Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-02-20

ron time 10 time, to enable them to
carry out their nefarious purposes.
You can we'll imagine how it ehafes
the citizens of the once proud State of
South Carolina to see seventy-fiye ne
groes, field hands, many of them so
ignorant they can neither write nor
read, making laws, under dictation of
the Radical party, 10 govern their for
mer masters, and, horrible djctu, &C.
cupying the same seats that l have
seen in other days filed by Calhoun,
Lowndes, Pinckney, MeDuffie, Har-
per, Preston, Legare, Hayne, Hamil-
ton, Cheyes, Butler, Hammond, Petit
CRU, Earl, ONeill, Ion, Deas, and
many others ofWell-remembered fame.
l must give you some idea Of the
dignified manner in which business is
occasionally done in our Legislature.
The other day a circus company Vis-
tied Columbia. As is usual in other
places, it paraded through the streets
on the morning Of the night fixed for
the first performance. As the caval-
cade approached the State House,
where "the assembled wisdom OF the
State'Were celebrating on the destiny
of the republic, one of the grave and
reverend seigniors, M of Il noble
and good masters, hearing the ''shrill
trump, the spirit-stirring drum, the
e%ar-piercing fife," could not restrain
himself, so rising in his place, adj
dressed the Speaker thus tas a reporter
states):
Il say, de show is a coming. 1
moves dis here resOlutiOn-dat dis
honorable body moves to the ViHdeT
to see de ShOW pass"
The motion was carried, of course,
nemiRe cOntrddiceHte, and the mem
bers of the Legislature of the proud
state of South Carolina, with n con-
sent, Immediately moved to the win
dOws ''to see de show pas5!' Such a
b%uTlesque on the name Of government
as may daily be witnessed at this time
in our State, the history Of the world
can produce no parallel to.
must not omit to remark that so
thoroughly has the Radical party con-
triyed to carry out its plans, and to
possess itself of sovereign sway, that
not an Office in the State worth hay
ing is held by a South CarOlinian.
New England men have appropriated
all the influential Offices-the Cover
nor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer,
Comptroller, Attorney General, the
Judges, Senators in Congress, and
members of Congress, the Collector of
the Port, Assistant Collector "a negrO),
the Mayor Of Charleston, the City At
torneV, and other offices too numerous
to mention, are filed by men who
emigrated from New England TO profit
by reconstruction after the war, or
rather, more properly speaking, from
the destruction that followed the
peace.
The principal authorities of the State
are daily denounced loudly by the
press, and it seems they cannot deny
the charge that they are taking adj
vantage of their official stations, to
be movers in certain transactions by
which they are filling their pockets at
the cost of the poor taxpayer, acting
upon the hint given by Idgo to ROder-
igo, Put money in thy purse, hon
estly if you can, but put money in thy
purse"
In addition to this, the poor, ignO-
rant negro legislator, by way OF let
ting him come in for a share of the
plumber, is put up to estimate his ser
vices higher than did the educated
men who stood, in their day, second
to none in the councils Of the nation,
not only having the edrontery to vote
a double per diem allowance for them
selves, but TO provide for its payment
in gold, and in advance.
The impOsitiOns Of our ~caFpet-bag
government exceed ordinary endu-
rance. What is to be the end l know
not. Oppressed as the South is by
agencies we cannot control, and sad
dened as we are by the memory Ofthe
past, how low we have fallen from our
once high estate, We cannot look with
a confident spirit from the present to
the future.
1t is, indeed, night-a dark night
with US; so rayless, look which way I
will, / canuOtdiscern in any direction
the ~faintest CLEAN of the coming day.
l believe the only hope remaining for
the SOuth-the dOwn-trOdden, insulted
South-tO escape from the potent in
duenees of the political tiBkeriug to
we are now so merGilesSly sub
is by the triumph Of the Demo-
cratic party. There must be q strong,
effort, then, at the next election
to achieve "a consummation 50 de.
to be wished"