The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1884-11-27

| tic uestructlos OF all talr elections, let
me present to you five States in the
late Contederacy and five loyal States
of the North, possessing for each Sec
ton the same number of electoral
votes. In tho South the States of
Georgia and Sotuh Carolina have in
the aggregate torty-eight electoral
votes. They have just 2,SOO,0 900 white
| people and over 100000 colorcd peo.
pie. III the North the States Of Wis
consin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and
Colorado have likewise an aggregate
of fOrty-cight electoral votes, and these
have white population of 5000, 900
or just double the five Southern States
which | have named. These Northern
States have Practically no colored pop
ulation. 1t Is, therefore, evident that
the white men ln those Southern States,
by urSurping and absorbing the rights
OF the colored men, are eXcrting lust
double the pOliticalpOwer of the white
men in the Northern States.
L submit, my friends, that such a
condition of affairs is extraordinary,
un Just and dcrogatory to the manhood
of the North. Even those who are
vindictivcly opposed to negro suffrage
will not deny that if Presidential cleo
tors are assigned to the South by rea-
son of the negro population, that pop
ulation ought TO be permitted free
suffrage in an election. TO DENY that
clear proposition is to affirm that the
Southern white man in the Gulf States
Is entitled to double the political DOW
cr of the Northern white man in the
Lake States. 1t is to affirm that the
Confederate soldier shall WELD twice
the influence in the nation that the
Union soldier can, and that perpetual
and constantly increasing superiority
shall be conceded to the Southern
white man III the Government of the
Union. If that be quietly conceded
in this generation it will harden into
custom until the badge Of infcrioritv
will attach to the NORTHERN white man
us odiously as ever Norman noble
stamped it upon the Saxon churl
This subject is ofdccp interest to the
laboring men of the North. With the
Southern Democracy triumphant in
their States and in the nation, the ne
grocs will be compelled to work for
just such wages rs the whites NAV de-
cree, wages will amount, as did the
supplies of the slaves, to bare SUBJ
sistcncc, equal in cash, perhaps, to 80
cents per day, ifavcragcd over the ell
tire South.
The white laborcr in the North will
soon feel the destructive effect of this
upon his own wages.
The Republicans have clearly seen
from the earliest days Reconstruction
that wages in the South must be raised
to the just rccompensc of the laborcr,
or wages i'll the North be ruinously
lowered, and the party has steadily
worked for the former result. A re-
verse influence will be now set in
motion, and that condition of affairs
produced which years ago Mr.. Lincoln
warned the free laboring men Of the
North, will prove hostile to their indie
pendcncc and will inevitably lead to n
rulnouS reduction Of wages. A mere
difference in the color Of the skin will
not suffice for maintaining an entirely
different standard of wages i'm con-
tiguous and adjacent States, and the
voluntary will be compelled to yield to
the involuntary.
So completely have the colorcd men
in the South been already deprived bv
the Democratic party of their cOnstitu-
lonal and legal rights as citizens of the
United States that they regard the
advent of that party to national power
rs the signal of their reinstatement
and are aflrightcd because they think
all legal protection for them is nOnc.
Few persons in the North realize
how completely the chiefs of the Re-
bcllion WELD the political power which
has has triumphcd in the late election.
1t is portcntous fact that the Demo-
cratic Senators who came from tho
States Of the late Confcdcracv, all, and
| mean all, without q single cXccptiou.
| personally participated in the Rebellion
against the National Government. It
is still more significant fact that in
those states no man who was lOval 10
the Union, no matter how strong a
Democrat he may be to-day, haa the
slightest change Of political promotion.
| The one great avenue to honor in that
section is the record Of jealous ser
vice IN the war rSainSt the Govern
! mcnt.
1t is certainly an astounding fact
tbat the section in which friendship
1or the Union in the day Of its trial
aiu agony is still political disqualiti-
ca'loh, should be called now TO rule
over the Union. All this takes place
during the lifetime Of the generation
lnal fought the war, and eievatcs into
the practical command Of the Amcri-
organized for its destruction and
plugged us into the bloodicst contest
or modern times.
l. have spoken of the South as placed
by the late election in possession of the
Government, and | mean all that nv
words imply.
The South furnished nearly three
lourihS OF the electoral votes that de-
lcatcd the Republican party and thcv
will step to the command Of the Dem
Ocrats as unchallenged aud as unre-
strained as they helG the same posi-
ton thirty years before the civil war.
Gentlemen, there cannot be political
inequality among citizens of free
Republic.
There cannot be n minority of white
men in the South ruling Il majority OF
white men in the North. Patriotism,
sclf-rcspcct, State pride, protection OF
person and safety for the country, all