The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-23
Senator Cain and Reform.

We print to-day a asigni6cant leading arti-
Gle from the Missionary Record, in which
Senator Cain, leading spirit among the
black citizens of the State, applauds the
purposes of the Reform Mass Meeting whose
demands, he says, eve second with all our
s'heart." Senator Cain, however, with o
natural desire to perpetuate the strength OF
South Carolina Republicanism, urges the
honest men OF his party 'to purge out the
"thieves and robbers" upon the ground that
the Retrenchment and Reform which we
need Can most surely be obtained "within
.'the Republican party" This sentiment
may be shared by some who have, up to
this time, fought in the ranks Of the Opposi-
tion; but any attempt to regenerate and re-
form what is known here as the Republican
Party, would, at this time, we are fully con-
vinced, fasten upon the State more firmly
than ever the shackles of Dishonesty and
Corruption.
The Scott Ring have made Radicalsm
odious by their wanton extravagapce, their
wilful waste, and their persistent disregard Of
the interests and wants Of the people. Nine
tenths of tho white people of the State
would, for this reason, without going fnrther,
fatty refuse to have anything to do with any
movement saddled with the name of Repub
lican. And what would become of the few
earnest men who might go over.in the hope
of leavening the lump? Like pebbles cast
into the mire, they would be lost to sight;
with the filth of Fraud and Wrong above
and around them, they would be utterly un-
able to help themselves or their people. Nor
do the Scott Ring desire to obtain respecta-
BILE recruits They fear the advent of honest
and intelligent men. Already they denounce
and abuse any man who may go over to
their party with the expectation Of sharing
their power and their place. Their organ
cries aloud that none but tried Republicans
must be put on guard. And now it exhorts
the party to trust no Democrat who joins
them until they KNOW him to be an out-and-
out, thorough RADICAL FROM CONvIC-
TION.
This is enough to show what decent men
may look for if they go over to the Republi-
canism of the present. And, besides, the
Ring, which has led the party for two years
and more, leads it still. The men who COM
pose that Ring are gorged with spoils, but
they cry for more. They want more office,
more jobbery, more bribery, more pecula-
ton. They are manipulating the party in
the interest of their own greed. And how
ever better men, like Senator Cain, may
call for Reform within the Republican ranks,
it is as certain as the rising Of the morrow's
sun, that the triumph of the Radical Repub-
lican party in the fall elections will have as
its only result the perpetuation OF the power
of the Ring and the Inauguration Of ofanother
reign of Profigacy and Theft.
There is but one hope for South Carolina,
and it lies in the prompt and thorough or
ganization of all the good people of the
State, upon the broad platform OF Reform.
There may stand, Democrat and Republican,
white man and black man, the native citi-
zen and the adopted son of the State, all
working manfully, under the law, for the
triumph, not of race or party, but of the
eternal principles of good government-for
Honesty, Retrenchment and Reform.