Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-05-02

luz S0urH CARoLISt LEciSLArURE-Ne
Will enter the House of REPRESENTATIVES.
Here SIT one hundred and tweutv-f1ur mem
bers. or these, twcnty-three are white
men, representing the remains of the old
civilization. These are sood-lookiug. sub
stantial citizens. They are men of weight
and standing in the communities they rep-
resent. They are all from the hill country.
The irOSts of sixty and seventy winters
whitcn the heads of some among them.
There they sit, grim and silent They feel
themselves % be but loose stones. thrown in
10 partially ObStruct a current they ares
powerless to resist. They say little and DO
little as the DAYS 90 by. They simply watch
the rising tide. and mark the progressive
steps Of the inundation. The recovery of
influence, of position. of control in the
State, Is by them felt to be impossible
They accept their position with a stOicism
that promises no reward here or hereafter.
They are the types of a conquered race
They staked all and lost all. Their lives re-
mann. their property and their children do
not. War, emancipation and grinding
taxation have consumed them. Their strug-
gle now Is against complete coniscation.
They endure and wait for the night.
THE ELACk MAJORITY.
Deducting the - members referred to who
compose the entire strength of the OppOsi-
tion. we find lOl remaining. OF these lOI,
90 are colOred. and seven are their white
allies. Thus the blacks 0utnumber the
whole body of whites in the House more
than three to one. On the mere basis of
numbers in the State. the injustice Of this
diSpr0portion Is manifest. since the black
population in the state Is relatively four to
three of the whites. 4 lust rectihcation Of
the di-prop0rtiOn, ON the basis of population
merely. would give "a whites to 20 black
members. And the line of race very near
ly marks the line of hostile politics. As
things stand, the body Is almost literally
black parliament, and it l. the only one on
the face of the earth that Is the represent
aiiye of a white constituency and the pro-
i,.~-ed exponent of an advanced type
of modern civilization But the reader
will find almc-t any portraiture IN
adequate TO give q vivid idea Of the body
and enable hlm 10 comprehend the complete
me,amorpho~is of the South Carolina leg
stature, without observing its details. The
speaker J., black. the clerk Is black, tine
door-keepers are black. the little pages are
black the chairman OF the ways and means
is black. and the chaplain Is coal black. At
~lmeof the desks sit col1red men. whose
types it would De hard to find outside of
Congo. whose costume. yiSlge-. attitudes
and expression only BELT the iurecI>tle of
buccaneer. lt must be remembered, also.
that half this whole body of men. with not
more than ha.f dozen exceptions, We're
themselves slaves, and their ancestors have
been slaves for generations. Bccollecting
the report of the famous schooner Wander
er. fitted ont hy southern stakeholder, -
or Il years ago. in o-renati1u- defiance Of
the laws against the slave trade. and whose
owner and master hoa~tei ofhaving brought
q cargo of slaves from Africa, and safely
landed them IN South Carolina and Georgia,
one thinks itmu-t be- true. and that some of
these representatives. are the very men then
stolen from their African homes Columbia
Cor. v T. Tr,iHHe