The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-24
Action, Action! Action :


pected to be submitted to the State Reform
Convention, which assemblies in Columbia
next month. The essential point of one plan
is, to make no Opposition nominations for
Governor and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; the
main principle Of the other plan is, the
prompt nomination of able and respectable
men who will oppose, on the stump -and in
council, the candidates of the Scott party.
Neither plan necessarily interieres with the
wise policy of avoiding, wherever practical
bile, CONTEST for the Legislature and for
county Offices This, then, is the whole
question: Shall there, or shall there not,
be any opposition to Scott and his associ-
ate, as candidates for Governor and Lieu
tenant-G Governor OF South Carolina
The advocates of 20 mastery inactivity"
in regard to Governor and Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor argue that it is impossible to defeat
Scott. that it is useless to make losing
fight and that an active opposition, on the
State ticket, to the Scott clique, will consoli-
date its adherents and make it impossible to
arrange any compromise for members OF the
Legislature and county offices. These ar
guments, we confess, have no weight with
us. Admitting that Scott will be the nomi-
nee of the Radical party, and that he will
use with his accustomed unscrupulousness
the extraordinary powers which he does
possess, we are not ready to concede that he
cannot be overcome. When he is made to
stand before the people in his true colors as
the implacable foe Of every decent man, his
strength will melt away, and those nearest
him in official station will not dare to give
him their support. But no milk-and-water "o-
position will defeat Scott. The fight, to be
successful, must be hard and sharp, and we
believe that the June Convention can, If it
will, find man, who, being heartily sup
ported by the white people Of the State, will
beat Scott by ten thousand majority. The
day can be ours, but waiting and whining
will not give us the victory.
Nor can we admit that it is useless to
make a losing fight. To allow Scott to
strut unopposed over the course, is to aban-
don the principle Of assaulting iniquity and
wrong wherever we may find them. This
.was the Split which animated our people
few years ago. Then, if our quarrel were
Just, the people went into the fray, resolved
that if they could not command success they
would at least deserve it. And this should
be our ahaxim dow. The Father OF Lies
himself, as old legends tell was once out
witted, but because this was done shall our
people hope to make profitable bargain
with Robert X. Scott? We are fallen low, in.
deed, if we are to meet lie with lie, trick
with trick, wrong with wrong. Better is it
a thousand times to make bold and man.
" fight in the cause of honesty and truth
And though our candidates were defeated
we would Join issue with Rascality and Cor
ruption again and again, until at last vic
tory smiled upor our banners; for it must
be borne in mirH. hat immigration, and Di-
rect Trade, and the encouragement of Man
ufactures, we cannot have unless we REFORM
the government Of the, State.
We have no fear that an opposition to the
election of Scott will have any effect in con-
solidating and solidiiying his party. If we
withdraw all opposition, and allow the Ring
to say in the whole State, and in every coun-
ty, who shall be elected, there may be a
want Of solidity, and here and there two
Radicals may oppose each other. But while
there is any opposition, in any county, there
will be no disintegration of the party. That
is to say, the leaders of that party will stand
by each other, under all circumstances, if
there is any prospect of their own downfall.
| The point that the opposition should make
!, is to drive into the ranks of the enemy, and
appeal not to the gaudy chieftains, but to
the rank and file Of the voting army. AL
; their interests are on the side OF good gov.
erpment, if the truth be brought home to
them. OF this they can be convinced. AND
if they arc protected by the whites from the
bullying and believing of their party over
seers there will be no lack Of recruits in the
cause OF Reform.
Action! Action! Action! is what must
save the State. Action! against Scott
Action against every man who has made
himself bargainer with Dishonesty and
Fraud. Let the June Convention put its
candidates in the field, and, with proper
effort, the day is our own. Without or,
eanization, and without concert of action,
we can accomplish nothing. And we can
have no effective organization, no complete
unity of action, if we allow Scott to be re-
elected without even q show of fight.
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