The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-08-25
voLUME e---No. 9.
Gen. Kershaw,s Speech In Columbia.

ten. KershaW,s Speech In Columbia.
1 We make the following extracts from the
speech of Gen. J. B. Kershaw at the Reform
mass meeting held in Columbia on the 18th
inst Its truthful utterances deserve to be
placed before every voter in South Carolina,
and we trust that our friends will make proper
use of it: s9c g
The General alluded to his trip in the North
western Counties of the State. He said he did
not originally intend to participate in the can
vass through the whole State, bot he would
never refuse to obey when called upon, and
therefore he could not refuse to- come here and
address the people few words on,the grounds
upon which we claim for the Union Reform
party the support of all honest men. In the
counties through which he had Travelled he
found the white men are in hearty accord with
the party-in accord with it not only as q
measure of expediency, but as matter Of prin-
ciple, and he believed, whatever the result of
the election, that the white people of South
Carolina would never recede from the position
they have now taken. The best guarantee the
colored people have for their rights is not IN
the Fifteenth Amendment, but in the pledge Of
the white men of South Carolina to acknowl-
edge and protect them in it. A laborer would
very naturally feel uncertain and i'll at ease as
long as his employer did not acknowledge his
rights, but when this acknowledgment was
made, he felt guarantee in the mutual conf
dence engendered.
Abiding to the corrupting influence of the
Scott Government, he said: Nowhere in the
State was it more strongly felt than in this
place, and hence this was most difficult place
to operate in, but the honest yeomanry of the
country, who sweat and toll for the wealth of
these ofice-holders, are really and earnestly
concerned in this movement. The working
men, white and colored, who support the enor-
nous display of private wealth seen in this
city, are the men to consider this In 1860 the
price of labor was higher than it is now: A
laboring man gets now only eight or ten dollars
per month. In 1860 laborer was hired out
at from ten to twenty dollars, and was given
food and medical attendance and properly
cared for; and this depreciation of the price of
labor is due solely to the enormous taxation"
"a voice in the crowd. "How many lashes."]
General Kershaw (seriously.) If you intend
to hold us responsible for the evils of slavery
that amounts to declaration of war, and if that
my friend, is the declaration of the colored
people, we had better take to the rife at once.
If thought that all the colored people in
dulged in the same sentiment that you do, I
would advise them to take their Winchester
Rifles, and the white men to take what arms
they could gather up, and fight it out, now that
we can't cure the evils of the past. It is not
in the power of Almighty God to do it. We
your sentiment is entertained by the whole
colored people, I believe it would be better for
US all to resort to arms and fight it out at once.
But I don't believe that to be the case. Ihaye
wife and children who are dear to me.
A dozen voices in the crowd "And so have l."
General Kershaw. We all have, and we don't
care to risk their lives The people who armed
you have, most of them, no families to bind
them here. They have made enough money,
and can go away out of reach of harm when
they have brought on violence and bloodshed.
We have not made enough, and must stay here
with our families In order to do so we must
past evils which cannot be cured, and turn our
attention to the curing of present evils.
When you were first freed, we had to be ed
ucated up to the point, of being ready to well
come you to your newborn rights, as much as
you had to be educated into using them proper
ly. We hare been educated to that point to-
day, and you are not When we come to you
in friendship, you reply to US by bringing up
these unpleasant "reminiscences, which itwould
be better for us all to forget. take shame to
myself that you have not been brought up to
that position; shame that We did not make an
earlier effort to educate you to it.
don't object that you took your leaders
from the United States armies, from the Freed
mems Bureau and from the Republicans was
quite natural. don't object if they had only
honestly and faithfully endeavored to bring
you up as good citizens, and to vote and to act
for yourselves 1 don't know anything about
Gov. Scott, except by his public record. on
ly know that FIVE years have gone by since you
became citizens, and we are no closer together
than we were at first. am not responsible
for this. did all could to heal the breach
and am doing it now, as are also the entire
white race in the State But as long as this
middle wall hangs between US, so long will
there be Winchester rifles in the hands Of the
colored man, and pistols in the hands of the
white man and so long will these men con-
tinue to grow rich and make millions off sal
ary of $4,000 year.