The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-05-06
A Republican Congressman's Experience
in the South.

A Republican Congressman's Experience
in the South.
Hon. William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania,
has lately returned to Washington from an
extended tour through the Southern States,
and has expressed himself unreservedly upon
the situation. He was surprised to find the
prevalence of amity and good will to be uni
versal among all classes. 1t is astonishing the
amount of conviction brought to leaders of the
Republican party since the tidal wave of last
fall. Everything looks different through their
political spectacles, especially where the people
are thinking and acting differently than before.
The Philadelphia Enquirer, an ultra-Radical
newspaper not long ago, concurs with Judge
Kelley in his present estimate of the Southern
people, and thinks "it were time, indeed, for
Mr.. Williams to retire to his native wilds of
Oregon, and for the super-serviceable organs
of the rpet-bagger to learn new tunes to stir
up vindctive feeling against the South. 1t
would appear to be time to withdraw our army
from those places where it is not wanted, and
to send it to the Texas frontier, where it is
wanted very much. As new crop of Southern
outrages will be required next fall, it will be
just as well for the North to remember the tes-
timony of Judge Kelley" This is very sensi-
BILE advice, and ftly supplements the experience
of Mr.. Kelley which is herewith given:
WASHINGTON, April 80.
Judge VIM. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, has
returned from six weeks tour in the South,
to-day, and bears most emphatic testimony
against the Southern policy of his own party
in the last Congress. When asked, tonight,
what he thought of the political condition of
the South he used these words: "The vote I
most regret during my fourteen years service
in Congress, is that which cast last winter in
favor of the force bill" He further said that,
so far as his observation went, during his ex-
tended tour, there is no more necessity for the
use of Federal military force than there is in
Pennsylvania or Ohio. He talked with Con-
federate soldiers, with Northern men, negroes,
carpet baggers and travellers, and he was sur
prised at the good feeling existing. He said
he should hereafter take little stock in South
ern outrages, especially if they are reported as
occurring in the sections he visited. He gave
al eAdUlpic VI Vile iecliuS III LuC COutu Wy lt-
lating what he himself saw in Augusta, being
himself unknown. He happened to be in that
CITY on the day chosen for decorating the
graves of the Confederate dead, and he re-
mained and observed closely the proceedings.
A long procession marched through the city
with engines, civic organizations, &C., it being
treated as general holiday. Judge Kelley
observed the significant fact that while men
and women were gathered for the purpose OF
paying tribute to the memory of the dead
Confederate soldiers, the principal music on
the occasion was furnished by band belong
ing to regular U. S. infantry regiment, sta
toned in the vicinity There were no taunts,
no insults, no complaints. no appearance of ILL.,
feeling anywhere visible.
While absent Judge Kelly spent from two
days to week in each of the following cities,
stopping frequently at places of less conse-
quence, viz Richmond, Charleston, Colum-
bia, Savannah, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Augusta
and Aiken. The most of his time was spent
in Florida. He says so far as he saw, and he
went with his eyes and ears open, there was
no feeling of fear or distrust on the part of
the colored people, and he could not, for the
life of him, see what use there was for force
bills He was very glad to have made the trip,
for it has enabled him to understand the con-
dition of the South better than he has ever un-
derstood it before He said it was not the Ku-
klux that was running the South, nor was their
unhappy condition 10 be attributed to hatred
by the people of the South for the people of
the North, nor was any political question in
volved.
He thinks the whole trouble in the South
arises from financial and industrial causes, and
he believes that the South will not improve and
advance until the Forty-fourth Congress re-
peals the financial legislation ofthe Forty third,
until the industries of the country are revivi6ed
and we are forced to live within our income.
The South will grow worse instead of better,
and as matters are going now, the Judge thinks
not only that the South and Southwest will be
involved in ruin, but the country itself will be
hopelessly insolvent. The Treasury, he thinks,
is already empty. Work is stopping in the
navy yards, on the public works, buildings, &C.,
for the money has run out. The receipts are
not equal to the expenditures, and day of set
tlement is not far of.
He was asked how long the Treasury would
hold out and he answered that, unless there is
Revenue receipts, the Treasury will be empty by
tary Bristow and had long talk on financial
new information from the Secretary. The
Judge asked him how soon he was to begin to
buy currency again? The Secretary did not
seem to like that way of stating it, but he was
told by the Judge that he thought he had used
the right term. He did not think it was selling
gold but buying currency which is necessary
for daily use. He told The Secretary that the
South, the West and the whole country could
never recover while the effort was being made
to bring about specie payments by contracting
the currency.
A Memphis dispatch says complaints are
pouring in from all the surrounding counties,
of the fearful destruction of horses and mules
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