Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-07-18
REMARKS OF NJ. P. o'CoNNoR.

of South Carlina, that gentleman spoke as
follows:
Gentlemen of the Convention: I profound
" regret that there should be any difference
Of opinion either upon the platform Of prin-
ciples or upon our candidates in this solemn
iuncture of our national affairs. The whole
nation is at present in crisis, when all issues
should be merged in the one great and over
shadowing issue-the defeat Of the present
national administration, that the republic
may no longer suffer any detriment. Zap
plause.
Mr.. President and gentlemen, the great
changes which have taken place in the last
eight years, tending to the gradual centrali-
zation of this government in all its depart
ments, calls in an unscrupulous executive to
commit acts of usurpation and tyranny that
now endanger the very existence of Amerl-
can liberty. In the rapid march of these
events many of the ancient landmarks of all
political organizations have been swept away
and entirely forgotten, while many other of
those landmarks have been comparatively
modified and changed to suit the existing sit
uation of things.
The constitutional amendments, which in
unconstitutional, revolutionary and void,
have been accepted by nearly all the State
coventions as fixed facts, and accepted by the
organs of almost all shades of political opin-
ion throughout the country. [Applause.]
The fifteenth constitutional amendment, the
amendment which decreed universal suffrage,
that amendment which was felt more serious
", perhaps, in our State than any other l
say that amendment which at first was threat
ened to be obliterated, has now been acquies-
ced in as a public expression of the public
will, and I say to you that it can never be
successfully controverted, and never will be-.
Loud cheering.]
Mr.. President, public opinion is higher
than all governments, and higher than all
conventional principles, and before its rising
tide old landmarks must disappear and new
ones be established. [Cheers.] Isay itisjust
as impossible to establish government over
men as it is in nature to create men without
passing from infancy to manhood, and with
out being conscious of the growth of public
opinion as of the changes of the seasons. And
here is the great democratic party to-day,
with its glorious associations clinging to her
name and her character, and the whole nation
beyond and outside of her, appealing to her
to lay upon the altar of common country
all past antagonisms. Loud applause.] We
have not come here to organize movement
for single State or single section, but to
organize movement for the salvation Of the
whole republic. [Great cheering]
Though South Carolina may be crushed al
most to annihilation by the mass that is weigh.
ing her down, and though sister States of the
South may be exhausted by the expressions of
a radical government, we will hope for better
things. What is the picture of to-day? We
have President who does not present him
self in the guise of simple civilian, but ar
rays himself in the epaulettes of a general;
who one day thrusts his offensive threats in
the face of England, and the next ignominious-
ly strikes the American colors; who one day
truckles to Granville and Gladstone, and the
next orders Gen. Sickles to threaten the weak
government of Spain. [Hisses.] say to
you that these great, these tremendous issues
are sufficient to unite the whole nation in one
holy and invincible alliance to defeat this un-
hallowed government.
Mr.. President, I fear that have trespassed
almost too much your time. ["Go or" "Go
on But beg leave to say for South Car
olina that she hopes to be able to clasp hands
with the North over the bloody chasm left by
the war, and she expects to do it in the elec-
ton of Horace Greeley. Let me say this to
gentleman from Delaware; the thirteenth
amendment is practically nought, because all
the States have ratified the abolition of slave
nv. The fourteenth amendment is practical
nulity in consequence of the late amnesty act,
and will become q complete nullity when
Horace Greeley is elected. Applause.] And
as to the fifteenth amendment let me say to
the gentleman from Delaware that while our
State has to endure what he so much objects
to, negro suffrage ad nause'lm, I would be the
last man, and I deprecate the day when any
party in this republic will ever enroll upon its
banner the principle to wrest from the 4,0OO,-
900 of Africans that boon which has been
given to them to-day. [Applause. Let them
keep it, and we will accommodate ourselves.
Have patience, and this great party is going
into power, and we will have government
which will be equal in its laws-an exact
and equal Justice to all men. [Applause.]
Of all the effects of this administration that
we have felt most peculiarly hard has been
the act by which the President of the
United States was given the power to sus-
pend the great writ of habeas corpus. Our
State-our poor State Of South Carolina, the
Ireland of America, South Carolina, almost
broken upon the political wheel Of fortune-l
say that as far as she is concerned, that when
I think of the manner in which that act has
been carried out, if men could realize it, would
shock the sense of the whole civilized world.
I have nearly exhausted the convention and
myself, and I will close. [Applause.
OUTRAGE UPON THE HIGHwAY.-On last
Wednesday young man by the name of
Willard accidentally discovered on the plan
tation of Mr.. r. Young, the notorious Bob
Sartor, who is more than suspected of being
the leader ola gang of negro thieves who have
been breaking into stores, smoke-houses, &C.,
lately in this county, and for whom there is a
Bench warrant issued. Not having the prop
er authority to arrest him, he came to town
to obtain warrant and assistance. He i'm
prudently let it be known what his errand to
town was for, and hurriedly returning alone,
Sartor Jumped from the bushes, near what is
known as the Dodge, at the outskirts of town,
seized his horse, and saying, "I've got you
now," pulled Willard from his horse. Will.
lard drew his pistol, which Sartor grabbed
and Immediately fired at him, the ball str-
king him on the top of the head, stunning
Willard and inficting a severe flesh wound,
which bled freely. Sartor then kicked him
severely and made his escape, taking with him
Willard's pistol By some means, we could
not learn how, Willard got possession of a
large bunch of keys belonging to Sartor, with
which, it is supposed, he had been able to get
into the stores, &C., lately robbed. This is