The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-10-05
They Must be Unloadea.

lutely, ara tho very gang who nominated
Moses In 1872 and Chamberlain in 1874
and who, throughout the legislative ses
sions CT 1874 aad 1875 audaciously resistet
the passage Of every measure thatlooked I,
reduction Of the public expenditures ant
the prevention Of theft aud fraud by pub
lie officers. In that Convention were III,
Monkeys who had purloined the chcsnut
and the cats who pulled them out Of th.
fire. Hardly one familiar name was miss
ing. Nash was not there, the sooty Sena
tor who has the merit Of boldly avowins
purposes that his comrades usually Try t
conceal. For instance. in the Senate, {
winter Or two ago, Nash reminded hi,
friends that the Old Ship Of State wai
bearing down upon them, with decks
hearea high. with spoils, and urged the
political buccaneers 70 jump aboard, ere
she passed, and secure their share OF the
plumber. Leslie was no, there, the knavisl
Land Commissioner, whose swindiiug ope.
ruii0ns, or some Of them are fully sci
forth in the report Of special committee
presented, but not acted upon, at the last
session of the General Assembly But
Elliott, Smalls, Bowen, Whitiemore
Swails and Owens were in the Convention
with their dependents and accompliccs
The who,enumbcr of Delegates in the Con.
veniiOn was 1"4. Forty-four Of these were
members of the last General Assembly
sixteen of them were members of the no.
tOriOusly corrupt Senate. The remainder
came from counties represented In The
Legislature by Democrats, or by Indepen.
dent Republicans: The for:y.four, with
Patterson to lead them rs he led them in
1874 and 1872, ruled the Convention rs
they had ruled ilie Legislature. There was
delegates. The same constituencies re-
turned the same representatives. Are not
the Democracy justified, therefore, in as
suming that the new promises of reform
are us hollow Is the old, and that the pre-
sent object of the Republican party, as
represented by is leaders, is precisely
what it was under Scot aud Moses? The
tlicve, Of yesterday are the thieves of 10
day The machine" is run by the same
bands. and must run in The same way and
il the same direction.
In 1874, in accepting tfe nomination
for Governor, Mr.. Chamberlain entreared
his fellow Republicans to put ut his back,
and by his side, IL Legislature which would
cooperate heartily with him in reducing
expenses and in correcting abuses gener-
ally. The answer To this was tho ecc
tion, except in Counties carried by the
Independents and Conservatives, of the
rascals who shared in tho crimes and ex-
cesses which gnve the "Rnhher Govern
or" his bad preeminence.
There was platform in 1874 as in 1876.
and equally emphatic and definite in lis
pledges. The platform of 1874 soiemnly
bound the partyito carry out the promises
of reform made two years before. What
was, then promised was: The reduction OF
the public expenditures within the rcyen-
ue to he derived from moderate tax; an
immediate reduction in the salaries of all
public officers, from the highest to the
lowest, and reduction in the number oi
public Offices. Besides this, the platform
of 1874 specifically renewed the pledge
.hat the public expenditure should s.
kept within the public revenue. The
record shows that not one of these prom.
ises were kept.
AS the tax levy for lS74-75 was made
during the session of 1G73-74, the new
Legislature was fully cognizant of the
amount Of revenue at its disposal. New
ertheless, 80 extravagant were the appro-
priations that the deficiency for the fiscal
year 1874-75 was $50s, ,S72, including the
loss by the failure of the Solomon Bank,
while The total tax this year is higher
than ever before. Nor was an Immediate
reduction made in the salaries of all pub
lie officers. The wrangling and argument
of two sessions produced p bill etfectng
saving in salaries of $4,000, and this
was so amended that it does not go into
operation until next Novemberl AS far
as we know no reduction whatever was
made in the number Of public officers, ex-
cept by diminishing for party reasons the
number of trial justices in some of the
Counties. Every pledge of specific re-
form was ruthlessly broken, and, besides,
other reform measures, strenuously ad-
vised by Governor Chamberlain, were
promptly voted down.
In defiance of the positive mandate OF
the Constitution, the Legislature refused
to provide for the election Of Justices OF
the Peace aud Constablcs by the people,
rad for the registration &C electors, sad
instead of reducing the length of the
session to thirty or forty days, remained
in session, in 1876, no less than one
hundred and forty days. The members
moreover, sought to alter the Consolida.
ton Act which they had bound them.
selves to maintain unchanged. They
failed to take any sufficient action to es-
tabish the responsibility of the persons
by whom the State, through the Solomon
Bank, was swindled out of 100000 Tho
majority of the Radica! members fought
tooth and nail. to secure the passage oi
the cxtravagant and injurious bills that
the Executive had vetoed. Finally, the
same Legislature, OH "Black Thursday, 5,
elected Moses and Whipper to the Cir.
cult Bench. committing an act, which in
the words of Gnro.nor Chamberlain, sent
"athrill of horror throughout the State. ~
Some reductions, as explained in previous
articles, were secured; but they were OBJ.
tanned by tho Conservative members, nj.
ded by the better Republicans, and de.
spite the efforts of the forty -four members
who took the lead in the State Conven.
tion.
These are facts, established by the re.
cord. They show that, in no case, have
such Radicals as the Forty-fo projected
single measure of substantial reform
and the history of the State, dnring the
last eight years, shows that the same gang
of ruiiians contrivcd, or shared the profits
OF, every rascally scheme, from the Land
Commission swindle to the Printing steal
1t is idle TO expect such persons to re.
form themselves. They may do 1t with.
in the wills of penitentiary. They can.
not do i. so long as they run ut large and
live by plunderirg the people. There i:
indeed only one cure for our public ills
and th..t is: go unload Moses and Whin.
per, and all who go with them" And
they can be unloaded IN but one way, and
that is by the election Of Hampton in
Novcmber.-Ne,os and Courier.