The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-03-28
LIEUT.. GOV. SIMPSONS ADDRESS.

LIEUT.. GOV. SIMPSONS ADDRESS.
A Retrospective View of the General As
sembly, It's Organization and Labor-En-
courngement for the Future.
The annexed remarks were delivered
by Hon. w. D. Simpson, Lieutenant
Governor of South Carolina, at the close
of legislative proceedings:
SENATORS This body is about to adj
journ, and 1 suppose that it will hardly
meet again as at present organized. Its
true that the Governor, unde, the consti-
tuition, is authorized and empowered,
should an extraordinary occasion arise,
to call the General Assembly together,
but the country is at perfect peace-quiet
and good order reigns supreme through
out the entire limits of the State. The
two races embraced in our body polite
are at better understanding now than
perhaps at any other time since emanci-
patton; in fact everything denotes long
and peaceful repose on the part of our
people, and it is hardly probable that
any event will occur between this and
the next general election requiring the
Governor to exercise his constitutional
power of converting the General Assem-
bly,. Such being the fact, the adjourn
ment now near at hand will indeed be an
adjournment in all probability sine die.
Standing in the presence of this event,
and having, as your presiding officer, had
full opportunity to witness the delibera.
tions of this General Assembly, it would
not be inappropriate for me on this oc
casion to review its action and endeayor
to fix the position which it should occupy
in the history of these eventful times,
and cid time permit, I would be happy
to undertake this task as pleasing duty,
but the circumstances by which we are
surrounded forbid, and I shall not tres
pass upon the patience of the Senate to
that extent.
must be permitted, however, to say,
generally, that, in my judgment no Gen
eral Assembly has ever been in exist
ence since the foundation of our State
government which more fully deserves
the appreciation of the people, when
everything is considered, than this now
about to adjourn and to close its session
forever. In support of this statement,
let ma refer for one moment to the cir
cumsiances which surrounded it at its
organization, and call to mind the calm
wisdom, earnest patriotism and sublime
patience which characterized its men,
bers 1T that trying period, and which re-
suited in such glorious success. You
remember when the members elect as
sembled in this city in November, 1876,
to take the seats TO which they were en-
titled under the constitution, by the voice
of the sovereign people, produced at the
ballot box, that the doors of yonder hall
of the House Of Representatives was
closed to their entrance, and the CLEAN
of the bayonet of the Federal army flashed
across its foldings in defiance of their con-
stitutional rights, and the defeated party,
led on by its unscrupulous leader, was
throwing every obstacle in the way of
the peaceful assenblage of the true rep
resenGetives of the people, both in this
body and the other. 1t is not too much
to say that but for the unexampled for
bearauce of those representatives at that
time our whole State would then have
been plunged into sea of blood. Yes,
one filse step chen, at that critical mo-
ment quicker and more disastrous even
than the whirlwind's blast, would have
convulsed this State from the mountains
to the seaboard, and postponed our re-
demption process forever. In estimating
the character of this General Assembly,
and in fixing its niche in future history,
these facts should not be forgotten.
So, too, after the possession of the gov
ernment vas secured, the same spirit of
patriotism and forbearance continued to
rule and make itself felt. This was most
fortunate but hardly to be expected.
Waters long pent up when the obstacle
gives way usually overflow their banks
and carry desolasion and destruction in
their pathway, and thus the long pent
up waters of wrath and indignation
which had gathered upon the hearts of
our people on account of the years of
outrage and wrong which had been in
ficted upon them by Radical misrule
and oppression might we'll have been ex-
pected to overflow their banks and to
carry destruction in their pathway, but
a different and more magnanimous course
was wisely pursued to the great end of
the universal peace, quiet and satisfac-
ton which now prevails all over the
State. These facts, too, must be re-
membered.
Neither ought the country forget the
great problem which met the General
Assembly at its organization, with which
it had to grapple at the very threshold
and upon the solution of which so much
of our future YET depends. I allude to
that most anomalous state of things un-
precedented in all past history which
presented two distinct races of people
so distinct that they can never form one
homogeneous race, except in utter dis
regard aud violation of the fiat of Om-
impotence himself-living under the
same government, and that government
based upon the ballot box, with univer-
sal suffrage as the element of power. 1t
did seem to me when that state of things.
was first established by the power of the
victor over the yanquished in the late
war that if the genius of evil itself, in
spired by Internal hate, had been invoked
to devise scheme by which eternal con-
Aict between these two races could be
organized and driven in harness, as it
were, to the destruction of both, that was
the very scheme to accomplish this dia-
bolical purpose. And do solemnly be-
lieve that had the Republican party,
composed as it was in this State for the
last eight years, remained in power, that
such would have been its ultimate un-
fortunate fruits. But, thanks to the en-
ergy of our people, that party was over
thrown and a new administration estab-
lished, and by tie wise magnanimity OF
this new administration, inaugurated at
the beginning and to be kept up, l hope,
in the future administrations of the same
party, new light has burst forth, in
spring hope that, Notwithstanding our
strange and unprecedented condition, we
NAV vet live n united. happy and pros