The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-05-24
CHARLES TON.
MONDAY MORNING, MAY "a, 1869.
Radicalism and the Prosperity of the
State.

kadtcaliSm and the prosperity Oh tne
State.
The Radicals profess to believe that their
doctrine Of universal equality-the abso-
Lutte political and social equality Of the Afri-
can, the Asiatio and the Caucasian-is the
salvation of the land and the guarantee Of
its future fortunes. They do not, it is true,
care to put their principles in practice at
home, nor do they desire to see the negro
enthroned in Albany or Boston. But where
the doctrine may be carried into effect
without injury to themselves, and with
positive advantage to the men who rep
resent their party, they halt at no half
measures, and do not rest satisfied until,
as in South Carolina, they have given
the control Of the State to the negro
leaders and their less respectable white
companions. The South Carolina Radicals,
nearer to the scene than the high priests of
New Eogland, do not aatter themselves,
however, that their new regime, with all its
many evils, has done the State particle Of
good. They see that the negroes can give
them but little help, and realize that the
| mandates Of the Union League must gradu-
ally lose their force. They find that in
every case where the negroes have been
entrusted with power, they have shown
their deep rooted inospacity, and have made
themselves and their party ridiculous.
They begin to learn that they gain no white
strength, that they attract no recruits to
their inky banner, and that the men who
have Joined them know no higher ambition
than to enrich themselves quickly and fee
from the wrath they dread. These things
they do not deny; and ss it is necessary to
assign some reason why South Carolina is
not doubling her crops Of cotton, why the
waste places Of her cities are not built up,
and why every squsre-foot Of land in
Charleston is not worth its dollar, they cast
the whole blame on the broad backs Of the
anti Radicals, and declare that We do not
prosper because strangers are ''brutally
"trsated, and when they come down to
our State, pufSs~in hand, are "basely
"driveu away"
That Charleston and South Carolina are
not as prosperous as they might be, we do
not deny; but we say, without fesr Of success
full contradiction, that NO city in the South
has made more substantial progress since
1866 than this city and State have done. We
have 50 reformed our system Of agriculture
"a a adapt il To f.aa lahar-Haha haxe riYan
and are giving attention to the improve
ment Of our manner OF oultivsting the soil,
and to the encouragement Of the use ct
labor saving machines. We have treated
the negroes with kindness despite their
novel assertions Of power and privilege.
And In the face Of every disadvantage, In
the face Of the plague Of insects and un-
propitious seasons, we produced in 1853
1869, crop Of cotton which will sell in tie
aggregate for little short Of twenty million
of dollars. Besides this, we made bread.
stuffs, rice and naval stores. We have also
opened Q new and important trade in phos-
phatic rock, in which hundreds Of thou
sands Of dollars have been invested. We
have put up mills and factories for grind
ing and manufacturing fertilizers. We
have, in advance Of any other Southern
State, had line of steamships running di.
rect to Liverpool The people Of the State
generally are out Of debt, and in Charles
ton the merchants have done better busi-
ness this year than in any previous year
since the close Of the war. These are hard
facts; although the Radicals, bent on ex-
cusing themselves, have the brazen impu-
denoe to declare that We are not prosper
ous because We drive strangers and capital
away.
or the manner In which strangers are
treated In this State, we have nothing new
to say. There Is Q business welcome here
for every capable and trustworthy man; but
no man, because he is new oomsr, has the
right to demand that to him the doors Of
every home shall be opened wide. Social
position each man must make for himself,
and when the new arrival, whether from
the North or across the seas, has become in
fact, ss well as in name, part Of the State,
he will have friends and acquaintanoes
enough aud will have made for himself 9
society which will be all that he needs and
all that he desires.
The truth Of the whole matter is, that we
have made the progress that we have in
spite of Radicalism, and in spite of the po-
litical rule of the native negro and foreign
adventurer. Had we had State govern
ment controlled by intelligent and respon-
sible men, we should have been far more
prosperous than we are. What wc have
accomplished is the fruit of the uutiring en-.
ergy and indomitsble spirit of our people,
who have put their hands to the plough and
worked themselves out Of the slough, while
men who know not their alphabet and others
to whom honesty is but name, have made
our laws and grown rich upon the spoils Of
Office. The only bar between our State and