The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-11-11
The Colored Vote of the Future.

We have been accustomed to look upon
the Radical majority in this State as
stereotyped and invincible, becadse it
rested upon the solid and impenetrable
mass of colored voters. These voters
have been treated as if they were suscep-
tible to no light, and Indifferent to every.
thing but the nomination of the party,
even though it brought disaster and ruin
| upon themselves and country alike. We
have long been convinced that this was a
fatal mistake. The colored voters enter
ed upon citizenship with a bias towards
the Radical side, for we can't call it Re-
publican in this State, which gave great
lever to those who came to use and ma
nipulate them for their own purposes
They lent themselves without knowledge
and without question to the entrench-
ment in all the strongholds of power of
men who came to rule in order that they
might plunder and despoil.. But the col
ored people are no fools. They are not
incapable of learning. Their powers of
observation are uncommonly acute in all
things which concern their material in
terests. They have long ago come to the
conclusion that they have been badly
cheated by their pretended. friends.-
They have, many of them, come to them
selves, and find that they have been used
as the mud sills in the structure of a cor
rupt and rotten government. This very
day, as certain as the sun shines above
us, if the colored people of South Caroli-
ma could give expression to their real
opinions and feelings, they would be
found to be in condemnation of the prac-
tices and abuses of the party and politi-
clans whom they have helped to establish
over u.s.. They understand we'll the char.
acters of these men, and would avail
themselves of any good opportunity to
get rid of them. But the opportunity
must come up naturally in the course of
things. 1t must be the issue of honest
and respectable government, economical
administration, good understanding be-
tween the races on the basis of acknowl.
edgment of the rights of each by the
other, and the expulsion of bad men from
position of trust and honor. .,,..,.
Unusual as the expression of these
views may be, they are nevertheless justly
entertained by many. The denial of
them would be the denial of any possibil.
ity of improvement in the colored race,
ANY growth in knowledge and moral dis
cernment, any progress of their own ac-
cord towards better things. And it would
be to draw pail over the State and con-
sign it hopelessly to disgrace and ruin
We will not believe it. The means by
which the freedmen have been inveigled
into the support of measures of most in
furious tendency and effect to themselves,
as we'll as to the white people, cannot be
used much longer. They feel their dire
full consequences in the devastation to
which the State has been subject in the
orgies and long carnival of the men who
procured them and assume to represent
them. They may not be able to anal
yze the tree, but they can Judge of its
fruits. In Arkansas, the colored people
voted to recover the State. In Mississip-
pi, they are to-day rallying to the stan
dard of reform. A correspondent writes:
ri am convinced that more negroes will
vote with the whites than ever before
There are several counties where from
200 to 400 are enrolled in Democratic
clubs. AT the large Democratic demon
stration at Holly Springs, Thursday, there
were over 500 colored men in the process
sion." When artificial restraints and in
furious influences are broken down, when
the power of corruption itself as the
means of their political subsection has
run its course, colored people will learn
that there is still another phase of free
dom, another enjoyment of liberty, to
which they may aspire. 1t will be the
privilege Of supporting good and eco
nomical government and honest men in
it, without reference particularly to party
professions and party catch-words:- Co
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