The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-09-10
ssThe Honest Government League"

we PUBLISH IulS ILIO pletU'o'iAi
"Honest Government League" an association
lately formed among the colored Republicans
of the city. The platform is frank and honest
in admitting the evils the State now suffers
from. and in condemning the rogues in power.
The scheme proposed for practically insurlng
reform is what might be called the concurrent
representation" of both whites and colorcu.
That is, that whenever offices are to be filled,
there should be separate convention OF each
race that they should each make their own
nominations for their share Of the offices to be
voted for, where division is possible, and that
thew unite upon common candidate when
such is not the case-thus securing a redtly
representative ticket.
We have no hesitation in saying that if the
colored people of the City, County or State
will only carry out in good faith the principles
of this platform, they will be entitled to the
appreciation of every right-thinking man IN
the community. We have always held it to be
an error to suppose that the normal attitude OF
the colored race is one of unreasonable and
unrelenting antagonism to the whites, or that
there is no dissatisfaction felt by them with
those who have misruod them and us since
1868. Whatever may have been the feeling
Just after the war, it is very different now. Ihe
Republican party in South Carolina-as repre-
sented by the knavish oligarchy now IN control
lis verv far from being the solid unit it once
was. It is not only that the knaves have fallen
ont in their ouarrels over the spols far better,
they have disgusted by their outrageous con-
duct, many of those who once blindly support
ed them, and whom, in return tor their conf
dence, they have duped and robbed. Those
who wish to estimate the extent OF this feeling,
and the numbers of colored men in this City
who have learned, by rough experience, that
the aborer as we'll as the capitalist is cheated
by miseovernment should simply observe the
composition of a Radical primary meeting as
at present constituted. They will find there,
outside of the office-holders and their depen-.
dents, scarcely half dozen respectable coored
men. and the voices of these are totally un-
heard. The respectable colored tradesmen and
farmers, and the larger class who support them
selves by honest labor, are no longer there.
They have retired in disgust. They have given
place to the professional jurors and amateur
constables of the Court House corner, or the
professional adherents of the various candl,
dates for Office. That portion of the colored
population who are in this dissatisfied condl-
ton are in very serious dilemma. They can
not support the present government, and yet,
though powerless to overthrow it unassisted,
thew on the other hand, have not entirely con-
ouered their fears that, by going over into the
Conservative ranks, they may lose their intiu-
ence and perhaps their political rights The
proposed plan of equal representation OF the
races by men of their own color, would afford
an elIectual escape from either evil: The rep
resentative of the white man will secure M ehe the
aid of capital and intelligence in the fight
against corruption; the representative of the
colored man will guard him against the remot-
est fear Of oppression
However unfounded the fears Of the coored
people may be, and however great our prefer
ence for a combined action of honest white
men and honest colorcd men in the same meet
ings and the same conventions, We have moth
ing but words of encouragement, for those who
are ready to move on parallel lines with US in
the great work of Reform We trust that this
movement will grow throughout the country,
and it will certainly receive the cordial coop
Grafton of all good citizens No better advice
could be given to the coored man at present
than to learn by heart that sentence of the,
platform which declares that the necessity OF
the hour is "Reform or Revolution. Ctarles-
tom Neus and Courier.