The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1882-03-09
A Pr0pOSitiOn for HarmGny.

Mr.. EDITor.-Your correspondent, ]. R..
NJ, of Russell Place, thinks 1t unwise for
the white citizens OF. Kersbaw county to di-
vide in politics, and >nndemocratic for q
minority to dictate TO or rule the majority.
agree with him,6s have no doubt every
member of the Peoples Rights Party does,
1t will therefore be easy for US "to ADJUST
our political troubles in this county If j,
r. NJ, can persuade the Bourbons Of the
county to accept his principles rs above
enunciated. If they will accept them, let
us then have y mass meeting Of both par
ties at Camden, and let the citizens on
either side pair off and march arm in arm,
in procession until all the citizens in the
minority have paired off Then the re-
m1ining citizens who cannot find oppo-
nents to pair off with will represent the
majority. To this majority, thus fairly as
certained, let the minority then succumb,
and let the white citizens of old Kershaw
be once more unit, politically. Will the
Bourbons consent to this? OF course they
will not; for they know that they are hope
lessly in the minority, but are confident of
success, and of q triumph over the will OF
the majority Of white cltizens-the true
democracy Of the county-through the
fraudulent and dexterous manipulation of
the registration and election juggle. l
challenge them to accept this fair mode OF
adjusting our political troubles" and, If
they will not, let ]. r. NJ. for consistency's
sake, direct his artillery at them.
The .ghear of negro supremacy is as
proundless and absurd as the raw head and
bloody-bones with which crafty nurses
frichten ignorant children. The fact is
notorious that the negroes never did rule
South Carolina; even in the darkest period
of radicalism she was ruled by q few cum
ming and unscrupulous white men. SUSTAIN
cd and kept in power by the distrpst/and
hostility of the federal government towards
the white people of this State. They new
er had negro governor, never but one
negro Judge (for Whipper's pretensions
were "squelched" by Chamberlain) and,
the instant federal protection was with
drawn, the bubble burst and collapsed.
And if dozen carpet-baggers and scala
wags could thus maintain supremacy, can
not four hundred thousand white Carroll
mans do 80 without placing themselves IN
bondage to ring? The pretense that they
cannot is a preposterous slander upon our
manhood. But to place this pretense in
the broad light of its absurdity, suppose
case exactly in point: Suppose that forty
average white men and sixty average me-
rrocs (these are about the proportionate
numbers) were on an island by themselves.
Would the forty white men have the least
fear of being, unable with their superior
intelligence and culture, to maintain their
supremacy? But suppose that while oil
we're going on perfectly tranquil, the Bour-
bon junto at Columbia were to approach
with manacles in their hands aud say,
"fellow citizens We must put some restraint
upon your liberty in order that we may
have an excuse for doing likewise to these
negroes, lest they take 1t into their heads
to assert their supremacy over yon; we
will then take your property and manage
! it for yon." think soornful laughter