The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-06-13
South Carolina's Unique Registry Law.

S0utn Car0nnas unique hBgistry Law.
!; The Registry law Of South Carolina
is, perhaps, the boldest attempt that was
ever made under . popular Government
to disfranchise large masses of citizens
and place the political powers of ma
jority in the hands of minority per-
manently. In order to accomplish so
difficult task it was necessary that the
righrof the elector to vote should be
made to depend upon some condition
over which the minority had full con-
troll. The Registry law makes it con-
dition of voting that the voter shall
have in his possession q certificate of q
certain particular form, losing which he
loses his rights as voter. Every vot-
ing citizen of South Carolina carries the
charter of his liberties in his pocket,
unless he has a safe or an old stocking
in which he can hide it at home. If he
loses this paper he loses with it all the
powers that Republican system of
government confers upon a citizen for
the protection of his civil liberties. A
petty larceny may deprive a voter of his
certificate he parts with his political
manhood. This. scheme was designed
by the successors of the Calhouns, the
Prestons and the Haynes, to take ad-
vantage of the iIliteracy, ,thoughtlessness
and cupidity of the negro, in order to
strip him of political rights that were
acquired at the cost to the Nation of the
great war. - af -s
The Registration law is not tenn
porary provision for a single biennial
election, but is q permanent system that
must stand until the law is repealed or
modified. According to this law, from
and after the day ON which the regis
tration books were closed, which was in
the summer of 1882, there exists no
means by which g. citizen entitled to
vote at that day, and not then regis
tered, can ever afterward acquire the
right to vote. Those who may sub
sequently acquire such right, either by
coming of age or by the residence of
one year in the State, can claim regis
| tration under it, but not such as had
the legal right to registration at that
day, and, by accident or neglect, failed
to claim it. 1t is true that this want of
authority to add to the registered names
after the day of the closing of regis
Supervisors of Registration who were
all of one, political party and many
names have been added since that time.
.But,eyery name so added is that of q
| political partisan of the officers, and no
negro or white Independent has been
able to secure registration since the
date above mentioned. 81 -
Thousands of these registration GER
| tifcates have already been stolen, lost
| or destroyed, and before the next cleo
ton, in 1884, the right to vote for all
| time while the present law stands will
be lost to large proportion of the ne
| gro population of the State. The Reg
istry act makes no provision and con-
! fers no authority to replace a lost or de-
stroyed certificate. 1t allows q mutt
lated certificate to be:Iexchanged for a
new one. but unless the old one is sur
rendered to the registering officers no
new certificate can be issued. In or
der to embarrass and disfranchise the
working people who hire their labor,
I and thus frequently move their resi-
dence from place to place;sa certificate,
which is required to state the place of
residence of the voter, becomes worth
less the moment he, changes his resi-
1 dencc. To produce this effect it is not
necessary that he should move from one
county to another, or even from one
/ polling precinct or ward TO another, but
\ If he goes from one place of residence
4 W dkIObuCI LII bnO ou1hO ROllu2 pICCAuCb
or ward, even though he may pass from
the place of one employer to that of an
other immediately adjoining the former,
the character of his political liberties is
gone, and he must seek a new certifi-
cate, stating his new place of residence.
Thus the favored classes of South
i Carolina, who, as the possessors of its
political authority, are the protectors of
the weak, are converted into ravenous
wolves, deyouring and destroying the
\ liberties of the poorer classes, both black
and white. This is bBourbonism in
South Carolina. q*-T~ 9
4 m With anything like free vote and an
honest count, South Carolina will in 1884
cast its Electoral votes for the Repub-
| lican Presidential nominee, and this fact
is so patent to the Bourbon managers
that they are striving in every possible
way to interpose obstacles to the nom
fulfillment of that end, and the violent
opposition of the newspapers to the at
tempt of the National Government to
bring violators of the Election laws to
justice is part of scheme to hold the
State for the, Bourbons by rintensifying
feeling between the races and keeping
the management of the election in; the
hands of the present State Government,
which has so shamefully violated the
rights of clear majority of the people.
Charleston Is. @. } Cor. NJ Y. TfI6dne.
The New Haven doctors have re.
Gently shown such partiality for lemon
juice in prescriptions that the large
drug stores now buy lemons by the box.
In one, prescription. weighing eight
ounces, prepared day or two ago,
/ there were six ounces of lennon iuice
i -NesO Hacen Register.
Il. The Arkansas Legislature has
passed bill prohibiting the sale oi
liquor within two miles Of any church