The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-02-17

''its clumsy, antiquated, barbarous"'
machinery" and now in advance, and
without investigation or hearing, de-
nounce the work of the tenth census
because, forsootb, "Southern senators
and members of the House selected the
euumerators." ! am prepared to take
my share of the responsibility for the
selections. The superintendent of the
census will bear r,e out in the assertion
that as far as could control it l would
consent to the confirmation of no man,
Democrat or Republican, whose eharac-
ter was not guarantee to faithful,
honest performance of his duty. / asked
for the appointment Of no friend or par
tisan because he was friend or parti
san. tried to secure the appointment
ofthose only who would do their duty ire.
spectiye of party on party Interests, and l
believe I know only such were appoint
ed and confirmed for South Carolina.
And, Mr.. President, it will require some
thing more than the sneers and snarIs OF
charlatans, and carpings Of disappointed
malcontents, to drive me from the good
opinion I have of the work on the tenth
census in that State. Those intrusted
with the work do not belong TO that
breed of cormorants foisted upon her and
sustained by the malevolence and hatred
of some of those Republican patriots of
1870, who now challenge the efforts and
misrepresent the motives of those of us
who strive to rescue her from the palsying
paralyzing touch of their vulgar bench
men.
No, Mr.. President, there has been no
fraud in the enumeration of the inbabi-
tants of South Carolina. The census
has been taken with fidelity, and the
proof is conclusive, overwhelming, and
yet the author ofthe charge has not the
sense ofjustice to withdraw it, to make
honorable amends for a gross misrepre-
sentation. A Presidential election was
pending, and perversion, prejudice, and
injustice were more efficacious for the
purposes in hand than truth and justice,
and right recklessly. were they welded.
They served their purpose, but the ira.
ducer of my State and her people shall
rot escape exposure. The result of that
enumeration has converted many cenG-
dent predictions Of partisan politicians
as to the drift Of political power into
dismal fallacies. It has baf1led the cal.
culations and clouded the hopes of so
many who hate the South and foretold
her dccadence that perhaps some allow
ance should be made for their bad tenn
per and reckless accusations. Not con.
tent with criminal participation in
despoiling the South by commissioning
for that special service band of greedy
vampires, and sustaining them while
they piled their insatiate avocation, after
she is plundered and bled to depletion,
The chief rallier of that band of spoliators
depreciates her because of her poverty;
and upbraids her for her Inundated
attitude. Why, Mr.. President, when the
professional highwayman or outlaw
overcomes and robs the helpless wayfarer
he, even, is too magnanimous to insult
his victim by hurling at him vulgar
anathemas and bitter curses.
Let this political highwayman go learn
humanity and magnanimity from the
reckless outcast, and shelter his ignomi:
ny from the kissing storm Of scorn and
contumely. The lesson, Mr.. President,
which this last census teaches is an
instructive one. 1t deserves to be pray.
erfully studied by those who have spent
anxious hours arguing out" the STEADY
decIinen md .'stagnati0n" of the South.
The little State which l have the
honor in part to represent, $4,000 square
miles, has lost within the last two
decades not less and perhaps more than
three hundred and fifty million dollars,
actual cash values, lost to her rs COM
pletely and efectually as if sunk to the
button of mid ocean. Within that time
she has also had reconstruction, the
ninth census, the reign of the carpet.
Dagger and missionaries from the North.
ern Methodist Church and her OVID mis-:
takes, blessings enough to have translated
her 10 the happy confines Of Elysian
fields or to the sublimated heights of
Plymouth Rock self complacency, or
curses enough as these visitations may
be regarded from the different stand.
points, to have consigned her to the
ninth circle of Dante's Inferno. Whether
they have been blessings or curses, she
has bravely survived them, and as best
she may, is wrestling with the grave
problem of race issues and social incon-
gruities, hoping to master them upon
principles of broad humanity and with
a triumph of law and social order.
She has no complaint to utter cave
against those who traduce and villify
her, and to those she returns the saluta-
ton of scorpful contempt.
Four years ago, when she rescued her
government from the hands of the spoil
ator, she gathered up her credit, being
hawked about and spit upon i'll the mar.
ket places, by-word and reproach,
and to day her securities are command
ing from to 10 per cent. premium on
their par value.
She has the framework of public
school system that, under the encourage
ment of q wise and judicious manage.
ment, is being annually aud steadily
developed into an educational asylum
for all her children, and needs only time
and money and judgment 10 be made
equal to any in the American Union.
The improvement in her homestead laws
is fixing her population permanently
upon her soil, and she is no longer a
nursery for her young sisters ofthe West
and Northwest. Under the operation
and protection of equal laws, justly
executed, system Of land tenantry is
being changed TO one of land tenure, and
life and property are safely guarded.
She has increased the product of her
principal staple 190 per cent. in ten
y, ar., namely, in the last FIVE, and this
yearitis estimated at SIG, 900 bales against
226 900 in 1870. Her manufactures
have more than doubled in capacity, as
the following table will show.
1880. 1870. Pr. ct. inc.
Loon,s.............. 1,776 745 1873
Spindles ...927eS 3t,946 166
Bales used =. .33 900 0.514 248
Hands employed 2,195 1923 Sc
And within the last thirty days the
capital stock of one cotton mill Of $780,
mn hor hoon subscrihpd i'm home cupital