The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-06-22

| where people had room enough and did not IN
terfere with each other, and where the laborlng
class was owned or controlled by the land
holders, was the highest type of modern civil
| cation. I changed the subject, and asked it ne
! thought immigration desirable for the South !
ono" he replied, eve don't want Northern
men to come here let them stay at home
where they belong This is our country, and
NE want to keep it for ourselves and children.
If people who call themselves our conquerrors
insist on coming here against our wishes, they
need expect no welcome from us. We Will
have nothing to do with them."
General Toombs spoke with great bitterness
of the reconstruction acts and constitutional
amendments. The patty that passed them
were liars, he said, foe they pretended to be-
lieve in self.government, and at the same time
would not give the South any liberty to regu-
late her own affairs, but ruled her first by mill
tary oficera and then by horde of Northern
thieves, sent down here to hold the Offices and.
tyrannize over the people. "Why can't you
let us alone9" he went ON excitedly. HIf your
idea of government is not a lie, stay away and
let us manage our own affairs. We don't want
to have anything to do with you. We had the
satisfaction of killing more than 200, 900 of you,
and if my advice had been followed the war
would not have ended until we had killed
more" Once upon the subject of war, he
went on to argue the right of secession, to de-
nounce the North, and to call the Union army
horde of mercenaries, marauders and thieves.
It was clear that the war had taught him no
lesson, and that his feelings were as bitter as
when the contest was at its height. He finally
got upon the subject of the present State Gov
ernment of Georgia. Gov. Bullock, he said,
had stolen $40, 600, 900 from the State for him
self and his friends. The bonds the Radicals
had issued would never be paid. 1t amused
him to see the Wall street bankers buying them
at 80 or 80 cents on the dollar when they were
not worth copper. No man here would give
a dime for bushel of them. He hoped Bull
lock would forge lot of them, and give the
New York Yankees all they would take at any
price. It was way of foraging on the enemy
that he liked to see. Not dollar of the debt
contracted since the war would ever be paid.
He gave an entertaining description OF the
the character and antecedents of the prominent
Radicals in the State, and would not admit that
there was decent man among them all. Most
of the members of the Legislature, he said,
never yentured to go back to the counties they
pretended to represent, for they knew the
people would hang them if they did. The two
members from the neighboring county of Lin
coin had never been there since they were elect
ed, in 1868.
AS regards negro suffrage, that he thought
an unmixed evil. A great lump of ignorance
and vice had been made part of the governing
class. He said vice because the negroes were
all thieves. They were like animals, and
would steal anything they saw that they want
ed, as naturally as a hog would break into q
potato-6eld or a dog would seize piece OF
meat He did not think an intelligent qualih-
cation for suffrage would remedy the evil
Reading and writing did not fit man for
voting. The Paris mob were intelligent, but
thew were the most dangerous class in the
world to be trusted with any of the powers of
government. A property qualification was THAT
was necessary for stable government. Only
those who owned the country should govern it.
and men who had no property had no right to
make laws for property holders. He said there
was no harm in the negroes voting as long as
the whites all belonged to one party, but the
danger he feared was that the whites would
eventually divide into two parties on State is-
sues, and that party wonld be formed, COM
posed of the lower classes Of white men-the
dangerous, irresponsible element-and that the
negroes, by natural affinity, would join that
party which would then be in the majority, and
being able to control the State, would then at
tack the interests of the landed proprietors.-
The Radicals have been greatly mistaken IN
counting upon the negroes as the basis OF their
party. 7'The negroes, now that they are salts
fed there is no danger Of being re,,enslaved,
will vote Just as their employers tell them
They can't afford to do anything else They
are attached to their old homes, and have no
money with which to move and find new ones,
and they will not risk being discharged by
voting against the planters who hire them.
Two4thirds of the negroes in this county voted
with the Democrats last fall, he said.
asked if, when the golden age of Southern
independence came, which he so confidently
expected, the blacks would be reduced to
slavery again. He thought not, and said that
slavery would have gradually died out if Sc
cession had been successful, because it would
soon have ceased to be profitable. Only in
cotton culture did slave labor pay, because
cotton is crop that must be worked 365 days
in q year. Corn requires but AZ days labor,
and wheat but 20; SO there was no proht In
feeding man and his family whole year to
get his labor to raise corn or wheat There
never was any question of morals connected
nrofit or loss. was glad to find that, on this
Question. General Toombs had made some prog
ress in his opinions during the past ten years,
and that be no longer expects to have that
roll call at the foot of the monument. General
Toombs characterized the Ku Klux as the nat
ural protest Of an oppressed people against
tyranny. Madame De Stael, he said, had de-
scribed the Russian Government as despot-
ism tempered by assassination. Although he
did not say SO in explicit terms, he let it be
clearly inferred that he considered tho recon
structed governments of the Southern States as
despotisms tempered by Ku Kluxism.
The conversation lasted an hour; and was
much of the time discussion which consid-
cred more acrimonious than courteous on the
part of General Toombs, as he was the aggres-
sor and assailed the Northern people, their
habits, customs, ancestors and character with
extreme violence. Half an hour afterward we
parted. While strolling about the town [ met
him on his way home, and cordially invited
me me to take tea with him, somewhat to my sur
prise. We walked up narrow street bordered
by handsome white houses, with pretty door
Sss.aa and turned into q lovely garden filled