The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-07-12


the cowardice which shrinks from at.
tacklng the conduct of one who was
chosen by our own party, to convince all
who have ever sympathized with the
principles of the Republican party that
such a policy deserves, upon all legal
and constitutional grounds, the condem-
nation which I have pronounced upoh it.
"But when we look further and inquire
what other defenses of this policy are Of
fered, we afe lust in d maze Of stibterfuges,
contradictions, falsehoods, fallacies and
inanities. Conspicuous in this list is the
claim made by the President himself and
echoed by his defenders, that this presi-
Dental policy is in accord with the plat
form of the Republican party, with the
Presidents letter of acceptance, and with
his known views at the time of his fomi.
nation and during the canvass. l call
this the chief of subterfuges, if not of
falsehoods. I confess / cannot under
stand or measure the audacity which
prompts such claim. When, where, by
whom, before the nomination, or after it.,
during the canvass or during the long
agony of suspense which succeeded the
canvass, will you find from President
Hayes or any representative of him or OF
the Republican party, high or low, a hint
of such policy? 1t cannot be found.
Never till the country heard with amaze
ment the first whisperings of the machin-
ations of Stanley Matthews and the Ohio
cliqt1e who stood nearest the President
the basest passage / have ever read in
our political history,-did any portion of
the public or of the Republican party
imagine that the President would enter
upon such a policy or course of action:
It is impossible to overstate this general
fact. Especially is it impossible to over
state the deliberate, long-continued, I'm.
RENTED efforts, made at every stage OF
the struggle from November Z to March
4, to inspire the Southern Republicans
with fidelity to the Republican cause.
If doubts arose, with electric speed came
new assurances that Hayes, if elected,
would vindicate the rights of those who
were fighting his battles at the South. Is
the despicable suggestion here made that
President Hayes knew nothing of all this Z
Sir. it is incredible. He did know it i;
and he stood by, willing to see men risk
ing, by day and by night, for months
which seemed longer than years, their
lives; ay, losing their lives by hundreds,
to lift him to the Presidency, upon lying
assurances, if what he now says be true,
that he would protect and rescue them
by the great powers of the Office he should
receive. Every man who stood near to
the President, every man whom the pub.
lie had right to regard as his faithful
representative, Joined in these assurances
assurances which carried no doubtful
meaning-assurances which meant to the
beleaguered and fainting soldiers on those
outposts of freedom, that succor and help
would come if only they defended to the
last the ground which they had won.
Sir, when I think of these things, my
heart grows hot with indignation, and a
curse comes unbidden to my lips, for the
men who thus played with the blood of
brave men and women as the gambler
plays with. his dice. Such treachery
passes my comprehension. l should ex,
pect that those who engaged in it would
hear echoes like those which greeted the
ears of the terrified Alonzo when all ma
ture seemed breaking into voice to herald
his crime:
O, 1t is monstrous! monstrous
Methought the billows spoke and told me OF 1t;
The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper. 1t did bass my trespass.
"No, fellow-citizens, I know not how
long his policy may have been meditated
in the secrecy of the Presidents own
mind. I do know that he did not hint
it, he would not have dared to hint it to
the country, at any hour from the time
he was nascent candidate for his nomi-
nation till he sat in the seat of the Presi-
dent"
Gov. Chamberlain next took up the
claim that the President is only carrying
out the Republican platform, which pro-
claims the permanent paci6cation of the
South to be great duty of the party, ex-
plains that he wrote that section himself,
declares that everybody knows that "the
unanimous voice of the convention was
for the Immediate and vigorous exercise
of all the powers of the government in
repressing violence and protecting the
rights of every man at the South" and
indulges in this reminiscence in proof:
"The committee on resolutions at Cincin-
natl, composed Of one member from each
State, met for conference and discussion.
After remaining in session till late hour,
it was determined to appoint small sub
committee, to whom should be intrusted
the work of preparing platform to be
submitted to the whole committee on the
following morning. had the honor to
be named upon the subcommittee, and /
we'll remember that the venerable Col.
Richard W. Thompson of Indiana, now
the secretary of the navy, just as the sub
committee we're withdrawing to enter
upon their work, said: Gentlemen, I
have attended ten consecutive national
conventions, and + must leave this work
to younger men; but let me say one word
to YOU who are on the subcommittee.
We must win in this fight. Deal eau
tiously with the currency question. Give
us something, if necessary, on civil SER
vice. Satisfy our Pacific friends, if you
can, on the Chinese question. But on
the Southern question let our Southern
friends turning toward me) haze anything
they want. Ny people, and the people
of the West, want Southern Republicans,
white and black, protected, and they want
an end put finally to the violence and
lawlessness which exists at the South. "
Gov. Chamberlain equally denied that
the Presidents letter Of acceptance fore
Swallowed his policy, and in proof ap-
pealed to every man who has any knowl-
edge of the spirit and tone Of the CAM
pafgn. "I appeal to the Presidents own
views, EXPRESSED often and to many per-
sons, that it was the Southern question
and the Republican doctrine of complete
protection to all men at the South, which
was the foremost issue in the canvass, the
question upon which the party must rely
for success. And when the canvass was
ended, and defeat was believed to have
come to our party, the words of the Pres
ident, the only words of President Hayes