The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-08-22

tighten taxation, give to capital the right wnlcn
belongs to it, and at the same time see tnaI
labor is not robbed of its earnings. de Will
certainly hold his power of appointment as q
public trust, and not part OF his personal
possession to be used for the support o.: OF ms
family, or to encourage the private lloeransy M ot
his friends. He will, so far as he can without
transoressinp che limits of his legal authority,
relieve the Southern States from the gangs that
are now proving upon their vitals in open part
4 nership with the present Administration. l
q think he will do all this; and my faith is
founded on the testimony of his friends and
enemies. on the known facts of his history, and
4 on the moral influence which the Democracy
will necessarily exert upon his conduct. The
4 errors of his past life were caused by certain
evil communications from which he has clean
escaped. He heads a great revolt against
wickedness in high places, and do not beneVe
he will go back upon us and be guilty OF the
same wickedness himself The contrast between
the two candidates being so very strong, no no
fair-minded Democrat can doubt what he ought
to do. Yet, the reluctance which many OF us
feel to vote for either of them is hard to over
come. did, and do, most heartily sympathlze
with that class which received Mr.. Greeleys
nomination in much sorrow. l am sure this
feeling proceeded from no unworthy passion or
nrejudice. but was the natural result OF sober
1 thoupht on the condition of the country and
the fitness of things pertaining thereto.
In our view the controversy between the par
ties was not all about men, and not wholly on
questions of mere administration. The Llber-
al Republicans and some Democrats think that
we owe all our suferings to the corruption or
incapacity of General Grant and the rings that
surround him. But the prime cause lies fur
| ther back and deeper down in wrongs for which
the triumph Of Mr. Greeley with all his reforms
offers no Immediate atonement and only par
tial remedy. In England, after every civil
commotion, the victorious party vented its rage
and gratifed its rapacity by passing bills of at
tainder and bills of pains and penalties against
their fallen and helpless opponents. The best
and greatest men Of their respective ages were
the victims of these legislative DEGREES. In all
the most notable cases subsequent Parliaments
| acknowledged the wrong, reversed the attain
ders, and made what reparation they could.
Our fathers determined that no such thing
should ever be done here, and so they put their
solemn interdict into plain words, and made it
part of the fundamental law that neither
Congress nor any State Legislature should ever
pass bill Of attainder. The reconstruction
act of 1867 was bill of attainder more delib-
more compendiously unjust than any British
bill that ever was passed. But its authors were
conscious that it could not stand, and they
must replace it with something else, for sooner
or later the courts would be sure to pronounce
! it void. Besides, the object being to put the
| Southern people under the domination of
greedy adventures from the North with un-
| limited license to oppress and plunder them,
| the officers of the army were not very good
agents in such nefarious business. The ne
groes would be instruments of tyranny much
more easily managed. But an act of Congress
disfranchising the white people for offences
real or imputed, and handing over their State
governments to negroes to be run by them IN
the interests Of carpet-baggers, would be mere
ly another bill of attainder, or rather modifi-
cation of the first one, making it much worse,
but equally within the reach Of judicial correc-
ton. In this strait they resorted to the expe-
dent of converting the Constitution itself into
bill of attaiuder. The fourteenth and ff-
teenth amendments were frauds upon the spirit
and letter of the instrument, inasmuch as they
effected the worst outrage which it was made
! to prevent. They were carried against the
known will of nearly every State in the Union,
by shameless deception in the North and by
brutal violence in the South. "May this be
washed in Lethe and forgotten 2" Certainly
not, as long as any portion of our people are
compelled to bear the intolerable burden of the
yoke thus fastened upon them. L need notsay
how much they have suffered already, nor try
to conjecture how much they will be called to
endure hereafter but it is certain that any or
dinary despotism would have been visitation
of mercy in comparison. When we reflect
upon the number and rapacity of the thieves
that have been upheld in their pillage by
means of the negro governments, we cannot
help but regret the non-adoption of MIR. Ste
vens's proposition, atrocious as it was, for uni
versal confscation. The pernicious conse-
ouences of this rule are felt in the general as
we'll as local governments. The legislation of
| Congress is largely controlled by fit representa-
tiyes of the carpet bag interest, and the worst
acts of the Executive Administration are done
to please the power which corrdls the negroes
at the meeting g-places of the leagues, and drives
them thence to the polls.
Mr. Greeley's election will do all that we we
could wish to free us from these evils. 1t will
not even be a popular condemnation OF the
base means by which they were inflicted upon a
us but it will begin the process of their grad
ual extinction. It will give the white people q
reasonable hope that the heritable qualities OF
their fathers blood may some day be restored.
In the meantime, if it does not reverse the at
tainder, it will at least insure merciful eXecu-
ton of it. Democrats who disliked Mr.. Gree
ley's nomination have reflected well, and l
think will support him with almost perfect
unanimity. The thought that victory will
not give us everything at once may diminish in
some degree "the rapture of the strife" but it
will not impair the efficiency of their support,
for they are impelled to their utmost exertions
by profound conviction that nothing but his
election will save the country from long pc,
riod of misgovernment, and perhaps tho total
destruction of our free institutions.
1 am, with great respect, yours, &C.,
J. S. BLACK.
Gov. ORR ON THE SIrUAT1oN.-Governor