The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-04-09

sold by the United States to the colored people,
have also been forfeited for the same cause.
So, too, the funded debt of the State has been
increased from about Sc, 900, 600 to an admitted
figure of SIG, ,O00,0 900, with an underlined margin
of floating debt and unacknow!edged ponds.
To state the case in few words, 1t may be
said that our present rulers have already utter
" DESTROYED the credit of the State by the eX,
cessive issue of bonds, partly legitimate and
partly fraudulent, and are now engaged IN de-
vouring the substance of the people oy the
grinding exactions of taxation.
Mr.. President, this is no false clamor or pic
ture of the imagination. 1t is real, hard, stub
born fact, and is acknowledged or can be proved.
Strangers from the North express their amaze
ment at what they see, and wonder at the for
bearance that has so long endured NO man
who has come to see for himself, with an open,
dispassionate mind, has come to any other con-
clusion than that there should and must be
radical reform. Our own people are almost in
despair, for they feel that they are upon the
yerv verge of a general ruin. If we could lay
before YOU the many, many instances OF distress
that have come before our eyes, 1T would appeal
most powerfully to your sympathies. And the
worst feature Of cruelty in the thing IS, that 1t
falls most heavily upon the most helpless,
upon women and children, upon widows and
orphans. Year by year and day oy day IS the
number increased of those who have kept up
in vain the struggle for the bread OF lndepen-
dence and for the roof that covers their heads.
Is it strange that we should ask for them and
for ourselves some relief from the tyranny that
is so depressing US? And can it be that the
Government will deny us its sympathy and its
aid in giving us the substance as we'll as the
form of republican government?
Mr.. President, we come in no tactlous or
partisan spirit. We come in the interest of
peace, of good order, and of honest govern
ment. 1t matters little to us whether the ad-
ministration be Republican or Democratic, so
that il insure US an economical, honest govern
ment, such as our condition imperatively re-
ouires. We ask it as American citizens; for
we know that the moral as we'll as the political
influence of the National Government is com
manding. The people of South Carolina did
once aim at an independent existence and make
terrible struggle for it. But that dream and
that struggle are over-they are OF the past.
Our people have no other national government
than this of the Union, no other country than
these United States, and no other flag than
that bright flag of stars that floats over this
broad land. And they are true men and faith,
full; and if we know the people. the, would
defend this soil which is theirs, from foreign
aggression, with the same unf1inching valor
which, in the remote past, and IN the recent
past, they have displayed on so many we'll
fought fields of battle.
The President, who heard Mr.. Porter with
fixed attention, replied with characteristic
brevity, and with something more than his
usual vigor He said:
GENTLEMEN After listening to your re-
marks, do not see that there is any thing that
can be done, either by the Executive or by the
Legislative branch of the National Govern
ment to better the condition of things which
YOU have described. The State of South Car
olina has a complete sovereign existence, and
must make its own laws. Ii its citizens are
suffering from those laws, it is matter very
much to be deplored. Where the fault lies,
may be question worth looking into. Wheth-
er part of the cause is not due to yourselves
whether it is not owing to the extreme views
which YOU have held-whether your action has
not consolidated the non-tax-paying portion
of the community against you, are questions
which leave to your own consideration. AL
low me to say, however, that always feel great
sympathy with any people who are badly gov
ened and over-taxed, as is the case in Lou-
siana, and seems also to be the condition of
South Carolina. I will say to you candidly
that, while have watched the proceedings of
YOUR Taxpayers Convention with no little
interest, q portion of my sympathy has been
abstracted by the perusal of a speech delivered
during its deliberations, and which contained
a yiler and more vilainous slauder than / have
ever experienced before, even among my bitter
est enemies in the North. 1t was far worse in
its personality and falsehood than anything l
have ever seen in the New York Sun.
The President here seemed to have concluded
his reply, and Gov. Bonham inquired what was
T.. ,,b;oh bo ho6 roforrnd
The President said that he did not know
whose speech it was, or whether it had been
correctly reported, but he had read it recently
as part of the proceedings of the conven-
ton.
Col. T. Y. Simons remarked that he felt it to
he due to the gentleman who made the speech
that Il should be stated here that he dsavowed
having made use of the offensive language to
which the President referred, and which had
been attributed to him by local Republican
paper. z;.ouo
al. He had not himself heard the speech, but
he had read it, as fully reported in the Edge
field County paper, and it contained no such
offensive allusion as had been charged.
Gen. Kershaw explained that whatever
might have been said in the speech, the speech
itself did not reflect the sentiments or meet
with the sympathy OF tne conYehtioh. EA-
preston was given to this fact by the action
Of the body in promptly. recommitting the
report which had been introduced by the
speech.
but he had seen nothing in the proceedings Of
the convention expressing any dlsapproval OF
what had been said in the speech.
Mr. James G. Thompson here took occasion
to say that he was one of the few Republicans
who had taken part in the convention that he
had heard the speech to which reference had
been made with pain; but he must say that he
and the other Republicans in the body regard
ed the spirit in which the speech was received
by the convention, and the action taken in re-
committing the report by which it was accom-
panied, as plain and pointed rebuke 10 the
sentiments which it contained.
Some general talk followed in regard to the