Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-08-12

/ Reconstruction scheme who was not Dousut,
and bought with price by your enemies.
!. .fCheers. The price has partially been paid.
and you are to pay the balance. [Laughter
WHAT arguments did they use? Did they
appeal to your pride, your honor or your in
terests? Not at all. They came among you
and travelled from the seaboard to the noun
tains and they told an impoverished people
"f you don't accept this infamy the little
property that you have left shall be con6s-
c.ted, and every man of you shall be distran-
chsedw Congress, claiming to be allpower
full, installed an army in your midst, and
found citizens ready and willing to urge, to
persuade, to intimidate and to threaten a
starving and almost helpless people. !,
Oh, my countrymen, proud as know
Southern blood to be, don't chile me il, in
this dark hour, felt uneasy. confess that
/ did. watched the first election-the elec-
ton for the Convention-with intenseFin.er-
est. l happened to be in New York city
when the first election in the South came off,
and shall never forget how my hopes We're
lifted and my desires fulfilled on receipt of
the first telegram from the South, giving, as
one of the facts connected with the Grst day
of the election, that the whites refused to
have anything to do'withit L waited anx-
iousl, for the second day, thinking that per-
haps the superior race" had crowded in, and
the whites were, on that account, unable to
get to the polls. [Laugaterl The second
day came, and brought the news that the
whites had, almost 10 man, rem ,inei away
from the pollS-only few carpet-baggers and
office seekers voting. Thus the elections went
Oh TO the last. tell you, fellow-citizens, ]
moved among the inhabitants of the great
commercial metropolis prouder that day than
ever before. ! shall never forget meeting
some OF the prominent men of that city. one
of whom said to me, "We had been taught
to believe that the people Of the South would
endorse this measure, and they have had moth
ing to do with it." "Why," added he,
ayour people are more honorable than we
gave them credit lor." Well, the power
with the bayonet said .that.a Convention was
ordered. All knew, however, that it was Or
dered by negroes, not by whites-though, in
truth, nobody did order it but the bayonet
and certain scoundres. The negroes never
ordered it. eXonerate The negroes. Laugh
teri affirm to-day another great fact. which
| want to be remembered, anu which, when
ever the occasion m.y demand, | stand pre-
pared to support: The Convention in Geor
gia was defeated by thirty thousand votes |!
Wild cheering.l Ah, my friends, there is
nothing like it IN history You were poor,
you were betrayed, tempted, threateued--7you
were told that every man that didn't vote for
the CJuv>ntipn, must have Ills little remaining
property coniscated, besides being disfran-
-chiscd, aud thIt the list of voters was to be
used to ascertain who you were.
Miserable threat Proud people-noble
people The verdict you gave was that,
though MANY oil our gallant spirits were
sleeping under the sod. there was heroism
still lcll i'll the South. [Eathusiastc Cheers
Well, the false convention assembled and
thing called constitution was framed. 1t
had to be ratified, ard Governor and officers
had ,u be chosen, a:id what was the appeal
then? OF conrs.', If the s n;hern white peo'
pie approved The constitution, this dishonor
was complete. They had exhausted appeals
to, your iears-you could not be frightened
frcw Jour honor-and the next thing was to
bug you up. So they put in the new Constl-
tuition something called relief. The few men
in the South who, unfortunately, were South
crn men from accident or other cause) who
had sold themselves 10 engage in this work,
being entirely conscious that they were
bought up for the purpose, thought, of course,
that the same means would answer for the
balarce Of the people. They, th refore,
sought to buy You, and they promised you
relief. | came, here 10 this very city and |
took occasion to notify you that this promise
was put in the new Constitution for 20 other
purpose than to cheat you. aud that therogues
and by ypocrites who put it in, did so with the
distiucr knowledge that it acoNld' be stricken
ont after the election. They Used it we'll.
Thcy bid high. The question was this how
many men 10 Georgia are willing to confess
themselves no better than negroes it they
could thereby get rid of their debts F? how
many Of you wQuld be willing TO be negroes,
if by being negroes you conid be excused
from paying Your d'bts? Well, | came to
this city in March 10 inaugnra'c the fight on
that question, and some Of you, my friends,
were weak-kneed. You didn't t'o right A
goud many of you came to me then and said,
" Don't you say anything against the Consii-
tuiion everybody is going to vote for it,
everybody was going to be Sold" IT was
great wound ts iuh ct upon me. / wasstrug.
Iirg for nothing on this earth but TO preserve
the puIlior of the people Of Georgia, and,
knowing that they could not be frightened,
noped they could not BE- bought. We made
the fight aud let the whole world know it,
the white people of Georgia, by an over
whelmlng majority, refused 10 he bought.
Some few lnen,. / upprehend, are about in
the category OF the poor negroes who voted
for Convention TO get forty acres and q
mule" Ah you poor victims of willy hy-
pocrisy; of men to whom God gave white
skin by mistase. Laughter. You who
went upon the public block, before your coun.
trymen aad the world, and publicly proclaimed
that you were willing to be negro, it, by
being anegro, you could be excused from
paying youS debts, how d. you feel to day,
after agreeing to be negro aud haying to
pay your debts. too? Laughter
My friends, General Cobb made request
Of the military shan't make any--never
intended to but Iadvise you, poor fellows,
TO make one The only evidence OF how you
voted is in the'possession of the military: Go
then before they leave and ask them to burn
up the record. The great majority. OF the
white people spurned The bribe and despised
the bribers, and let it be forever remembered,
to your pride and honor, that the people Of
Georgia, under the. threat of the 63ayonet,,
with the temptations Of treachery all round
and in the very ashes of their poverty, have
said tc al. Insnkind: 4" We csn neither be
frightened nor bought frpN our honor"
[Great Cheering
have said the Military declared a,Con-
vention had been ordered, when there was
thirty thousand majority againstit., They also
declared that Gordon was defeated, and that
the Radical party had succeeded, when, in
ruth Gordon WAS elected by nearly ten
thousand votey. Tremendous Che9ers.] |
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