The Sumter watchman. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1855-1881, 1871-05-17
,.erests and Influences as nov exist 10

iuterests and Influences as noH exist in
our State. !
There Gre other reforms also which
we must demand imperiously and
peremptorily. One is the repealef that
| most unjust and scandalons election law
| under which our last general election
was held. Another is an absolute pro
hibition of any further increase Of our
public debt except under restrictions
which shall be rigid and absolute.
Another is the immediate reduction
of all public. expenditures to at least
two thirds of their present amount.
Another is the speedy removal, oy
the Executive, of incompetent local
officers, especially tax officers, and the
appointment of capable and honest pen
ia, their places, regardless Of party.
This will effect only partial present
remedy; but it will do much immediate.
ly to remove deep and just cause Of
complaint.
These are some of the demands of the
hour, which !, for one, will join With all
good citizens in makirg, and trust
that by every means, by individual in-
Aaence and action, by the press and BY
conventions, the people of the State
will proclaim and enforce these just
demands.
There are abundant means, in my
judgment, within the reach Of the tax
payers of our State. to enforce these
changes without doing violence to civil
and social order. In fact, nothing is so
sure to proloug the present situation as
a resort to violence. Nothing can, and
nothing will, in the eyes of the nation
and the world, justify and excuse what
is known as Ku Kluxism. 1t is simply
horrible, infamous, diabolical; never to
be tolerated as means of reform or
relief from present abuses, for it is in
itself the most stupeudous Of all crimes.
Good citizens who look to reform must
compel such means to be forever aban.
doned. Violence begets violence, and
soon that spirit of lawlessuess which
finds countenance or escapes denuncia-
ton will run riot and PROSTATE all the
common safeguards of civil society. 1t
will, in due time, return to plague its
inventors.
But by whatever means and from
whatever causes relief and reform are
secured, they must come from ourselves
and not from abroad.
Our hope lies solely in the strong and
fixed resolution Of our own people, to
right our own people, to right our own
wrongs and to work out our own saliva
tiou. Repression Of open crime may
come from the national government, but
permanent reform in our political con-
dition can only come through ourselves.
Let tbs truth be never forgotten. 1t is
lesson Which must be learnt at what
ever cost.
With reso!ute and prudent spirit
on the part OF our responsible and en-
lightened fellow citizens, cheertully
acknowledging aud defending the equal
civil and political rights of all our
citizens, laying aside efcte traditions,
aud bending all their energies to the
work of present reform, / confidently
say, from my intimate knowledge Of the
present situation, that not only can the
present dominant party be restrained
from further abuse. but they can be con
trolled in the interest of those who look
to the common and permanent welfare OF
our State.
Despair is folly; doubt is weakness.
Resolution, confidence, prudence, fair
ness, justice, are the qualities which the
situation calls for. Our State can be
saved-saved by peaceful, constitutional
means; and only by such means adopted
by her own citizens can she be saved at
all.
You and I, at least, are ready for
such work. Who that loves his race
or his State will refuse his aid?
With sentiments Of high personal re-
gard, | remain your obedieut servant,
D. II. CHAMBERLAIN.