The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-02-27

II returned TO their homes. Let us
pause for Il moment. If the tongue
were paralyzed the heart would speak.
How much happiness. how many
hopes, how many loved companions
lie buried here!
Tradition, legend, tune and song
Shall many an age that wall lrolong:
still from the sire the son shall henr
OF the stern strife and carnage drcar
Where Shiverrd was fair ScoiIalIuS spear
, And broken WIS her shield.
DEMONSTRATIONS.
Attic close of the war the army OF
the victors% occupied thcSouth. Slavery
, was abolished, and the freedmen were
enflanchized and incorporated as a
new clement of citizenship. The laws
known as the Reconstruction Acts or
Congress were passed, and the body
polite thus newly constituted was i'll
vitcd to reconstruct the State govern
ments; and thus was presented for So
luton by the South the most difficult
political problem in all history.
After that the dcluge. The foun-
tains of the great deep were broken
up. Black horrors, worse than war or
the plaques of Egypt, fell upon the
South. Swarms OF new people, most
ly adventures, covered the whole
country. The very anomalous condi-
ton of affairs afforded them potent
agencies with which to accomplish
their purposes. Race domination Is
always anti-republican and oppressive,
but when the more ignorant race ~
the more numerous n dominant IL
becomes intolcruble. The original
citizens possessing what property was
left in the country, less numerous and
in part disfrancllized, were o%verborne
10y numbers banded together by race
ailinities and the cohesive power of
public plumber. They were excluded
from all participation in the govern
ment of their tathersand made stranE-
ers in their own country. With some
exceptions the Offices were seized 10y Il
molley band of political upstairs,
%llurlequins, and nlountebanks, of all
races and nations and of every degree
of ignorance and %audacity. Then fol-
lowed the suturnalia Of corruptiou, a
nightmare Of horrors in the lanie OF
liberty.
Truth requires it to he said that no
country III any agc,-not Poland,
lluIlSolN y I vi llSlult, h'I
under the Turk,-was ever in a condi-
ton comparable to that Of the South
ern States for a few years after the
war. Many circumstances contribu-
ted to a%ggruvatc that condition. The
people were bcwildered, daZed, and
dispirited. The country had lost the
flower of its manhood, and WAS re-
dured to poverty, first by the exhaust
ing drains of the great struggle
through which it had passed, and then
by the loss at one fell swoop Of two
thousand millions of dollars from
emancipation, and after that by the
unknown and untold l0Ssestro pecu-
lation and plumber in every corner OF
the country and in every possible
form. ''What the paimcr-wOrm hath
left. the locust hath eaten; what the
"locust hath left, the canker-w0rnl
"hath eaten and what the canlkcr-
worn hath left, the caterpillar hath
"eaten."
No wise or. good man could desire
the continuance of 50 grotesquc Il car.
feature of republican, government,
Surely none could be willing to tOler'
ate it except perhaps that peculiar
class-harpily small and growing les.
that take pleasure in misery anu
suppose it TO he 4 patriotic duty to fur
nish at any cost to the country and to
humanity a purgatory for the punish
ment of rebels. | have often thought
that this confused, turbulent dcSola'
ton could be APPLY illustrated by moth
ing but that fearful abyss Of the Par
.,3;.n 7 ,>.t- nathan a. mr. trDnl fr\
land, that "chaos on the wastctuI
deep" which the ~arch-enemy of man
kind-just escaped from the burning
sulphurs Of his Internal pris0n-hnuse,
encountered in his bold essay to reacll
the abode of man in the new-createG
world.
DELIvERANCE.
But the evil passions Of men cannot
last forever. BY n wise ~dispcnsctiol
they subside; and OF this joyous COM
memoration day we are thankful that
the dark night has passed and the light
of a glorious day is beginning TO dawn
For. this great deliverance we make
grateful and proper acknowledgment.
We are largely Indebted to the return
ing sense of justice among good citi-
Zens in every part of the country
North, South, East, and West. We
are still more indebted to the right
cousness of our cause and to the eter-
nal principles of truth and justice.
But most OF all are we under obliga-
ton to our OWL people, who, driven
to despair, concentrating all their
powers of mind and body in one
mighty effort, and led by our distin-
guishcd Chief Magistrate, Governor
Wade Hampton, in the centennial
year of their country's independence,
broke the chains that bound them,
and now by the blessing of Heaven
are again "a free people,"
DUTIES 10 TIE COUNTRY.
My friends, I have made this imper-
feet, but | believe truthful narrative,
not without q purpose. In view OF
surrounding circumstances the great
I question Of the day is, What is our
Guty? Our people are accustomed to
do their duty as they see it without re-
gard to consequences, and our great
effort now should he to ascertain In
what direction that duty lies.
We owe duties to the country. Our
first Impulse should be one of graft
tudc, without the least alloy of any
! spirit of revenge or retaliation. All
such feelings are overwhelmed by Il
simple, sublime thankfulncss that a
good providence has relieved US from a
condition 50 terrible. Speaking for
our people, I venture to declare that
it is their unalterable determination to
do their whole duty as good citizens in
the future as faithfully as they per-
formed it in the past.
All the States have relapsed into
their former condition of union under
one government. 1t was proposed
otherwise, but fate disposed. We &C.
quiesced, and gave pledges of good
citizenship, of which the leading du-
ties are the preservation of peace, the
securing of exact and equal justice for
all and the cultivation of feelings of
fellowship. These pledges will be
kept. 1t has never been charged rs
one of the faults of our people that
they are untruthful Or wanting in
franknesso or fidelity. They pledge a
word which has lever been talsiiied,
aud give L hand which has never be-
trayed.
The States are now homogeneous.
There is no institution in existence
which appertains only to some, and t.
which the others are opposed. Upon
~. 3D., $40, . ~ ,,, !. tt,, f. ~ ran.