The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-10-05
: n -
They Must be Unl0aded.

l.. The ,Gadlc2l POLITICIANS VINO nOlnluAteu
Chamberlain and Elliott in the late State
Convention, which they controlled abso.
lutely, are the very gang who nominated
Moses in 1872 and Chamberlain in 1874,
and who, throughout the legislative ses.-
sions of 1874 and 1875 audaciously resisted
the passage ofevery measure that looked to
reduction of the public expenditures and
the prevention of theft and fraud by pub
lie officers. In that Convention were the
monkeys who had purloined the chesnuts
and the cats who pulled them out OF the
fire. Hardly one familiar name was miss
ing. Nash was not there, the sooty Sena-
tor who has the merit of boldly avowing
purposes that his comrades usually Try to
conceal For instance, in the Senate: a
winter or two ago, Nash reminded his
friends that the Old Ship of State was
bearing down upon them, with decks
heaped high with spoils, and urged the
political buccaneers to jump aboard, ere
she passed, and secure their share Of the
plunder. Leslie was moi there, the knavish
Land Commissioner, whose swindling ope-
rations, or some of them. are fully set
forth in the report of a 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 accomplices.
The wholenumbcr Of delegates in the Con-
Yention was 1o4. Forty-four OF these were
members of the last General Assembly;
sixteen of then were members OF the no.
toriously corrupt Senate. The remainder
came from counties represented IN the
Legislature by Democrats, or by lndepenl-
dent Republicans. The for;y-forr, with
Patterson to lead them as he led them in
1874 and 1872, ruled the Convention as
they had ruled The Legislature. There was
no Improvement in the character OF the
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 as hollow as the old, and that the pre-
sent object of the Republican party, as
represented by is leaders, is precisely
what it was under Scot and Moses? Ihe
thieves of Yesterday are the thieves of to-
dav: the :smachine" is run by the same
hands, and must run in the same way and
il the same direction.
In 1874, in accepting TIE: nomination
for Governor, Mr.. Chamberlain entreated
his fellow-Republicans to put at his back,
and by his side, a Legislature which would
cooperate heartily with him in reducing
expenses and in correcting abuses gener-
ally. The answer to this was the eiec
ton. except in Counties carried by the
independents and Conservatives, of the
rascals who shared in the crimes and ex-
cesses which gave the "Robber Govern
or" his bad preeminence. ,o-o
There was platform in 1874 as IN 1876,
and equally emphatic and definite in its
pledges. The platform of 1874 solemnly
bound the party to carry out the promises
of reform made two years before. What
was then promised was: The reduction of
the public expenditures within the reyen-
ue to be 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 OF
public Offices. Besides this, the platform
of 1874 specifically renewed the pledge
THAT the public expenditures should be
kept within the public revenue. The
record shows that not one of these prom
ises were kept.
AS the tax levy for 1S74-75 was made
during the session of 1874, the new
LEGISLATURE was fully cognizant of the
amount of revenue at its disposal. New
ertheless, so extravagant were the aPpro.
priations that the deficiency for the fiscal
year 1874-75 was $30S,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 bill etfecting
a saving in salaries of $4,000, and this
was so amended that it does not go.into
operation until next November! 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 and Constables by the people,
and for the registration of electors, and
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-
tablish the responsibility of the persons
by whom the State, through the Solomon
Bank, was swindled out of $200,O 900. The
majority of the Radical members fought
tooth and nail, to secure the passage o.
the extravagant and injurious bills that
the Executive had vetoed. Finally, the
same Legislature, on "Black Thursday,
elected Moses and Whipper to the Cir
cult Bench, committing an act, which in
the words of Governor Chamberlain, sem
"a thrill of horror throughout the State.
Some reductions, as explained in previou:
articles, were secured; but they were OBJ
tained by the Conservative members, al
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-four projected
a single measure of substantial reform
and the history of the State, dnring tht
last eight years, shows that the same gans
Of ruiiians contrived, or shared the profit:
Of, every rascally scheme, from the Lane
Commission swindle to the Printing steal
1t is idle to expect such persons to re-
form themselves. They may do it with
in the walls of a penitentiary. They can
not do it so long as they run at large ane
live by plundcring the people. There ~ i
indeed only one cure for our public, Ills
and that is, Ito unload N Moses and WHIP