The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-12-21

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Gov. Hampton's Position III this Crisis.
Gentlemen Of the Senate and House Of
Representatives:
1t is with feelings of the profoundest
solicitude that I assume the arduous du-
ties and grave responsibilities of the high
position to which the people of South
Carolina have called me. 1t is amid
events unprecedented in this republic.
that take the chair as Chief Magistrate
of this State. After years of misrule,
corruption and anarchy, brought upon us
by venal and unprincipled political ad-
venturers, the honest people of the State,
without regard to party or race, with one
voice demanded reform, and with one.
purpose devoted themselves earnestly and
solemnly to the attainment of this end.
With lofty patriotism never surpassed !;
with patience never eqvalled; with
courage never excelled, and with sub
lime sense Of duty, which finds scarce a
parallel in the history of the world, they
subordinated every personal feeling to
the public veal and consecrated them
selves to the sacred work of redeeming
their PROSTATE State. To the accomplish
ment of this task, they dedicated them
selves with unfaltering confidence and
with unshaken faith, trusting alone to
the justice of their cause, aud commend
ing that cause rcvercntly to the protec-
tion of the Almighty. When the corrupt
party which for eight years has held sway
in this State, bringing its civilization into
disgrace and making its government
public scandal, saw that the demand for
reform found responsive echo in the
popular heart, and that the verdict of the
people would be pronounced against those
who have degraded the State, they ap-
pealed to Federal Intervention, and by a
libel on our whole people as false as It was
base called in the soldiery of the United
States army to act as supervisors of our
election. In time of profound peace,
when no legal officer had been resisted
in the proper discharge Of his functions,
we have witnessed spectacle abhorrent
to every patriotic heart and fatal to re-
publican nstitutions-Fed troops used
to promote the success of political par,
ty. Undismayed though shocked by this
gross violation of the constitution Of the
country, our people with determination
that no force could subdue, no fraud could
defeat, kept steadily and peacefully in
the path of duty, resolved to assert their
rights as American freemen ut the ballot
box-that great court of final resort, be-
fore which must be tried the grave ques-
tions of the supremacy of the constitu-
ton and the stability of our institutions.
What the verdict Of the people of South
Carolina has been, you need not be told.
It has reverberated throughout the State,
and it's echoes come back to US from every
land where liberty is venerated, declaring
in tones that cannot be mistaken that,
standing on the constitution of our coun-
try, We propose to obey its laws, to pre-
serve, as far as in us lies, its peace and
honor, and to carry out in good faith
every pledge made BY US for reform and
honest government. We intend to prove
to the world the sincerity of our declara.
ton that the sole motive which inspired
the grand contest VIC have so successfully
made was not the paltry ambition for
paltry supremacy, but the sacred hope of
redeeming our State 1t was this hope
| that led our people to a victory which
was grander in its proportions, greater in
its success, nobler in its achievement and
brighter in its promise of prosperity than
any other ever waged on this continent.
But it was sought to vrest the fruits Of
this magnificent victory from the hands
that won it by gigantic fraud and a
elect to the General Assembly repaired
to the Capitol to take the seats to which
the people of South Carolina had as.
signed them, armed soldiers of the Fed.
eral government confronted them, and
their certificates of election were exam
ined and passed upon by corporal of
the guard. A spectacle so humiliating
to a free people, and so fatal to republic
can institutions, has never been presen-
ted in America. 1t could not have been
witnessed even here, where civil liberty
has for years been but a mockery, had
not the ruthless hand of military power
struck down the most sacred guarantees
of the constitution; for the tread of the
armed soldier, as he made his rounds
through the halls of legislation, was over
| the prostrate from of liberty herself: 1t
was amid these ominous, these appalling
scenes, that the members of the General
Assembly were called on to assume their
duties as the representatives of 9 free
State, and that State one of the original
thirteen who won our independence and
framed our constitution. That the natu-
raj, patriotic indignation of our people
did not find expression in violence, is
creditable in the highest degree to them,
and this was due in large measure to
the statesmanlike and dignified conduct
of those members of the General Assem-
bly, who had been made the victims OF
this gross outrage on. their persons and
this daring conspiracy against their con-
stitutional rights. Debarred the free eS-
ercise of their rights by the presence OF
an armed force, legal quorum of the
lower House, after placing on record q
noble protest, quietly withdrew from the
Capitol and proceeded to organize that
branch of the General Assembly. Not
one form of law nor one requirement OF
the constitution was wanting to give force
and legality to this organization, and that
its authority has not been fully recognized
| is due solely to the same armed usurpa-
tion which has subordinated the civil to
the military power throughout this whole
contest. Of the disgraceful, dangerous
and revolutionary proceedings resorted
to by the defeated party after the orgsnl-
zation of the lower House, it IS needless
for me to speak. You have been the
witnesses and the victims of these, and
the civilized world has looked on with
| L., h oifo