The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-01-23
ANNUAL MESSAGE
His ExcelIeney Gov. F. ]. Moses, Jr.,
DELIVERED
To the General Assembly of South Carolina,
January IA, 1873.

DELIVERED
To the General Assembly Of South Carolina,
January IA, 1873.
Fsllou Citizens of the Senate and
House of Representatives /:
congratulate you in view of the fact that
the third General Assembly of South Carolina,
under her free Constitution, has convened and
held its daily sessions in the midst OF universal
tranquility and order.
You entered upon the duties of the session
with difficulties of marked gravity confronting
YOU, as the lawmakers of the State.
These difficulties / trust and believe you will
in the end surmount by diligent and faithful
discharge of all the delicate and responsible
duties enjoined upon you by the people, with
whom we have so recently entered into cove
nant through our official oaths.
OUR FEDERAL RELATIONS.
1t is my most gratifying duty to inform you
that the relations of the State to the Federal
Union are not only of the most cordial charac-
ter, but the guarantees. of perpetual concord
between the great sections of our country are
being steadily increased and strengthened by
the growing recognition of the fact that all
citizens of the United States are bound togeth-
er by the tie of common interest
The acts of individual violence which had
manifested themselves in the upper counties OF
the State since the summer of 1865, and which
were clearly the consequence of political and
personal animosity, engendered among large
portion of the people against a class of our
fellow-citizens recently enfranchised and vested
with civic rights, have happily ceased. The
lawless and vindictive spirit from which those
acts sprung embodied itself in armed organiza-
tions, which, in the winter of 1870 and the
spring of 1871, dominated many counties, and,
with startling audacity, overawed the local au-
thor;ties with a strong hand, and wrote their
DEGREES in the innocent blood of unofending
victims, whom they remorselessly scourged and
slew.
Those organizations have been dispersed by
the power of the General Government, and
many of the actors therein have been punished
BY its courts. That power was exercised for
protective purposes only against the deadly
Capitalization symboized by the midnight
horseman who rode as the missionary of hate,
in disguise as fearful as the deed he had arm
ed himself to execute.
Henceforth those who might entertain any
scheme for the oppression Of Gn American Cit
izen on the soil of our State, because of the
manner in which he chooses, as freeman, to
exercise his political rights, will be admonish-
ed that, however humble may be the condition
of that citizen, and whatever may be his race
or color, powerful government stands pre-
pared and willing to protect him in the free
and unquestioned enjoyment of all the rights
and privileges that attach to American citizen
ship. =.
should be wanting in capdor and justice if
/ failed to announce that not only have the
unlawful organizations in question apparently
ceased to exist, but the. open exhibition OF
sentiment of hostility to the State or Federal
government, that made it possible that such
Organization should SO long continue in griev-
Gus operation, seems to have also passed away.
Nowhere upon the soil of South Carolina to-
day does it seem to be necessary that for the
preservation of public order, or the present
protection of individual rights, extraordinary
agencies should be resorted to; the pacific
agencies which the laws provide as the true
safeguards of the citizen and society are all in
unobstructed operation throughout our State.
The person of the stranger among us seems 10
be no longer environed by peril, and, however
rude and remote his dwelling, he may repose
in safety, for the law keeps watch and ward
over him, an invisible, silent. but sleepless SEN
tinel. May this security ever continue; and
NAV the passions, which had their birth IN
false political theory, and grew up amid san
culinary civil war, be forever subdued by the
Consciousness and grateful recognition OF that
.
our common nationality as American citizens.
The American should feel his pride quicken
ed and his self-respect elevated, as he surveys
the great and beneficent Republic of which he
ia happily an individual and political member.
In territorial area the United States streech
from the tropic belt of seas and islands on Che
south to the icy ocean on the north, while from
east to west they form the grand N Mediterranean
which unites while it divides the two great
oceans of the world. They embrace within
their limits over four millions of square miles
of territory, situated near the geographical
centre of the earth's plane, and an area much
greater than that of all Europe, and about one
twelfth of the habitable land on our globe.
They contain population OF nearly forty mil, :
lions. or about one-half of the total number OF
Inhabitants on the whole continent of North
America. This mighty population surpass in
the products and utility of their varied indus
tries any people known to history; although
fitted beyond all other people to practice the
arts of war, they are aggressive only IN the arts
of peace, .,..n.a :.a,,..uu
are to be seen predominant throughout the
civilized world. The traveller who at present
traverses even the great empire of Russia will
be conveyed in an American car, drawn by an
American locomotive, on railroad DULL by
American engineers. If he enters the great
armory of Eng gland at Enfield he will see the
results of American inventive genius in the
automatic machinery which produces the arm
with which Great Britain equips her renowned
soldiers; while at Woolwich he may look upon
that most formidable engine of modern ord
nance, the Armstrong gun, for which the pre-,
sumed inventor, whose name it bears. received
the honor of knighthood from the British Gov
ernment, but which has been proved by eyl-
dence which, among military men, is said to be
incontestible, to be the creation of an Amerl-
can inventor.
EVERYWHERE in the fields of England France
and Germany, may be seen implements of hus