The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-08-28
Anniversary Celebration OF the COnnor
Light Dragons.

Light Dragons, OF Garvln township, TOR
the celebration Of their second anniver-
sary. The day dawned cool and pleas
ant, and by 10 o'clock vast crowd had
assembled at Bishops Branch Academy.
AS the Connor Dragons rode up to the
parade ground on one side, the red shirts
of the Pendleton Artillery were seen
flashing through the green foliage as they
advanced from an opposite quarter. The
Pendleton Artillery, wearing their red
shirts and navy blue pants, and the Dra-
goons, in their uniform of dark navy
blue coats and gray pants, relieved by
stripes of gold as the ensignia of cavalry.
presented fine appearance. The troops,
after going through the usual exercises
of artillery and cavalry drill, in which
they were melted to generous rivalry
by fair faces, bright eyes, and waving
kerchiefs, were followed by the vast as
senlblage to a grove where stand had
been erected for the speakers. Gen.
Connor had been expected, but much to
our disappointment, circumstances pre-
vented his attendance.
Maj. John B. Moore, however, had
been able to accept the invitation ex-
tended to him, and was on the stand.
He began his Grafton by suitable eu-
logy on the distinguished gentleman
whose name the company bears. He
spoke of him as a true and law-abiding
citizen as brave and skillful soldier ;
as q lawyer of unquestioned integrity
and distinguished abilities, who had ad
ded much to the Jurisprudence of his
country; and as statesman whose only
ambition was to promote the welfare of
his country. Pursuing his theme, he
said: In 1876, when a cloud hung like
a funeral pail over South Carolina, when
she lay crushed and bleeding under the
feet of foreign tyrants and native serfs,
Gen. Connor came forward with Hamp-
ton and his other noble compeers to raise
our PROSTATE State and restore our grand
old Commonwealth to all her pristine
dignity. The people gallantly came to
their assistance, and when the desperate
fight was fought and the glorious victory
won, they rewarded the devotion and pa
triotism of their leaders with the highest
honors in the gift of the State. But,
said he. the Democratic party has not
always been so discriminating. In 1874
Anderson County, with its undoubted
Democratic majority, repudiated a man
who had exerted all his strength in the
cause of his country and Democracy and
placed in the Senate the man who was
the founder and perpetrator of Union
Leagues in our County. Such a policy
is as pcrnicious as it is unjust. But ex-
cept in these dark days, when not a CLEAN
of hope animated their dropping spirits,
South Carolinians have always done their
duty. In the Revolution no troops
fought more bravely than those of Ma
rion, of Sumter, and of Lee. In 1872
South Carolina's sons were found in the
front ranks of war fighting for Northern
commerce and the dignity of the Union.
In the Indian war of 1886, South Caro-
lima lost none of her reputation for in
trepidity and valor, and in the great war
with Mexico it was the old Palmetto
Regiment that was foremost in every
fight, and which first planted an Ameri-
can flag on the battlements of Mexico.
South Carolinians have ever loved the
Union with fcrvid devotion-a devo-
ton cqualed only by their love for their
native State. They have given in its de-
fence their best and noblest blood they
have devoted to the Halls of Congress
the talents of our greatest statesmen, and
not till they deemed the Constitution Of
the Union trampled upon, the dearest
rights of their State threatened, and the
choice between the Union and their State
forced upon them, did they raise an arm
against the United States Government
we will not now raise the question
whether or not the opinions of South
Carolina were right. Her conduct, it is
certain, was in accordance with her prin-
ciples, and 1 honor the devotion with
which she maintained those principles,
even to the verge of her ruin. l would
lose my good right arm rather than
brand the course of South Carolina as
disgraccful. Yet, for this conduct she
has been held up as suitable mark for
malignant opprobrium and unmerted
insults; rs a fit subject for tyrannical
oppression and cruel wrongs. South
Carolina has been pointed at as the hot
bed of sedition and rebellion. But this
is false. 1t is not that her sons loved the
Union less, but that they loved their
State more. The death of Abraham
Lincoln, he went on to say, was to us one
of tho greatest misfortunes connected
with the war. Lincoln was great states
man and pure patriot, and had he lived
would soon have bridged over the fearful
chasm produced by civil war, and have
restored peace and prosperity to the dis
tracted land. His death deyolved the
task of carrying out his policy on john
son, and he, Southerncr, could not ac-
complish in opposition to Congress what
Lincoln, The idol of the Northern people,
could and would have effected. Congress
triumphed over the President and pur-
sued a course which placed the South
under a despotism as rank and ruinons
as that of q Robespierc or an Alba. For
a time the people of South Carolina were
compelled by brute force to submit, but
as soon as the first faint CLEAN of hope
appeared they vindicatcd the superiority
Of the Anglo-Saxon race, and now hold
the reins of government, to which they
are entitled by all the attributes essential
to rulers. Such a people will never,
while they have strength to defend it, see
any class of men touch the garments of
the Constitution 10 dcfile it. The only
danger is that they may be lulled into
fatal dream of security from which they
may awake to find their limbs shackled
with the chains of political slavery. The
campaign of 1880 will be one of vital i'm
portance, and the Democracy of South
Carolina will have to put forth its most
strenuous excrtions if it hopes to main
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