Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-07-30

Slavery is gone, and the sentiment that maze
it possible is gone, never to return, as an or
ganic institution of the State
There are other invasions of civic rights
which do not consist in chattel slavery. The
man who believes the right of voting is guar
anteed beyond the possibility Of change, has
not studied the constitution Of the United
States. The right does not depend on color
or newly-acquired privileges; but voter,
whether white or black, may be deprived of
the privilege for want Of educational qualiti-
cation, or on account of immoral character.
The laws do now, by conviction of certain
crimes, disfranchise the citizen and if our
worthy Governor could be brought to trial on
charges preferred against him, it is probable
that he would be deprived of his right to the
ballot.
There is trite proposition which editors
inject into their editorials, and which is a
generally-received axiom, that revolutions
never 20 backward. History, however,
teaches that they do-that they move back
ward and forward-as may be cited in the ex-
ample of Poland, with AL intellectual popu-
lation, which after six centuries Of freedom,
passed away with the decline of public vir-
tue. The Hungarian is now an exile in every
land, and under the heel of the House of
Hapsburg, mourning the glorious traditions
of the past. Coming down to later day-to
the American Revolution of 1776, which was
prosecuted on the broad grounds that all men
are created free and equal, which required
seven years. of war, Gin which the black men,
in proportion to numbers, took fair part,) to
establish, Notwithstanding slavery fourished
for number of years afterward, yet the inev-
liable result is before US all. The man whose
bondage that struggle established is to-day
free. -,
But passing from those questions, how shall
State, tamiliarly known, not only throughout
our own broad land, but in the commercial
centres of Europe as The PRosTRATE
STATE-not PROSTATE State-but the Pros
trate State? 1t is to be checked alone by the
nomination of honest men for o&ce-men
honest and capable Republicans, if they can
be found-but any way, honest men. l ad-
vocate reform through Republican nomina-
tions if we can, but against them if we matst'
Four or FIVE weeks ago visited Washing
ton, and at the suggestion Of distinguished
Republican Senator, called upon President
Grant Hardly had taken seat before he
asked-"Wbat do you mean by such Gov:
ernment as you have in South Carolina p l
replied-"I hope you do not mean that | sup
port it in its iniquity?" 81 mean that all he.
publicans are responsible, unless it is checked
at the ballot-box," replied the President.
And while the President speaks calmly Of all
the great battles he fought, or the most stir
ring events of the war in which he participa-
ted, yet when I talk to him of South Carroll
ma, his apparently pulseless lips culver, his
veins and his eyes enlarge, and ne says, ~ ou
must stop the robbery!' AS Republican,
I regard this as field order, and am moving
under it.
Yet how many thousand are unconscious
of the crisis The masses of the people are
honest. have never known legislator of
bad character but he was told by Republican
voters to stand aside. They are not inclined
to support dishonest men. The great difficult
ty is, that by the law of slavery, for which
retributive Justice is now being measured to
the whites, they have been deprived of light
Excepta few, you cannot reach them through
the press. They can only be reached by the
voice of public speakers. Their hearts are
right, if their heads are wrong. say to my
Republicans friends, if corrupt men be nomi.
mated for the State and local county govern
ments, our party organization will 60 down.
The Democratic party will carry the State.
You may say they cannot do it; but you will
see that they can, and if no blood is shed by
them they will have the sanction of the Gen.
eral Government.
We must put forth only good men tor Of
flee. With an honest Legislature and State
officials, the public fund would be appropria-
ted to its proper use, and we would not see
the rulers of the State driving horses covered
with gided harness, their hides like velvet,
and better fed than many of the voters who
put them in power. l may mention that l
had the honor of drawing up the platform on
which our candidates ran two years ago; but
unhappily the chief pride of the nominee for
Governor was to break every line Of it. All
true Republicans have repented Of the nomi-
nation of Moses.
The name of Moses sounded respectable
! Who does not, even now, venerate the name
Of Moses-the great leader of the lsraeItes? !?
Even that Moses broke the tablet OF the len
Commandments. Our Moses resembles him
only in this, that while Moses Of old broke
the stone, Governor Moses breaks the Ten
Commandments themselves.
The speaker again portrayed the evils that
would result to the Republican party by the
nomination of bad and corrupt men tor office,
predicting that it would result in that party,
as all organization, losing power, and depre-
eating the results to follow, if the Democrats,
especially of the old regime, should get into
power, Notwithstanding they are peerless gen.
tlemen in all personal relations. The detinl-
tion of a scalawag was given, and the dlstlnc-
ton drawn between that member OF the body
polite and the carpet-bagger.
The carpet-bagger proper he characterized
as a person to be despised but said we must
be particular in drawing the line Of distinction
between the true northern man who comes
among US to make permanent home and be
of benefit to the community os we'll as himself,
and the mere political adventurer, who had
only his own interest at heart. The carpet
bagger, in the proper acceptation, is the polit-
ical buzzard-not like the buzzards OH the
coast and in Charleston, who police the city,
but are birds of prey, who scent their repast
from afar. In one particular, which is not
harmlessness, they resemble the wild geese of
the icy belt, that fly down South in the winter
to fill their empty craws and return in the
summer. He comes to plunder through po-
litical office and bears the same relation to
the honest emigrant or the man of capital
who settles among u.s. as the hummer or camp
follower of an army who moves far on the
flank, plundering the dead or preying on the
wounded, bears to soldier of the line; or the