The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-10-02
The Generation of False Pretence.

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was blessed with peace and unrivalled prosper
ity: it was the abode of free and virtuous
population. Its history was filled with the
living light of mighty glory. Its honest and
active commerce whitened the seas. 1t could
point to its long roll of statesmen and patriots,
each with his escutcheon unstalned by the
slightest taint of personal dishonor, or by any
vile ambitions There was a general spirit OF
devotion to the Republic in every breast. Each
citizen was conscious of an honorable self-ap-
probation, and was instinct with the pride of
citizenship born and nourished in the indepen..
dence and freedom of State rights and local
selfgovernment! There was no national debt.
There was an equalization Of taxes among the
States and. people, and an uniformity OF taxa,
ton required by the constitution; and withal
the taxes were so light that no one complained
of oppressive burdens, and they were borne
with convenience and perfect contentment:-,
The North was rich; the West increased daily
in its irrepressible strength; the South was
opulent tranquil, powerful, with not beggar
in the streets of its cities with no radicalsm
or pestiferous isms within its borders; with its
hundreds OF millions of dollars in cotton,
sugar, rice aud tobacco, employing and main
taining hundreds of thousands of Northern
men. women and children in the manufacture
of her profitable staples. The voters through
out the country exercised the elective franchise
without interference, and cannon and bayonets
we're not used by party leaders to set up or put
down at pleasure State governments, or what
are called "our free institutionsp
All this is now completely altered. In no
part of the country is there genuine peace,
and in many States there is not prosperity, but
ruin The great question for discussion is,
shall the President of the United States De
Cesar7 Shall Grant be elected for the third
time? Two Vice Presidents of the United
States have been proved guilty of taking brlbes.
The Congress itself has been shown to have
aided for pay in the organization and workings
of the Credit Mobilier. The people them
selves Sc @ are thoroughly demoralized, the govern
ment corrupt in every department, and the
telegraphic columns of the newspapers are
crowded with accounts of thieves or defaulters
in Office, so. that an honest man. is almost
an exception. The President of the United
States has given his signature to the basest act
of Congress ever yet passed; and General But
ler. Massachusetts, statesman and hero is tri-
umphantlr soliciting (most probably the suf-
frages of the people Of that State for the office
of Governor, supported by the sympathies and
the official power of the President, while he
himself openly upholds and defends the great
theft by color of law from the Treasury. All
is changed. The land that appeared to bask
in the favor of Providence is now afflicted with
misfortunes which amount to deadly curse
The very atmosphere is loaded with crime
Lawlessness reigns everywhere. The people
are discontented with the present, and the
omens of the future are appalling 1t seems
to us that the Nemesis of the mighty wrong
and the fatal sim of 1861 is at work compelling
the nation towards catastrophe in which that
wrong and sin can only find its expiation
On our first page will be found an article
from the New York Herald of remarkable
mower. Its description of these times is per-
fectly true. Truly, this is generation OF
"false pretence' in moral and social life, and
"mediocrity" in politics and craftsmanship.
There is no false pretence in politics, for scoun-
drelism, open and unblushing, is the role! The
denunciatiou of Colfax is overwhelming, and
the stab of Grant would ordinarily take mans
life. Surely there is not much to choose be-
tween the man Grant, who signed ne salary
steal bill containing its do,sceatr of S10O00O to
himself, and who has endorsed ColtaX after his
exposure and condemnation by the country,
and the other poor little creature who took the
Credit Mobilier stock and Oakes Ames, cheek!
The interesting question is, Why is there in
politics and craftsmanship "false pretences and
mediocrity" and corruption and lawlessness
everywhere? The answer is, Because the great
conspirators who inveigled the majority of the
Northern and Western people into disunion
agitation first and actual war atterward, hrst
DESTROYED the conscience of the Northern Sec
ton and afterward murdered the South To-
day the South does not exist, so far as states
manship and true government OF the country
are concerned. To-day the North and West
have not single statesman outside of the con-
servative or rational classes. In the old slave
holding days of Massachusetts, New England
and New York, and in the succeeding genera
ton, the North produced some statesmen (rare.
ly genuine friend of a republic), but of late
they have no statesmen. There cannot be in
the nature of things radical statesman. No
radical can be other than an agitator and mere
politician. There were the elder Adams, and
Hamilton, and Franklin, and Burr there have
been Webster and Choate and Silas Wright
and few others but there have been only a
few really distinguished statesmen in the North.
What would this country have been at any pre-
vious period of it's history without the South?
Take the colonial and revolutionary period.
What would it have been without Henry, and
Washington, and Mason, and Jefferson, and
Madison and Monroe The whole drama
Hamlet left out In 1861, with a Democratic
President in Office and the South in the Cabi
net and the Congress, the craftsmanship of the
country was as we'll represented by the South
as it had ever been by Calhoun, Clay, Jackson
and Benton, and their peerless contemporaries.
If the Herald wishes to see this reign of "false
pretenses and mediocrity" end, just restore the
true South to its rightful heritage. But, alas
is not this now an impossibility, and is 1t not
the tremendous crime against God and man
that has made it an impossibiity, the cause Of
the presence of the imp plaeabe Nemesis, whose
direful vengeance approaches nearer and nearer
its accomplishment with every wretched year
-Montgonaery (AAa.) Advertiser.
A M1sTAKE.-That the editors are delighted
to get ANYTHING to "fll up" the paper.
That they have plenty of time to correct bad
manuscript.
That they should "puff" everybody for moth