Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-12
THE ~PRosrRArE STATE,

cOAuAbloH Oh OOuJn Carolina. 1t puT-
ports to embody his observations and
reflections while in Columbia during
February and March, 1873. He de-
scribes the Legislature as he saw it on
the day of his arrival in the capital:
about three-quarters of the crowd
belonged to the African race. They
were of every hue, from the light octo-
room to the deep black. They were
such looking body of men as might
pour out of market house or a court
house at random in any Southern
State. Every negro type and physiog-
nomy was here to be seen, from the
| genteel serving man to the rough-hewn
customer from the rice or cotton field.
Their dress was as varied as their coun-
tenances. There was the secondhand
black frock coat of infrm gentility.
glossy and threadbare There was the
stove-pipe hat of many ironings and de-
parted styles. There was also to be
seen a total disregard of the proprieties
OF costume in the coarse and dirty gar
ments of the field; the stub jackets and
SLOUGH hats of soiling labor. In some
instances, rough woollen comforters
embraced the neck and hid the absence
OF linen. Heavy brogans, and short,
torn trousers it was impossible to hide.
The dusky tide flowed out into the lit
tered and barren grounds, and, issuing
through the coarse, wooden fence of
the enclosure, melted away into the
street beyond. These were the legisla-
tors of South Carolina"
Of the l24 members Of the House of
Representatives, only % are white.
They are nearly all old men and sub
stantial citizens. But they are power
less against the black majority. They
say little and do little. Mr. Pike re-
marks that they comport themselves
with dignity, but they are hopeless and
gloomy. The recovery % influence, of
position, of control in the State seems
to them impossible. They feel that
they are conquered people, and have
nothing left but stoicism. Mr.. Pike
describes at length this motley Legis-
lature's manner of proceedings, which
is anything but credItable to the body.
He recites the facts in
plain, straightforward style and they
would excite ridicule, were it not for
their proximate relation to the melan-
choly fate of the noble old State. But
the great evil, he avows, of South Caro-
lima is the corruption of its rulers.
They steal outright and do not attempt
to conceal their plumber. The State
bonded debt has been increased from
five millions to fifteen millions, and
there are millions besides of floating
debt whose amount is quite uncertain.
Much of this debt has been created by
bare-faced swindles-by fraudulent is
sues of scrip. The State expenses
have been raised from less than half
million a year to upward of two mil
lions.
Notwithstanding the picture which
Mr. Pike has painted of farbaric supre.
macy in the State and of official corrup-
ton, he is not without hope of her re-
generation. The blacks are 100000,
the whites are over 100000 The actu-
al majority, then, cannot be over 90
600. He engages in calm speculation
as to the chances which the down-trod-
den white people have of restoring
their Commonwealth to responsibility.
He says:
1T is their thrift, and their energy,
and their money that is going to play
an important part in overcoming the
predominance of the black population.
Where the white man can live and
prosper, and enjoy good health, as he
can all over the upper country or bluff
lands of South Carolina, he is bound
to supplant the weaker and poorer
race. So that the restoration of the
predominance of the white population
in the State seems to be only a question
of time, which can be much abbreviated
by suitable effort"
The writer tells the story in a candid |
and passionless manner. Being
Northern man, he may have felt him
self prescribed from expressing the |
moral reflections and legitimate senti-
ments, whose apparent absence
from his work leaves a
yearning void. He simply |
relates the terrible doom which has
been forced upon one of the proudest
members of the Federal Union. The
people of South Carolina were charac-
terised by a more ardent patriotism
than was fostered in any other Ameri-
can State. In the beginning they
helped to make the Union, and they
never forgot or ignored the relation Of
its parts. They spilled their blood for
American freedom, and for American
independence they consecrated their
soil with battle-felds. They ratified
the Federal Constitution--just as every
other State did-not that they
loved the newly-created counterpart
more than Carolina, but for Carolina.
Just as in the case of Massachusetts,
it was to perpetuate the sovereignty of
their commonwealth, that they entered
into the great and matchless league.
How fallen the noble old State, and
how terribly has she been punished for
her attempted withdrawal from the
The concentrated wrath of
Radicalism has fallen upon her in the
shape of degradation and irretrievable
bankruptcy.
RAILROAD EARNINGS.
The NeU York Bulletin complies a