The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-10-12
of property should be allowed to vote.
The Republican authorities at Washing
~ ~. DIT

LII
The Republican authorities at Washing
ton thought differently at that time. Blu
sudden change came over them wher
they found that all the Southern States
had gone Democratic and elected Demo
cratic Governors, members of Congres:
and Senators. They then determined tt
enfranchise the negroes and disfranchlst
the white people in order to give all the
Southern States to the Republican party
Was there any regard for the colorec
people in all this? Was it not their owr
interest and their own party purpose:
which prompted them to bestow this boon
on the negro? They required five years
residence before foreigner is allowed te
vote. This was to enable him to become
acquainted with our laws, our constitution
and form of government. He had like,
wise to produce in court certificate Of
good moral character. How different
was their conduct all, at once towards the
colored people when they adopted tile
idea Of controlling the Southern States
by means OF, the freedmen. Without any
preparation or education or certificate OF
moral character, the whole of the freed
men were declared citizens, with the right
of suffragel -; II -
This is the pretended sympathy of the
Republican party for The negro 1t is
false in every particular. They never
had any sympathy for him except where
their interest prompted them to have.
They were in the first place, actuated by
a base and sordid interest in sending
their vessels to Africa and kidnapping
the poor negro and selling him as slave.
They were actuated by their own interest
when, finding that his labor was no long
er profitable, they set him free. They
consulted their own interest and not the
interest of the negro when they took him
into their armies, and declared that the
Southern States should not be restored to
the Union till he was set free. They
were actuated by the same motive when
they gave him the right of suffrage. And
they are now actuated by the same prin-
cipies and the same, feelings when. they
tell the colored people to vote for the
carpet baggers and scalawags who repre-
sent the Republican party inithe South
ern States.
Your Excellency knows full well the
corruption of your Republican party in
South Carolina. You yourself have de-
nounced it. and tried to reform it. The
Legislature has elected men so infamous
to seats on the bench that you have re-
fused to commission them! Time and
again you have vetoed their fraudulent
bills, and tried to stop their roguery and
plunder! Why, then, do you ask the
Ignorant and credulous negro to sustain
those rogues and plunderers whom you
have thus boldly denounced? They,
such men as M Is and Whipper, Bowen
and Neagle, and Leslie and Whittemore
and their satellites. are the Republican
party of South Carolina! The great
masses of the colored people are too ig-
norant to understand the political princi-
Piles of any party, and they have been
led astray and turned against their Dem
ocratic friends, with whom they were
born and raised, by just such speeches as
you made to them at Lancaster, Marlboro
and other places. I am sure, sir, you
have too much regard for your reputation
to tell the colored people, as your Repub-
lican understrappers do all over the State,
that if the Democratic party get into
power in South Carolina they will be
thrown back into slavery or deprived oi
their political rights and privileges. You
know, sir, that the Democratic party now
has the control of Georgia, Alabama
Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis-
souri, Texas and Arkansas. And in Ill
these States the colored people are better
off, more secure in all their rights, more
prosperous and more Of freemen than
they are in South Carolina under Repub:
lican or Radical rule. 1t has been said
that all mankind are governed by love Of
fear. You seem disposed to govern by
the former principle and your under
strappers by the latter. ,
1 am, sir, most respectfully ly yours, &c.
B. F. PERRY.