Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1880-11-18
From the Charleston News and Courier
Must the Alternatives be a Dis
honest Count or Dishonest
Government?

The subjoined letter is SO evidently writ.
ten in good spirit and with a patriotic
purpose that VIC take pleasure in publishing
IT,:
WASHINGTON, D. c., November S, 1880.
10 the Editor vt The Nc,cs and Courier:
Along with large bndy of thinking Re-
publcans We are looking with great interest
to the expressions Of the leading Southern
Journals on the recent election, aud probn-
bly, no paper will command SO wide on
attention on this subject as your own. l
have just read your article of yesterday,
which can only hope may be received in
the South us we'll as l. am confident it will
be in the North. There was one sentence
in the article which specially attracted my
notice, and which indeed prompted this
letter. You say: "We hope md believe,
however, that the business interests, which
we're tho mainspripg of Tuesdays work,
will be opposed utterly to any legislation
that would 10 any way cmburrass the ogri-
culture aud manufactures, the trade and
commerce of the South"
Tic great desire Of the Republican party
as regards the South, is, as | understand 1t,
to secure to oil its members (and in the
South of course this refers particularly to
the colorcd lhun) free political discussions,
free voting and fair count, and while it
may be claimed that this desire is prompted
by selfish interest no one can deny that
the principle is correct and proper-a vital
principle, in fact, in our institutions.
would ask you therefore whether, in your
principle is or would be inimical to those
,,n klnC IL. 80.
alluded in the extraot above quoted. This
seems to mo to be great question; the
most importan. political question with
which the South has now to deul. If this
principle is incompatible with the South's
business interests, then there must DC some.
thing radically defective in her institutions,
and it behoovos her leading men to seek
and apply the remedy. Can il be possible
that they can devise no tettcr policy than
that which has prevailed in the past?
Yours truly, w.
The question propounded by our CORES
pondent is not easy to answer, but the
difficulty it suggests is OF our doors,
and we cannot too soon prepare to face
it.
From 1868 to 1876 the colorod people
in South Carolina undoubtedly had n
free vote. They voted as often as they
pleased and the count, 10 the handsof Repub.
can managers, supplied any possible defiOien
oy in the voting. The horrible condition
of South Carolina, at that period, is known
to the whole country. 1t shocked the
moral scnae of the American people, and
caused them to sympathzo with the whites
10 the desperate and successful campaign
of 1876. Unhesitutingy. then, we say
that what We suppose our correspondent
would call ga FREQ vote and fair count"
for eight years, acas inimioal to the agriculture
and manufactures, the trado and commerce
Of tho State. The State was dying by
inches, and the people were siok at heart
through hope deferred.
There is no change whatever in tho man.
tai oalibre or moral condition of tho negroes.
Wherever they have, sinco 1876, nomi-
mated candidates of their own, those oandi-
dates have been at least as stupid aud
vicious as the persons whom they nominated
and elected ip preceding years. This was
the case in 1878, and was the case this
year. There is not enough responsibility
in the Republican party in South Carolina
to furnish forth, for a single large county,
such candidate for the Legislature and
other oleotivo Offices as any rrs table