The news and herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1876-1881, 1876-12-21
A Hollow Sham,

Al 'oouth Carollna an organization
calling itself the Republican party
and claiming to form part of that
body Of intelligent voters whicl,
gives strength to the party nt the
North. The connection between
tho reel Republican party and the
hybrid concerns IN tho South has
been constantly kept up. Tho
Southern wing of the party is al
ways represented cn the national
committee and always allowed IL
vice-presidency or something of the
sort in the national convention.
Tho white leaders call themselves
Republicaps-some, possibly, be-
cause they aro SO from conviction,
but tie majority seizing tho name
but RS Il means to increase the num-
bor and the credulity Of, their
ignorant dupes. OF the colored
people in tho South thoro are per
laps n few CT the more intelligent
who are Mt heart in sympathy rather
with the Republican thon with tho
Democratic party. But tho grcnt
mass Of the negroes are Republicans
simply because their leaders tell
them 80. They believe that they
were born Republicans and cannot
be anything clsc,no matter how often
they vote against tho party. They
believe that whcn thoy registered as
voters, under the Reconstruction
acts of Congress, they took solemn
oath to support the nominees and
the policy of tho Republican party.
1t is true, largo numbers of tic
colorcd people all over the South
nave como TO sec tho Jolly rof then
former notions, and within tho past
two or three yenrs have exercised
their OWN Judgment as men and as
citizens. Ii! bis has 'een in spite
of the teachings and tho constant
opposition of the Radical leaders and
their undcrlings, and large portion
of the colored people are still slaves
to the dclusions fixed in their minds
by their first Radical teachers. It is
clear, then, that the so-called Re-
publican party in South Carolina
It's in the other Southern States
is but hollow sham a party hay
ing but the bare name of the great
national organization by which it is
recognized, encouraged and,protect-
cd q party owing its strength but
to the Ignorance, the superstition
and the race prejudice of the negro;
"a ring of corrupt office-holders
and otfice-seelkers who manage the
negro voter to suit their own ends,
and reap all the substantial benefits
Of political power. The Republican
party of the South being SO com.
posed, it is but the necessary re-
suit of that composition that cor.
ruption in all,its forms should have
pervaded the ec-2llled Republican
governments established in this SEQ
tion since 1868. The party in the
South owes it's strength to the
countenance received from the
national government That removed,
1t would long since have died
of it's own weakness and rottenness.
Whenever it has been in trouble,
the bayonets of the Federal army
have been summoned to it's aid, and
they have come rs promptly as they
were requested. A party pretend
ing to rest all it's claim to popular
support upon it's recognition of the
superiority of intelligence over
brute force has beon the helper, by
the exercise of brute force, of crow
OF plunpdcrers having neither fmoral
strength nor just claim to moral
support. The longer the decaying
carcass Of Southern Republicanism
lasts, there are fair-minded people
everywhere impressed with it's
weakness and worthlessness. We
seeiit to-day in South Carolina a
hollow sham indeed, upheld by the
Federal arm acting against the civi
a'ltthority,and it's leaders defying the
constitution and the courts. The
desperate acts Of the party Leaders
here are but additional evidences
that that the party itself is breathing
its laat.1 sGa, B
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