Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-04-12

track, the military were drawn up in linea;a9d
the immense crowd swayed and cheered ont
Of all reason, until Judge Mackey secured 81
lspce. AND. .Helcomed the Governor. il. one Of
his most forcible and earnest addresses. The
Governor responded, and then the hand
shaking, &C., setl tm, and continued until the
train moved off to the music of the bands and
the cheers of the multitude, while wee brass
field. piece, under ,orrback of the depot, roared
to the best Of its small ability, somewhat dog
like, untilaWa.were out of .sight~and hearing.
A, detachment of the Chester Rifles represent
ed the town for the remainder Of the route.
"At Winnsboro, still another arch and plat
form, and other flowers and fair faces. and
speeches by the Governor and Judge Mackey,
and cheers. and haud-shakings, aud we" we're
off again with another and considerable addi'
tion to the number of civilians in the escort.
THE ARRIVAL AT CoLUMBIA-A GREAT SUR
PRISE.
A great surprise awaited us at Columbia
When we arrived at 4.30 p. m, amid cheer
ing and the salutes of one orImore batteries Of
artillery, we expected to find there crowd,
even large crowd, but no one in the party
was prepared for the scene presented in all
the squares and wide streets about the depot.
Carriages and omnibuses, and hacks and
wagons, filled to overfowing with ladies and
children, we're dotted among the crowd like
rocks in restless Sea. From the depot to-.
ward Main street, along Blanding, we're drawn
up two long lines of military and other organ
izations, forming an avenue nearly half way
to High street, and sharply defining, the
crowd that stretched away in far prospective
beyond either rank. The excursionsts quick
ly evactated the cars, and order was speedily
evolved from the seemingly hopeless and help
less confusion. ...
A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY.
The various civic and military organiza-
tions, headed by the band of the 18th Infant-
ry, United States Army, then proceeded up
Blaudng street to Main, and down Main to
Carolina Hall. All the stores and offices
we're closed, as. to business, but every door
and window, from attic to basement, was
crowded with faces and forms. The side
walks we're thronged with crowds. Immense
flags depended from ropes across the street,
or streamed from hag-stafs. Every house
front was decorated with evergreens, wreaths
and portraits of;Hampton, and, altogether,
such picture of animation, pleasure and
pride was presented as Columbia never per-
haps witnessed before, not even during the
campaign
In front of the old Carolina Hall, where
Governor Hampton was inaugurated in the
darkest days of last year, stage had been
hastily erected and carpeted, and afterward
DECORATED by the ladies' A United States
flag, ample enough to form brilliant avn
ing, extended over the whole platform. The
vacant space in front of the hall was crowded
as one seldom sees such space outside of a
church or an opera house not only so, but
the top of every house in the vicinity was
freighted with such tremendous human bur-
dens as suggested possible fatal consequences.
The majority of these spectators, strangely
enough, were Of the genter sex. Officers
and privates of the garrison we're also to be
seen freely intermingling with the crowd,
none the sadler for their prospective release
from police duty which has ever been hate
full to them. Even while one endeavors to
get hasty idea of his surroundings, the car
rages containing Governor Hampton and
his party drive slowly through the throng.
and stop at the foot of the stage. Hampton's
carriage is covered with flowers, and drawn
by four splendid bays. At the first sight of
him the plaudits begin, and are kept up for
some minutes. The splendid regimental
band strikes up, hats are off, handkerchiefs
are waving, and in the midst of all, the glo-
rious old chieftain, clad in the familiar and
plain suit of grey, descends from the vehicle,
and followed by number of distinguished
gentlemen, ascends the platform, where all are
soon seated. The military quickly filed into
position, order was secured, and Capt. W..
B. Stanley, rising in his place, read an ad-
dress of welcome, at the conclusion of which
Governor Hampton stepped to the front, and,
as soon as he could obtain hearing, said:
THE GOVERNORS SPEECH.
Mr. Chairman and my Coultry,oomen and
Countrymen of South Carolina Travel l-worn
and weary, l have come back amongst you to
make my report to my constituents Those
constituents are the true people of South Car
olina; and coming here, to my surprise, l
find welcome which has stirred my heart to
it's inmost DEPTHS 1t is not the welcome that
conquered people would give to a conqueror.
l bring no blood stained ensign. bring no
trophies from battle.6elds but come to say
that the cause in which we fought, the cause
in which you made me your standard bearer,
the cause of truth, has been victorious, and
once more the banner of South Carolina, not
carried through bloody fields, but through
those more glorious ones of peace, floats over
State, free disenthralled, regenerated and
redeemed. And how has it been redeemed
My friends! not by blood, not by violence,
but by the potential agency of the ballot. 1t
has been redeemed because the honest men of
South Carolina, of all races and of all par
ties determined to wipe away the scandal
which had hung so long over her history. 1t
was because we saw that we would have to
fight for very existence that all we held
dear in the past was sinking or being swept
away; that the civilization of hundreds of
years was being blotted out! We saw that
our government was passing into the hands of
aliens and strangers and placing our cause
in the hands of God on high, we determined
we would make one more effort to redeem
South Carolina, and if we should 20 down it
would be with our banners floating, and with
no stain to disgrace that cause.
You fought battle that has never been
euualled on the American Continent.
scarcely realized in those days of peril and
gloom, the grave issues which we're hanging
on this contest. I did not realize them until
1 went to Washington. I tell you that a
musket shot in this town would have meant
civil war on this Continent and what stopped
it? Cries of "You stopped it?" from the
crowd No! my countrymen, it was because
the people of South Carolina were the most
law-abiding people in this country, and be-.
cause they had risen above considerations of