Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1874-01-15
rFrom the Christian Union]


moment in South Carolina; and the con-
dition of South Carolina, we suppose,
while perhaps more picturesquely miser-
able, is but type Of the social wretched-
ness and political shame which attach to
the other States ofthe far South. These
are facts which concern not alone the
States Immediately immersed in this civ
ic chaos. The nation is a partnership In
diseases and disgraces as well as in bene-
fits with the suffering of ono member
all the members suffer- and whatever is
blot upon Texas or Georgia stains
through to Maine. The time has fully
arrived when all citizens who do not be-
lieve that "our political system can stand
anything and defy anything" should
coudescend to cast some serious glances
upon the hapless circumstances of our
friends and brethren of the Southern
States. Of this we may be sure, that
the present apathy of Northern people
upon this subject is largely conditioned
on their ignorance Of the real state of the
case; and the difficulty with us has been
that we could not all 60 to the South to
to see for ourselves, and that we could
not thoroughly confide in the testimony
of those who did 60. 1t is greatly to be
desired that some Northern men Of real
ability and of unquestionable repute
among us could pass through the South
ern lands and study the actual situation,
and report to us in terms which we could
altogether trust.
From this point of view, we deem it
an event to be particularly mentioned
that one such citizen, Mr.. James S. Pike,
an old abolitionist, journalist of high
standing, and, by appointment of Presi-
dent Lincoln, late Minister of the Unit
ed States at the Hague, took the trouble
to 20 to South Carolina during the last
session of its Legislature, and to spend
two months at its capital in the study of
men and things. He has now made his
report, and has embodied it in little
book, just issued by the Appletons, and
bearing the gloomy title that stands at
the head of this article. The book is 30
small that it can be read in an evening,
but it is large eaangh to give to every
American anxious reflection for many a
day.
Mr.. Pike finds society in South Carroll
ma "bottom side up" The people Of
character and culture, who, in normal
aud righteous state Of affairs, would give
direction and tone to public proceedings,
are trampled under foot by a host of
voting barbarians-"the most ignorant
democracy that mankind ever saw
'the dregs Of the population habilitated
in the robes of their intelligent predeces-
sors, and asserting over them the rule of
ignorance and corruption through the
inexorable machinery Of a majority of
number" Carpet. bag rule is at an end
in South Carolina, for the carpet-baggers
were, on the outside at least, white men.
Even negroes tainted with white blood,
and so unfortunate as to have the noble
blackness Of the ancestral complexion
debilitated into some shade Of yellow,
are beginning to feel the contemptuous
aptagonism of the unmixed African, who
means to have things all his own way
there. By sheer force of superior num-
hnrs the Ignorant and unprincipled class
es have taken complete possession of the
government of the State. And what
sort of a government have they formed !?
According to the testimony of Mr.. Pike,
the rule of South Carolina should not
be digni6ed with the name of a govern
ment. 1t is the installation of a huge
system of brigandage. The men who
have had it in control, are the picked
villains Of the community. They are the
highwaymen of the State. They are
professional legislative robbers. They
are men who have studied and practiced
the art of legalized theft. They are in
do sense different from, or better than,
the men who fill the prisons and peniten.
tiaries of the world. They are, in fact,
o'precisely that class, only more daring
and audacious. The sole, base object is
to gorge the individual with public plu"-
der. Having done it, they turn around
and buy immunity for their acts by shar.
ing their gains with the ignorant, paup-
erized, besotted crowd who have chosen
them to the stations they fill, and which
enable them thus to rob and plunder. J."
1fit be asked how the corruptions of
the South Carolina government differ
from the exceptional venality of certain
Northern Legislatures, this is Mr.. Pixies
answer: The latter, while less in effron.
terry and in degree than the former, and
springing from different causes, can also
'be promptly remedied by exposure and
by an appeal to the intelligence and
virtue Of the constituency; in the other
case. there is no such tribunal to appeal
to. 1t is moral morass, in which there
is neither standing nor holding ground. "
$50 tainted is the atmosphere with
corruption, so universally implicated is
everybody about the government, of such
character are the ornaments, of society
at the capital, that there is no such thing
as an influential local opinion to be
brought against the scamps They plum
der and glory in it. How did you get
your money? was asked of prominent
legislator and lobbyis'. | stole it, was the
prompt reply"
The impression made upon US by Mr..
Pixies report concerning the PROSTATE
State is that nothing can save society
there frym utt,r dissolution bat the
speedy achievement Of rule by the class
es who ought always to rule. We regret
that Mr. Pike, in announcing an opinion
substantially the same as this, seems to
us to imply that these classes can be
ascertained by color. We know that
this scannot be his real meaning, but the
force and value of his book are likely to
be abated by a certain indiscriminate
denunciation Of black men because they
ara black. and an enuallv iDdiscriminatf