The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-08-29
Address of the State Democratic Ex-
ecutiye Committee.

| AuQreSS Ol Tile State DenlOcTutlc EA-
ecutiye Committee.
The State Democratic Executive Com
mittee yesterday adopted unanimously
the following address and ordered it TO
be published:
HEADQUARTERS STATE DEMOCRATIC
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE,
COLUMBIA, S. c., Aug. %, 1878.
To the People of South Carolina:
The State Democratic Executive Com
mittee announce to their fellow citizens
that the State canvass will formally open
on September 10th. Already the coun-
ties in general are ready for action, and
the Committee cannot doubt that the
campaign will be as brilliant as brief.
Throughout the canvass the Democracy
of South Carolina will have but one rule
of conduct. The platform of 1876, adop-
ted and reaffirmed in 1878, is the SUI
preme law of the Democratic party. By
it the highest and the lowest are bound.
| No person, or body of persons, other than
State Convention, can change or modify
its wise provisions and patriotic declara-
tions. Within the lines of the platform
| the Democracy are safe. Outside of it
| and beyond it, there is no true Democ-
racy in South Carolina. No issue not
| made in the platform and inconsistent
with it can be raised. No issue made in
the platform and consistent with it can
be ignored.
The platform of the Democratic party
of South Carolina is at once history
and prophecy. 1t is the record of what
is past, and the assurance of what is to
come. In it are declared Democratic
principles and Democratic practice. The
issue in South Carolina, as made by the
Democratic party, is not an issue of race.
On the contrary, the objects of the Dem
ocracy, in retaining control of the State,
are to complete the reform of abuses, to
punish public criminals, to maintain the
purity and ability OF the Government In
all its branches, to lower the rate of tax.
alton and lessen the burdens imposed
upon the people, to ensure peace and
| concord, and, including all else, to give
equal and complete protection to every
public and private right of person and
property, in order that the Government,
in the hands of the Democratic party,
| shall be the Government of no one Sec
ton, of no one race, of no one class, but
of the whole people of South Carolina,
| without limitation or restriction.
So far as time and opportunity have
| admitted, the Democratic party has kept
| to the letter and in spirit every pledge or
promise made in the platform of 1876.
The State officers elected two years ago
are again the candidates of the party.
With the same platform and the same
candidates holding bene6cent possession
of every department of the State Govern
ment, the Democracy of South Carolina
deserve success and can command it.
Vigilance is necessary. Action and in
cessant work are indispensable. Unity
\ must be had. They who slumber on in
| false security, they who postpone prepa-
J rations for the fight, they who encourage
or permit dissension and division, for
any reason or upon any pretext, are as
much the public enemies as the political
lepers whom Democratic rule drives into
the Penitentiary or out of the State.
Malcontents, slaggards, disorganizers,
shall not pull down the Democratic
party, although they may multiply its
difficulties and make the struggle harder
and more desperate; and, when the bat
tie is won, as it shall be, the Democratic
party, for its own sake, will pass sentence
upon any who, not being with US, are
against us, and make them, for all time,
political outcasts, despised by Democrats
of their own race and Stunned by the
colored Democrats who have been tried
aud have kept the faith.
For the white Democrats, the State
Committee are sure, no other exhorta-
ton is needed. They know full well that
Democratic rule is worth having, and
that what is worth having is worth keep
ing, and will be kept. By the colored
Democrats, as the State Committee be-
lieve, the solid advantages of an enlight-
ened and honest government are thor
oughly appreciated. They have seen
and felt the difference between integrity
and rascality, between lofty justice and
partisan rule. The hope is that the COL
ored people, in larger numbers than ever
before, will march beneath the folds of
the Democratic banner, and so assist the
Democracy in perpetuating the work of
Governmental reform and industrial
restoration.
The reign of ignorance and vice in
South Carolina is past and gone. Virtue,
intelligence and elevated craftsmanship
shall, as during the last Two years, con-
troll the public affairs of South Carolina.
For this the people fought in 1876, and
the sceptre then grasped for The first time
in eight years by pure and strong hands
will not be laid down and shall not be
wrested away.
JOHN D. KENNEDY, Chairman.
j. NJ. JOHNSON, W. G. CoKER,
j. J. DARGAN, F. w. DAWSON,
J. T. IzLAR, j. F. RHAME,
S. MCGOWAN, JOHN E. BACON,
| T N TJpsCOMR IT STORO FARROw