The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-06-13
Letter from General Beauregard.
NEW ORLEANS, May 27, 1877:


To the Editors of the ~ O. Times I am in
formed that many of my friends were disap-
pointed at not obtaining a response totheir
call for my views relative to the subject under
consideration at the great meeting OF the people
at the St. Charles theatre, on the 25th inst, es-
pecially when was one OF the signers OF the
call for that meeting, and had been selected as
one of the yice-presidents on that occasion.
did not respond for two reasons: In the first
place, able orators had been selected to address
the meeting, and they were entitled to the
floor; secondly, not being public speaker,
might have used language which might not
have expressed exactly my meaning, thereby
doing, perhaps, more harm than good.
1t is but seldom that l take part in politics,
which offer generally little attraction to me;
but when the questions at issue are vital to the
safety of our institutions and welfare OF the
State or country, every patriot should step to
the front and assume the individual response
bility which belongs to q proper manhood. We
have reached, 1 think, one of those critical pc
our banners on the outer walls" We are now
in greater danger of losing our liberties and
the little that is left of our property than in
the fatal year of 1865. We had then "hope"
to guide and cheer us along the dreary path
we had before us; but now all is darkness and
gloom above the horizon, and we should be
careful in the choice of the pilots who are to
take us to port of safety; they should be
we'll acquainted with the bars and quicksands
which lay in our course.
I proclaim it as my conviction, that the hour
has struck when the voice of the people shall
be heard, reverberating in loud and clear tones,
from one end of the Union to the other. In
times of national peril it is our privilege, as
well as our right, to be heard in public assem-
blies, and no citizen should shirk that sacred
duty.
The old parties are powerless to save US !
We must call on all discontented elements and
parties to unite with US to resist the encroach-
ments and corrupting influences of the Gov
ernment under which we are living, or, should
more properly say, "dying," for slow butsu
political death is now staring us in the face.
What, then, may be asked, is the remedy that
we have at hand9 1t may be an unpleasant
one to many of US, but we had better make a
virtue of necessity and accept it ere it be too
late.
To me itappears plain, that to insure success,
we must ali unite under the banner of "the
Constitution and the laws" reunion and re-
FORM" "honesty and universal amnesty" That
banner has been lately raised at Cincinnati,
under the leadership of Greeley and Brown;
in the past two of our most earnest and dan
gerous enemies, but two, also, of the purest
and most honest of men, who when they shall
have said to the country, "Let us have peace," ,"
will mean it, and will give us peace in spite OF
all opposition. For my part, 1 prefer having
as friend one who has been my open and
fearless antagonist, to one who has friendship
on his lips, but hatred in his heart !"
In conclusion, may I ask my friends if we
are likely to go amiss by following the exam
pie of such men as Seymour and Blair, Demo
cratic candidates for President and Vice-Pres-
ident in 1868, and of Chas. Francis Adams,
who would have been very acceptable to the
Democrats it is said, if chosen by the Cincin-
natl Convention in preference to Horace Gree
ley? Those gentlemen, we are informed, ap-
prove and indorse the nomination of Messrs.
Greeley and Brown, and adopt the Liberal
Republican platform. Why should we be more
hypercritical than they are? Are they not
supposed to be better judges than we are of the
merits and qualifications of the candidates who
can or should command success2 Let us,
then, bury the hatchet, forget and forgive, on
both sides, and march in solid phalanx to re-
''' '' IT. BEAUREGARD.