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

Senator Buffers Speecn on tno "CeubuB
Frauds.-Some Plain English for the
"Political Hiehwaylnen"-The Amazing
Progress of South Carclina-Whnt has
been Suffered and what Accomplished.
Senator Butler, i'll opening his speech,
called attention to the letter of Gen.
Francis A. Walker, superintendent of the
census, dated January Is, 1881, written
in response 10 Senator Buffers resolu
tuition calling for the report of the su.
perintendent of the census touching the
alleged fraud in the enumeration of the
inhabitants of South Carolina. This
letter (tbe substance Of which has been
published heretufore) "answers SO COM.
plelely the charges made from time to
time by partisan stump orators and SUBJ
sidized organs" that Senator Butler
asked that it be read By the clerk for the
information of the Senate and the coun-
try. This having been done, Senator
Butler said:
This full and complete reply to the
imputations of unfairness and fraud
oug hit to satisfy the minds of all men and
put to shame the authors of the baseless
Calumnies but I am not content to stop
here: A certain Republican stump
orator on certain occasion in New York
City, where there was evidently an un.
controllable desire to fire the hearts" of
his audience, concluded that just and
honest recital of the truth would fail of
that purpose, and therefore chose the
following language of insult and misrcp.
resentation as more potent appliance
for the occasion:
"Perhaps this point will seem to
gou to challenge some attention.
For the population of Southern
States we must go back to the census Of
| 1870. That count of the people was
made by enumerators not selected by
Southern senators and members of the
House as ''non partisans" end profession
al rcformers. Itwas made by The regu-
lar marshals and their deputies, and the
compensation was SO adjusted as to in.
duce thorough visitation and at the same
time to guard against exaggeration of mum.
bers. No impututinn ut fraud was ever
cast upon the work. Such thing as a plot
to fabricate a monstrous increase of pop.
ulation in one section in order to battle
tho course of nature and the logic of
events in another-a plot to change the
balance Of power and population in or.
der to aggrandize one section by estab.
fishing a false basis ofrepresentatio and
apportionment, thus robbing other sec
tions of their share in governing the
country, in levying taxes aud appfopria.
ting money, had not Mt chat time
occurred to the conservative fues OF Rad
icalisnI. That particular spoke in the
wheel of devltry had not turned up to
the sbifiy patriot of that day. Now such
schemes seem to wax apace. We read OF
producing false heirs to thrones and es.
iates, but to multiply false heirs without
any one to personate them on q scale 80
grand as seems now in process, would
stupeIy the ingenuity of French novel
list, or anybody else except thorough
going, non-partlsan, conservative disciple
OF tue Democratic persuasion, wanting
nothing for himself, but ready to do aud
suffer tor a white mans government with
reform" and "a change"
The same orator makes also the follow.
ing gratuitous fling:
"This ls the ordinance of higher power
than South Carolina census.taker."
And in the course of the harrangue of
the aforesaid slump.orator broadside
after broadside oil figures, problem after
problem in arithmetic, ingeniously cipher.
cd out, were hurled at the South; plau-
sible and delusive, calculated TO deceive,
but as. disingenious and unfair as the
intellect that fabricated them and malig.
nant in their purpose as the heart that
inspired their utterance.
| Senator Butler then showed the popu-
lation of South Carolina to have been,
according to the census of 1870, 705 sos,
and of 1880, 995,306, an increase in ten
years of 2S9,7O0-41.O6 per cent, and
said:
The enumeration of 1870 was made
under Republican auspices "by Repub
lican marsbals and their deputies" not
"by enumerators selected by Southern
Senator'S ard members of the House as
non. .partisans and professional reform.
ers" Never! The bitterest enemies
and most accomplished slanderers Of
Southern Senators and members of the
House" cannot charge them with such
a puerle abortion.
Some at least of the Republican "Sen-
ators and members Of the House" Of
that day of corruption and partisanship
are entitled to, and shall have, the
credit of the paternity of that deiormed
offspring. 1t is of q piece with almost
all else that WAS done in the halcyon
days of Republican domination in this
Capitol Let US see what the present
superintendent of the census says about
it-a Republican and gentleman of
ability, culture, and honesty, whose
confirmation Southern Senators are quite
willing to be responsible for, and who, l
believe, does not share the distinction
with his present accusers Of many things
done in 1870.
Senator. Butler then read the Census
reports giving increases of loo to ITO
per cent. in particular townships in
South Carolina, and said:
At Orangeburg Courthouse the CEN
sus of 1870 gave q population of 246,
that of 1880 of 2.140, an increase OTTO
per cent. The enumeration of 1870 is
so ridiculously absurd, that stranger
who had never seen the town, upon the
most casual observation, would pro-
nounce it false. Aud so of Greenville
Township in Greenyille County, and of
DeKab Township in Kershaw County,
and of all the "minor civil divisions"
in which comparisons have been made.
And 1 think we have much greater
| right to assume that there was in 1870
plot to fabricate an enormous decrease
Of popula,ion-a plot to change the
balance of power and population, in
order to aggrandizc one section by
establishing a false basis of representa-
ton and apportionment in the South:
Such particular spoke in the wheel of
deviltry" of that day would haze fitted so
aptly with other "spokes of deviltry ofthe
Radical wheel, and have been so easily
adjustable, that no great stretch OF the
Imagination would be required to fasten
| .,i,,x,So of fraud upnu tho ninth oop-