The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-07-21
Letter from General Kersbaw.

Letter from General Kersbaw.
To the Editor of the Banner of the South.
SIR: You have seen fit, in the exercise OF the
responsible position of a public Journalist, to
brand me with the imputation of deserting my
principles for the greed of Office. Your paper
finds circulation chiefly among those whose
good opinion I value next to the approval OF
my OVID conscience.
Hasty and uncharitable as has been your at
tempt to degrade me in the estimation of your
readers you cannot, as Christian, decline to
give me the poor privilege wholly inadequate
though it be, to repair the wrong you have
done me, of recording in your paper simple
statement of the facts, that my friends may
draw their own deductions.
There never has been an emotion of my
mind, not entirely in accord with the principles
and opinions which caused me to advocate the
secession of South Carolina in 1850, to vote for
it in 1860, and to offer my little all for its sup
port, from April, 1861, to April, 1866. That it
pleased God that l should survive the war, in
dcated to me that had still duties to perform,
and to them, as responsible to Him and not un-
to man, have been, am now, and shall hence
forward address myself I could see but one
object before me, and that was to alleviate, in
any and every honorable way, the suferings of
my countrymen. 1t was this sentiment which
induced me, in July 1865, to accept the parole
of President Johnson as prisoner of war, and
to take, with my brother officers at Fort Warren,
what is known as the amnesty OATH" This
officer under the provisional governments es-
tablished in the States by President Johnson,
pledged the af6ant, thenceforth, faithfully to
support and defend the constitution of the
United States and the union of the States
Hereunder" and, in like manner, to "abide by
and faithfully support all laws and proclama-
tions which have been made during the exis-
ting rebellion with reference to the emancipa-
ton of slaves" When had taken that oath,
I regarded that as citizen duty required me
to deal with emancipation and the surrender of
the right of secession "as accomplished facts,
having the force and obligation of law"
When the reconstruction acts imposed negro
suffrage upon the people of the South, be-
lieved that it would be fastened upon us as
permanent feature of the American constitu-
tion, which required that to bring them in har-
mony with the Republicanism of other lands.
Believing that then advocated the policy of
acquiescing in the inevitable, and seeking to
direct the newly created power into just and
proper channels, to bring it in harmony with
the social and material interests of society as
then existing rather than to stand idly by and
see il perverted to the most malignant antago-
nism, and the vilest purposes of political cor
ruption, by foreign Adventures. How far l
was right or wrong, let the annals of the Scott
dynasty in South Carolina resting alone upon
the votes of the African, declare.
The people of South Carolina made no effort
to avert or to control the progress of the recon-
struction acts. They contented themselves with
denouncing their iniquity and their unconsti.
tutionality. Alas alas this has not arrested
their progress. An appeal was made against
them to the people of the United States, in the
late Presidential election. In common with
other Democrats, 1 appealed to the colored
people to vote for their own disfranchisement,
but, sad to tell, they wouldn't do it. They had
not vet reached that point of sublimated mag
nanimity. The majority of the white people of
the country, too, deaf to the appeals to their
pride or prejudice of race, affirmed the policy
and principles of the reconstruction acts. The
Supreme Court recognized them as law,
and all the South accepted the situation"
The fifteenth amendment to the constitution,
however adopted, has acquired the form of law
has been accepted as law in the practice of
all the States, and can never be reversed but
by revolution or repeal To which of these
measures do you, sir, invite US, as means of
maintaining the principles of Right, of JUS
tice, of Truth, which we practiced and upheld
in the past? 2"
What were those principles? The right of
secession? Undoubtedly it was right, but
we lost it by the war, and surrendered it when
we accepted life, property, and civil law, con-
ditioned with the amended oath of allegiance.
The justice of self-government under the
constitution and laws of our fathers, as con-
l>,,C Co1 f1,a nj
human reason is attained in the age of milleni-
al glory, believe we may hope for a restora-
tion of that justice.
The truth that human slavery is consistent
with Christian morality? By the constitution
al enactments of the people Of South Carolina,
in convention assembled, in 1865, that has been
rendered mere abstraction, which care not
to discuss.
know of no party in the South whose ban
ner is inscribed with the watchwords Repeal
or Revolution" and because see no hope for
South Carolina to escape from groveling ruin,
poverty and despair, in any other way, have
aided in elevating the bloodless banner of
'sUnion and Reform" and have at my side,
thank God the best and bravest of those who
upbore the Conquered Banner, until God and
reason babe them furl it. That my friends
abroad may judge of the justice of your criti-
cism, have traced my thoughts in connection
with the events of the past few years, that they
may comprehend my course in the late conven-
tion. My friends here know that I went into
that convention to take no leading part, but to
aid in preserving the ancient landmarks, while
promoting the proposed reform.
In order to do so the more advlsedly nave
endeavored to put in writing what believe to
be the principles upon which those who ap,,
preached the subject from our standpoint could
invite the cooperation of she colored people,
without whose assistance the whole movement
was an impracticable absurdity.
Then follows the resolutions which General
Kershaw introduced in the convention on the
evening of its organization, and which have
already been published
If know what truth is, these declarations