The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-06-18
The Union Reform Convention.

wasted her substance; but the first blow is
struck, the note OF alarm is sounded, and
work and honest dealing can, and shall, ac-
complish all the rest.
In order to understand the full signii-
cance of the action Of the Union Reform
Convention, and in order that the country
may properly appreciate the largeness and
breadth Of spirit which mark the whole
movement, we must take into consideration
the composition of that body which, upon
the platform of honesty and equal rights,
of the law and the constitution, has put be-
fore the people Judge R. B. Carpenter and
General NJ. C. Butler as the leaders and
the chieftains Of the party of Retrenchment
and Reform.
The stern logic Of events had taught the
people of The State that, while the Right
could never become the Wrong, while no
man had any public act to retract or any
soldierly deed of which to repent, it was in
cumbent upon every good citizen to yield a
full obedience to the law Of the land. AS
long as there was any hope that unjust laws,
and deeds of oppression and wrong, would
undo their own sad work, the people were
unwilling 10 act their past i'll the new drama
of Southern life. Their inaction, although
natural enough, enabled the adyenturer aud
pettifogger to become the rulers OF the
State, and just at the moment when the
tyrannies Of party could no longer be borne,
it became evident that the organic changes
of law to which the people had opposed a
mute opposition, were about to become
fixed part of the fundamental law of the
Union. There was no organized party
which could direct itself exclusively to the
work of reforming and regenerating the
Government of the State. 1t was necessary
that the first step should be taken, and this
feeling led to that conference OF the Reform
press, whose result was o formal rec
ognition, on their part, of the civil and po-
litical equality of all citizens, and a recon-
mendation that convention be held, in Co.
lumbia, for the purpose of uniting all good
men. in the noblest work in which people
ever engaged.
The action Of the Press Conference was
assented to by nearly every newspaper in
the State. Charleston gave the proposal
for convention its hearty approval, and
echoiDg words Of good cheer came back
from distant Union. Every day the move
ment gained in strength and force, and
when the Convention assembled at the Cap
ital, on Wednesday last, tWenty-toco coun-
ties were represented. or the remaining
nine there was one which was unrepresented
by accident, and OF the remainder several
are known to be in favor of the movement
The interests or the wishes Of some local
statesman may gag them for time, but
when the canvass fairly opens, they, with
their sister counties, as their only hope, will
join the phalanx Of Reform.
All the counties which sent delegates to
the Convention did so upon the basis OF q
declaration OF the recognition of the civil
and political equality OF all citizens and
most of them, as matter of course, sent
colored as well as white delegates. Among
the white delegates were men OF high stand
ing in every walk OF life. Gallant soldiers
who had shed their blood for the South, and
who now guide the plough or live amid the
busy hum of machinery. Large-minded
merchants whose ships furrow the seas, and
who look forward to the time when, with a
reformed government, Charleston may be
more prosperous than in the days OF yore.
Intelligent planters, who know that good
crops are of little avail when laws are unjust
and taxes are ruinously high. Mechanics
and laboring men. who feel that it is i'm
possible for the mechanic to prosper while
the State is made bankrupt by political rob-
bers, while property falls in value, while
bricks and mortar, except in peculiar cases,
are about the worst investment any man can
select. These, with sprinkling OF profess
sional men, made up the white portion OF
the Convention. Only one class was want,
ing-a class which is fast dwindling into de-
served insigniGcance class which hopes
nothing, acknowledges nothing, learns moth
ing and does nothing. The colored dele
gates were fine representative men. They
came forward of their own free will, they
acted as they pleased they were free and
untrammelled in every particular. There
was no pressure upon them; nor, as their
action proves, were they the tools Of any
clique or party. Both races, then, were
well represented by influential, intelligent,
upright men. Past party politics had no
sway with the Convention. Pronounced Re-
publcans stood upon the floor and declared
their adhesion to the cause OF Reform. They
were Republicans still, but as honest men they
could endure no longer the rascalities and
lznaveries OF Scott and his Ring. All shades
of opinion, as we'll as all colors and classes,
were fairly represented. They had one
thing in common desire to obtain good
government This was the whole scope and
purpose OF the Reform Convention.
And the action of the Convention is, we
say, eminently consistent, pru-