The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-03-20

II
The Hon. J. h: Eyins speech in the
contested election case of Richardson VS..
Rainygis printed at length in the Con-
sresoaal Record and Is q full and con-
vvincing argument in favor Of the report
of the majority of the committee Of cleo
tions, which declared the election void.
After briefly abiding to, the Importance
OF the,case, Mr.. ;Eyins said: :
Under the operation of the reconstruc-
Stion, laws of Congress, and by the help Of
the ireedmen's bureau and the bayonet,
thewhite people of South Carolina were
In 1868 INFECTED to the complete doIni-
). nation of their former slaves. In the
history of the world it was reserved for a
people who had given to the country in
the hour Of, its dire extremity such pa
triots as Laurens, Pinckney, Rutledge,
Marion, Sumter and Moultrie, and had
contributed to the noontide of its glory
the lustre that shone around the names
! of Lowndes, Hayae, Calhoun, and Nc
DnlFe, to drink to the dregs this bitter
cup of humiliation. All the people of
the Southern States who had joined with
South Carolina in the war between the
States were put to the rack and broken
upon the wheel set in motion by these
laws, but those of South Carolina and
Louisiana alone went down under their
Irresistible force into that dark valley
and shadow Of death where for years they
struggled against adverse fortune, adverse
: Legislation, an adverse administration,
:and all the red dragons of political and
social revolution.
81 I admit. that during this revolution,
novel ard unparalleled in its character,
asrsh and cruel measures were sometimes
resorted to by men of my own race and
: party which I have never attempted to
justify, and which deserve only the pal
liation extended to the offence of those
who swing horse7thief upon the most
convenient limb and the incendiary To
the nearest lamp post without the inter-
yention fudge or jury, where the law
fails TO give protection against such
crimes. But when the truth is known,
end the world is ready to receive it, men
will be astounded that such All overturn-
ing of the whole social fabric could be
effected without the most .direful conse-
8 quences they will stand aghast with as
8 constituent that an intelligent and brave
!, people could ever have submitted even
for o day to such enormous wrongs and
expressions. 80
I will do my friends on the other side
ofthis hall the justice to say that, blind
ed by the passions engendered by the
war, 4 believe they did not foresee the
direful consequences which would neces-
sarily. follow their legislation in regard to
Z the States of the South, and that SO great
has been the partisan prejudice of the
last decade that they do not yet fully ap-.
preciate them. n
Mr.. Evins then proceeded to show how
the Government of the State was sub.
yerted, and in the course of his argument
drew the. following truthful picture of
THE BEAUTIES OF NEGRO DOMINATION.
1 Is it surprising that such people, thus
rudeiy thrust into power, should have
become the easy prey of the worst ele-
1sents of the more intelligent white race
and, made to serve their villanous
schemes of plunder and spoliation? The
! story of how their superstitious nature
was appealedtc; how their passions were
aroused and their prejudices excited;
how the '1eprons poison" Of hate was
poured into their ears by the Northern
adYenturef aud Southern renegade until
they were made to believe that their
former owners and the whole Southern
people were their worst enemies, and
only waited foran opportunity to re-en-
!. slave them, has burdeued the press,
wearied the ear, and made the heart sick
for years past. South Carolina, by rea-
son of the large numerical majority, of
its black voters, offered, unfortunately
for all classes other people, the most in
: viting field for the enterprising opera,
tions OF these twin villains in crime and
in infamy.
How they Improved each shining
hour" to plulder and to rob her citizens
without regard to race, color or previous
condition. strange to say is most graph-
ically told in the stenographic diary of
one of the chief plunderers which recent
investigations has brought to light. To
mention even the salient points of the
gigantic and shameless schemes of spolia-
{ ton which they conceived and carried
into effect while they held the reins of
power would fill up my hour and leave
the half untold. How, under Scott, not
content with robbing the treasury Of all
:. it contained and the taxpayer of his last
dollar, they; attempted with scrip and
bonds, issued by the millions, to put gen.
erations unborn under tribute tc their
Z cupidity, and to insert their long, lank,
larcelous fingers into the pockets Of pos
terity; how, under the "native young
Governor" who has attained not only a
national but an international reputation
as a thief, they held high carnival and
reyelled in drunken debaucheries in the
halls of the State capitol, wasting for
what they called refreshments" during
one session of the Legislature, the enor-
NOUS sum of $3.50, 600, while the poor
[lnpatics in the asylum, whose unfortu-
nate and helpless condition would have
moved heart of stone, were left to starve
or to find support at the hands OF private
citizens whose own resources were almost
exhausted how the learned, the cultured
and polished leader Of the plunderers,
Daniel Fl. Chamberlain, chief architect
OF the miserable thing miscalled gov
4 ernnient, becoming its chief executive
officer, attempting to gloss over its de-
formities; and yet how intelligence and
virtue and honesty were still thrust aside
to make room for ignorance, lncompe-
tcnce and vice, until the polished carpet
bacser himself, affrighted by the monster
he had created, cried out that "the civil
;za,ion Of the Puritan and the Cavalier,
the Roundhead and the Huguenot," is
in danger of being supplanted by the
barbarism Of the negro. Thus for eight
wears did the people of this poor, down
trodden, and oppressed State, with a pa
fence that was heroic, bear their suffer-
s ;nrs and their wrongs. Pronetheus
hoind to the rock, while the ravenous
.sa= l,;- .,;tnln r,rosants r,nt