fundamental law thoroiu
framed was made finality, Tho people we're
ignored as d part 5of tho body poltio blythe
Convention, which declared itself as possessed
/ of despotic and irresponsible authority, and,
g4in,evory instance, refdsed TO submit its pro.
. osedings, and tho constitution which it had
framed, tosthe people for thoir ratiication.--
This was but q natural and necessary result of
tho influences Of the political sontimont that