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

Mr.. EDITOR: Wednesday, 18th inst,
was the day appointed by the Connor
Light Dragoons, of Garvin township, for
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 B.anch 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 fol;-ge az they
advanced from an opposite quarter. The
Pendleton Artillery, wearing their red
shirts and navy blue pants, and the Ora
goons, in their uniform of dark navy
blue coats and gray pants, relieved by
stripes of gold rs 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 q generous rivalry
by fair faces, bright eyes, and waving
kerchiefs, were followed by the vast as
seniblage to 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 true and abiding
citizen: as hrnve and s!!:;:i,!!.Gui, soidier
as lawyer of unquestioned integrity
and distinguished abilities, who had ad-
ded much to the Jurisprudence of his
country; and as a statesman whose only
ambition was to promote the welfare of
his country: Pursuing his theme, he
said: In 1876, when q cloud hung Ike
q funeral pail over South Carolina, when
she lay crushed ard 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 tn 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 80 discriminating. In 1874
| Anderson County, with its undoubted
Democratic majority, repudiated man
who had exerted all his strength in the
canse of his country and Democracy ant,
placed in the Senate the man who was
the founder and perpetrator of Union
Leagues in our County. Such a policy
is as pernicious as it is unjust. But ex-
cept in these dark days, when not 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 1919
| 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 valoT, and in the great war
with Mexico it was tho old Palmetto
! Regiment that was foremost in every
fight, and which frat planted an Ameri-
can flag on the battlements of Mexico.
South Carolinians have ever loved the
| Union with fervid devotion-a devo.
ton equaled 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 honor the devotion with
which she maintained those principles,
even to the verge Of her ruin. I would
lose my good right arm rather than
brand the course of South Carolina as
diagracefui. Iet, for this conduct she
malignant opprobrium and unmerited
insults; as fit subject for tyrannical
oppression and cruel wrongs. South
Carolina has been pointed at rs the hot
bed of sodition and rebellion. But this
is false. It is not that her ecas loved the
Union less, but that they loved their
State rnnre. Tho Septh nf Abraham
Lincoln, he went on to say, was to us one
Of tho greatest misfoFtunes 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 tho dis
tracted land. His death devolved the
task Of carrying out his policy on john
son, and he, q Southerner, could not ac-
compiish in opposition to Congress what
Lincoln, tho idol of the Northern people,
could and would have effected. Congress
| triumphed over the President and pur-
sued a course which placed the South
lEder despotism as rank and ruinons
as that ofa RobespieSe or an Alba. For
time the people of South Carolina were
| compelled by brute force to aubmit, but
as soon as the first faint CLEAN of hope
appeared they yindicated tho superiority
of the Anglo-Saxon race, and now hold
the reino Of goy eminent, TO which they
are entitled BY NJ the attributes essential
to rulers. Such q people will never,
while they hevs strcngth TO defend it, see
any class of men touch the garments of
the Constitution TO defile it. The only
| danger is that they may be lulled into n
fatal dream of security from which they
may awake to find their. limbs shackled
| with the chains of political slavery. The
campaign of 1890 will be one OF vital i'm
! portance, and the Democracy of South
Carolina viii have to put forth its most
strenuous exertions If It hopes to main
tain itself In the position to which whih by it5 i