The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-02
DEMOCRATIC LEADERS.

The great want with South Carolina
Democracy is bold and patriotic leaders,
like Lamar, of Mississippi, or Gordon, of
Georgia. In order to have such leaders
we must encourage them to come out.
we must lay aside the old idea that men
who voluntarily come forward publicly,
in opposition to Republicanism, are Office
seekers, must be looked upon with suspi-
cion and put down. We wish we had
more good working politicians in our
ranks in this State. They would do more
to keep the party organized and in con-
stant working order than all the news
papers in the country; and they would
keep the papers more closely in the ranks.
Mississippi was in as hopeless a condi-
ton as South Carolina until Lamar took
the stump and reused the people to deter
mined action, and then they achieved a
glorious victory. And when the victory
was won, the people did not hesitate to
put their leader in position where he
could truly represent them in the coun-
ellis of the nation. We believe there are
many good and able men in this State
who would be willing to come to the front
and canvass the State for the Democratic
cause, if it were not for fear that the cry
of demagogue and Office seeker would be
raised against them by even their own
party. We must encourage such men to
come forward and arouse the people from
the lethargy into which they have fallen,
for the want of bold, eloquent and ener-
getic leaders. And if, like Lamar, they
are instrumental in restoring the State to
a pure and honest Democratic govern
ment, in the name of justice, let us give
them such positions as we think they can
fill for the best interests of the State.
They will certainly have earned it.
The men who occasionally come to the
surface and write homilies upon the
course they think best to pursue are not
the men to be relied upon. Their time
is devoted to professional and other pur-
suits, from which they obtain livelihoods,
and only when a large meeting of the
people of their County assemble are they
ever seen or heard from. They naturally
take but a superficial view of our politi-
cal affairs, for they know but little of the
under current which generally controls
the feelings and wishes of the people.
They communicate but little with the
people and consequently are not likely to
know the temper and spirit which IS
moving the masses. They know nothing
of the active workings of the opposite
party. They are neither statesmen, poll
ticians nor partisans. They have no set
tied political principles, which they are
willing to defend at all hazards, but are
ready to compromise their party to secure
a few crumbs from the table of their op-
ponents. A fraudulent census return
frightens them into abject submission to
the will of what they acknowledge is an
ignorant venal majority. Particularly is
this the case with most of the older and
very best men of our State. Their polit-
ical training was had in a time when
there were no distinct party lines drawn,
and when the ballot-box stuting, and
other infamous party frauds would have
been secuted by the poorest candidate tor
Office, and when the honor and State
pride of every voter could be appealed to
with q certainty of success. In fact, they
know nothing of the trickery and rascali-
ty of extreme party tactics; but, judging
their opponents by their own high sense
of right and wrong, they still suppose
that reason, justice, and patriotic desire
to secure pure, honest and economical
administration of our public affairs, con-
trols the votes of all the rest of their fell
low citizens.
The Democrats of to-day must look to
other men as leaders. We have willy,
vigilant, unscrupulous and basely corrupt
foe to fight. There is no depth of rascal
ity to which they will not stoop to keep
their party in power; and what makes
them more invulnerable to good impulses
and honest actions is the fact that there
is no feeling of moral responsibility
among them and the leaders, being cor
rupt themselves, carefully and studiously
pander to the weak prejudices of IL con-
solidated mass of ignorant followers.
If we ever have true reform in our
political affairs, it must come from bold,
firm and uncompromising stand of the in
tcllgent voters of the State. 1t can
never come through the Republican par
ty. because it has none of the materials in
it upon which to build an honest govern
ment. From the highest to the lowest of
its leaders, their garments are stained
with fraud and corruption. We cannot
60 over to their party nor can we con-
scientiously endorse and vote for any of
their leaders. We are far more likely to
have our own garments stained than we
are to wash off the filth that attaches to
thair skirts hu an afilliatinn with them