The news and herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1876-1881, 1876-12-21
The Governors Inaugural.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Xous.
Of Re},resentatiOes:

Of Ite}'resentatioes:
It is with feelings of the pro.
foundest solicitude that I assume
the arduous duties and grave re
sponsibilities Of tho high position tc
which the people of South Caroline
have called me. 1t is amid evonts
unprecedented in this republic, tha,
III take the chair as Chief Magistrate
OF this State. After years of mis-
rule, corruption and anarch,
brought upon us by venal and un-
principled political adventurers, the
honest people of the State, without
regard to purity or ruce, with orc
purpose devoted themselves earn-
ostly and solemnly to the attainment
of this end. With lofty patriot
ism never surpassed; with q
patience never equaied; with q
courage nevor excelled, and with q
sublime sense of duty, which finds
scarce parallel in the history of
the world, thev subordinat ed every
personal feeling to the public. Veal
and consecrated themselves to the
sacred work of redeeming their
prostrate State. TO the accom-
plishment Of this task, they delicut-
ed themselves with unfalterinr con-
idence and with unshaken faith,
trusting alone to the Justice of their
cause and commencing that caus @
rcvcrent:y to the protection of tho
Almighty. When the corrupt party
which for eight years had held sway
in this State, bringing it's civiliza-
tlon into Disgrace and making it's
COVE; nment public scandal, saw
that the demand for rcfArm found @
responsive echo in the popular heart
and that the verdict of the people
would Eo pronounced against those
who had degraded the State, tn ~
appealed to Federal interyonti On,
and, by q libel on our whole people
as false as it WAS base, called in the
soidiery of the United States army
to act as supervisors of our election.
In time of profound pe,ce, when
no legal officer had been resisted in
the proper discharge of his func-
tons, we have witnessed spectacle
abhorrent to every patriotic heart
and fatal to republican institutions
-Fe'!ernl troops used to promote
tho success of political party.
undismayed, though shocked by this
g oss violation of the constitution
OF the country, our people with
determination that no force could
subduc, no fraud could defeat, kept
steadily and peacefully in the path
OF duty, resolved to assert their
rights rs American freemon at the
ballot-boS-that great court of final
resort, before which must be tried
the grave questions of tho snprema-
cy of tho constitution and the
stability of our Institutions. What
tho verdict of the people of South
Caroline has been, you need not be
told. 1t has reverbcrated through
out the State, anl its echoes come
back to us from every land where
liberty is venerated, declaring in
tones that cannot be mistaken, that,
Oh the onstitution of our
country, wo propose to obey it's
lies, it's peace oi tir and honor, md to
carry out in good faith every plodge
made by us for reform and honest
We intend to prove
ID the world the sincerity of our
declaration that the sole motive
which inspired the grand contest
we have SO successfully made was
not the peltry ambition for party
but the sacred hope Of
our State. 1t was this
h Ipe that led our people to u veto
ry VIII ch was gr ,nd.r in it's proper
tions, greater III it's success, nobler
in its achievement and brighter in
it's promise Of prosperity than any
other ever won on this continent
But it was sought to wrest the
fruits of this magnificent victory
from the hands that won it by a
gigantic fraud and base conspiracy.
When the members elect of the
General Assembly repaired to the
capitol to take the seats to which
the people of South Carolina had
them, armed soldiers of the
Federal government confronted
them, and their certificates of cleo
ton were examined and passed
upon by corporal of the guard.
A spectacle so humiliating to a free
people, and SO fatalito republican in
stitutione, has never been presented
in America. It could not havo been
Witnessed even here, whore civil
liberty has for years been but
mockory, had snot the ruthless hand
OF military power struck down the
most sacred guarantees of the con-
stitution for the tread of the
armed soldier, rs he made his rounds
through the halls of legislation, was
over the prostrate form of liberty
herself It WAS amid these om:-
nous, these appalling scenes, that
the members of the General Assem-
bly, were called on to assume their
duties as the representatives of
free State, and TINT State ono of the
original thirteen who won our indie
pendence and framed our constitu-