The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-09-27
HAMPTON IN ATLANTA.

HAMPTON IN ATLANTA.
We give below the address of Senator
Gordon in introducing Coy. Hampton to
an audience of the "Gate City," and the
Palmetto Governors speech in reply:
GEN. GoRDoN's SPEECH.
Fsllo,o- Citizens, Ladies and Gentleme'a-
1t has rarely fallen to myself to occupy
more grateful task than the one to which
1 am called tonight, namely, to present
to my neighbors and fellow-citizens the
man whom South Carolina claims and is
attempting to appropriate to herself, but
who in truth belongs to US, applause
to Georgia and to the whole South as
we'll as to South Carolina. To introduce
Wade Hampton to Georgia audience is
like introducing Bonaparte to French
men, or R. E. Lee to the Army Of North
ern Virginia. Applause. There are
those here who have followed him; who
have followed him where sabres clashed
a voice, correct" applause and laugh
ter, and where danger speed on the bat
Ties wings. And we all know him; we
all honor him; we all love him. And |
do not know whether it is more proper
to introduce him as General, or as Gov
ernor Hampton; applause whether as
the great soldier or as the pure states
man; for we stand up and pronounce
him in both capacities eminently great.
Continued applause. From 1861 to
1865 the name of Hampton, through all
of that bloody conflict, was the synonym
of victory; and in that recent, but little
less important struggle-the last political
campaig gn-he was the man, he was the
political Joshua, before whose flaming
sword the Philistines and Canaanites fled
in confusion from South Carolina. Ap-
plause. 1t was our contest as we'll his.
We were all enlisted for Hampton's cause.
1t was our cause, and our cause was lib,
erty's cause. Continued applause.
But will not detain you any longer. L
present to you the gallant soldier, the
wise statesman, the courteous gentleman,
the uncompromising and unpurchasable
patriot, Gen. Wade Hampton, of South
Carolina. Loud and continued ap-
plause.
GOVERNOR HAMPToN's SPEECH.
Gen. Hampton arose, amid deafening
cheers, and spoke as follows:
Ladies and Gentlen@1-In two OF the
partial remarks of my distinguished
friends recognize but one claim to the
sympathy of the people ofGeorgia, and
that was that the Savannah divided
South Carolina from Georgia, that these
are Georgians, and that | am South
Carolinian. know that they have been
lifelong neighbors, and | know, fellow
citizens, that many of you have been
lifelong friends; and that knowledge it
was that induced me to remain tonight
in your city that I might extend to the
people of Georgia my profound acknowl-
edgment of sympathies for the aid ex-
tended to us in our last struggle. You
gave more than sympathy. Wherever
Georgians could extend it they did so ;
and I not only refer to your distinguished
Senator, who was the advocate and friend
of South Carolina during all that conflict,
who lent his eloquent tongue to our aid,
who went to Washington and upheld and
defended our cause in our darkest trials.
He had the kindness to come to South
Carolina in our most bitter struggles.
[Applause.1 And I tell you, people of
Georgia, if Georgia could spare him,
South Carolina would be glad to honor
him, and to place him where Calhoun,
and Preston, and McDuffie have been
before him in the Senate of the United
States. No one man in South Carolina
could beat him for the Senate. My
friends, the sympathy which Georgians
have extended towards us will never be
forgotten, and will never be repaN.
Applause. My friend has alluded to
the late contest in South Carolina. did
not anticipate, tonight, anything of this
nature. I assure you when was cap
tured last night, and kept over in your
city, my intention was only to make q
few Acknowledgements, to meet few old
Confederates, but anticipated nothing
of this sort. But will take as my text
what he introduced upon that subject.
You know, most of you, the reasons OF
that contest. You. know that it was not,
in the strict sense OF the word, party or
political fight. We were not seeking for
the Offices of the State. At the last three
elections the people were willing to elect
honest and capable men. When six
years ago the people presented as a can
didate man that came from New York,
though not a native, and though a Re-
publican, they sustained him long and
earnestly. But he was defeated. Two
years after we made the same experiment.
It mattered not that they were Republi-
cans. We wanted honest men-men who
would not plunder the State. But an
effort was made by the worst element of
the Republican party; they were success
full, and the people were remanded to a
darker tyranny than any nation on the
face of the earth. My friends made the
proposition to place me as their leader in
the recent conflict. I made it always a
rule, whatever might have been my own
views and feelings, to stand by my friends,
and to submit my judgment. [ believed
then that there was but one course for
the people to take, and that was to put
honest men to the front, to put forward
men from among our own people; men
who were natives, whom the people be-
lieved to be honest, and to commit the
question to our own people and to the
justice of the Almighty. Applause
We did that, we went into the contest
with a majority against US. A majority,
it was claimed, ofthirty thousand colored
voters, and in spite of every perversion OF
the truth, a victory was gained by the
Democratic party of South Carolina,
without the slightest intimidation, and
as honest as any contest on the face of
the earth. Iappeared I before the colored
people, and spoke to them upon the sub
jects before them. I told them that we
were South Carolinians tried to con-
vince them that their interests were iden-
tical with ours, and that if we went down
they would sink with US. The colored
| .aarla a1,stainad this rnauement They