The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-05-12
A GREAT SPEECH.
Senator Butler E1corintcs Frye. and Give,
the Country Food for Solid Thought

Senator Butler Excorintcs Frye, and Gives
the Country Food for Solid Thought.
Is this eternal, everlasting, in-atiate,
Unsuitable crusade upon the South never
to stop? II secC .son WAS Il crime and n
mistake, oh ho@ egrcgiousIy has the
South suffered ol it. II maintaining
slavery in her midst was crime, how
the rcyenges OF time have settled with
her for it! Is thore then never to be n
cessation, a stop to tantnlizing, misrepre.
senting, calumniating people who have
had II problem to deal with that no peo-
pie have ever had ever since civilization
dawned on the earth-such n problem, |
say, rs no people have ever hal to solve.
They have been and are doing the best
they can to solve it fairly and honestly
and truthfully, and in accordance with
that love of Constitutional liberty and
Republican freedom which was born
with them. II seems to me thnt Instead
Of helping us to solve it, the Republican
party have thrown Obstacles in our wav,
and then curse and anathematize and
abuse and misreprcscnt us because we
net with the Northern Democracy. In
all those dark days, in all those
days of terror and suffering and
wrong, that the Anglo.Saxon race of
the South was subjected to, not word
of kindness, not an expression of
relief, not whisper Of sympathy did We
get from anybody at the North, except
the brave, gallant Democracy of ,hat
section---not whisper. When we were
down, when we were being tramped upon,
when we were being robbed, our Repub.
lican friends sat silent ns the grave and
never extended finger for our relief;
but as long rs their political allies, the
solid Republican South, were plying their
avocnticn. everything was lovely and the
people had to submit. When in the
course Of time, in God's own providence,
that nightmare was shaken off by the
Anglo. Saxon race and it became Demo
cratic, then the hue and cry is raised
from one end OF the country to the other,
The sold South menaces the liberties of
this country" and in the language of the
Senator from Maine is n wicked, criminal
usurpation of the rights of the people,
ooh ! consistency thou art indeed a
jewel" How mems minds and souls and
bodies are warped and deformed by the
love and lust Of political power And
how conveniently cant and hypocrisy
enables men to shit their political sails
and back and fill before any breeze
l know not, Mr.. President, whether
the South is solid or not. do say, how.
ever, TINT so far as our Democratic solid
ity is concerned, she is solid for good
government ahe is solid for the honest
administration of affairs she is solid for
the education of her children; she
Is solid for the development of her
In obo I, ,1l;I -,
the people Of all sections of this country
climate and partakc of the almost bound.
less possibilities of her future: she is
solid for the peace and order of socie.
heart of any man in the South, who il n
man, that feels n scintilla of hostility for
the colored race. Why should we? AS
the Senator from Maine said, patheti.
cally. they etnid at home while we were
at the front in the army of the Confeder
acy and protected our wives and chill.
dren. So they did; and hope God may
strike me down and paralyze my right
arm if have cherished sentiment of
hostility 10 those kind hearted people
who protected my wife and children.
No, sir, it is n base calumny upon the
manhood and the courage, and the honor
of the Southern men to say that they
would oppress the weak and the loy,,y
and the humble.born. / wish could
take the senator, wish could take al,
those senator's to my homeland | hone
| shall be excused for the egotism-I
wish | could take that senator to my
home, among those people who have
known me from my infancy, and ask
them If have ever done them q wrong;
ask them IL! have not, when their Re-.
publican friends were standing back,
gone 10 the front in their defence and to
their assistance. should like for him to
go to-day to my home, upon my farm,
and see the one hundred and thirty six
colored people there, ard ask them
whether j ever did them nn injury or
not?
am not quite prepared to admit, how
ever, and the senators, if they give
expression to their honest sentiments,
are not quite prepared to admit chat
those people, recently released from sla-
veT', are fit to be judges and governors
and legislators and magistrates; and
when the Senator from Maine saya, 1--WE
educate our voters in New England"
and says, "why do moi you educate yours
in tho South 2" l throw back to him
the inquiry, that when you had absolute
control of those people, when you were
reconstructing the governments of the
South, when you controlled every office
from Governor to constable and dictated
every line of tho reconstruction measures.
why did you not provide an educational
qualification for the suffrage in South
Carolinaf Tho white people of that
State had no voice in the fnrm and char
acter the charter which ", tobe the or.
ganic law oftheir future government from
which they were to derive protection for
their lives, their liberties, their families,
and their property. They were MS voice.
less as the tomb, and rs poweless is the
shorn Samson.
Itisnot very becom:ny, Mr.. President,