The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-03
The Dangers OF Delay.

l 4uC w SOuCu SbiOklud1 NithOOS y
dissenting voice, admit that any party which
may be organized in opposition to Personal
Dishonesty and Official Corruption must,
from the beginning, affirm and guarantee
the equal cial and political rights of all
citizens of the State.-A small knot Of very
estimable persons, who dub themselves Do
Nothings, argue that no effort should be
made to defeat Radicalisnl, because Radical
ism will die hard, and our people must stoop
to conquer. Another plan is for each coun-
ty to do the best it can for itself, and let
Scott catch the hindmost. And the third
proposition, which is already assented to by
three-fourths Of the white people Of the State,
is to make grand effort for the union of all
good men whatever their politics, their
color, or their class-for the purpose of elect
ing upright and intelligent men who will
give South Carolina pure, respectable
and o frugal government. But all three
classes however they may differ in other
respects are agreed that, if there be any op-
position to Radicalism at the Fall elections,
| the opposition must be based upon such o
recognition of existing facts, and Of existing
laws, as is contained in the resolutions
adopted unanimously by the conference Of
the Anti-Radical press. This, at Eleast, is
conceded by every class OF our people.
What, then, is to be the effect Of this nearly
unonimone concaasion7
The Democracy Of the South, since the
close of the Confederate war, have, in point
of fact, been arrayed against that party
which, for its own protection, conferred
upon the blacks the right to vote. Aud in
the National Democratic Convention Of 1868,
it was declared that the Reconstruction
Acts-which enfranchised blacks and dis
franchised whites were unconstitutional
revolutionary and void. This action, I'M
wise in the extreme in our Judgment set the
Democratic Party in direct antagonism to
the freedmen Of the South. The people
whom we most desired to conciliate were
! made hostile in feeling, by the asMbsSAsN
action of National Convention Of the only
political party with which we could honest
ly work. The Democracy met with crush
ing defeat, and the subsequent adoption Of
new Constitutional Amendment put at rest
the whole question Of suffrage. 1t is urged,
that the Democracy OF the South will be
made so liberal and progressive that it can
hoist the Radical engineer with his own
petard, but the plain English Of it is that
Democracy means, in the opinion Of the
blacks and Of a majority Of the whites, open
or concealed hostility to negro suffrage and
a grudging acknowledgment Of what cannot
well be denied. When, then, the Press of
the State advise frank recognition of the
political equality Of the white and black
races-when they advise canvass conducted
upon the sole principle OF combining all the
honest men in the State in opposition to the
corrupt officials who now waste the sub
stance Of the people-the Democ cratic Party
is, for the time, broken up and disbanded.
This is, at all events, the popular opinion.
at this moment then, South Carolina has
but one organized party, which is the Radi-
cal party. The Democratic party, as a
State party, is not in being. This paper
has urged, and still urges, the formation OF
a Citizens REFoRA PARTY, which may in
clude all men, whatever their politics, race
or class, who desire to see taxation reduced
and the affairs of The State administered
with decency anL sense Our contemporary,
the Courier, declares that success may be
attained by the surrender Of individual differ
ences ''and the warm and earnest support
6. of the Citizens REFORM PARTY" and says,
besides, that ''no WISER ctdfse has been de-
veloped," and ''no more patriotic plan has
"been suggested" We stand nevertheless,
to-day, without any organized party in ep-
position to Radical hisrule. A Conven-
ton OF the People alone can form party,
define its principles and declare it's name-
And what will be the consequence il re
have not Convention CT the People, and
that speedily?
The State has but one organized party,
the Radical party, Which alone controls the
public Offices, the prblic plunder and the
political power. The old systems and the
old modes of action have been cast aside.
And we have given the People-nothing
Stripped OF their old belief, hammered out
of their old conceits, they are as men whose
idols are cast down and know not what new
thing to worship Let them alone, he still
and silent, do o'nothing; and too many Of the
people Of the State may insensibly grayitate
towards Radicalism, in the hope that their
honesty may make that party respectable.
This is a serious danger. We have pulled
down and have not builded up. AS yet it is
time. We may array nearly the whole in
telligence and the worth Of the State against
Extravagance and Fraud and on the side Of
Retrenchment and Reform. But unless q
Convention Of the People be speedily assem-
bled to put forth candidates and to give the
State an Anti-Dishonesty Party, the back
bone Of the opposition will be weakened,
aad we shall strengthen our enemies in num-