Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-05-13

the farmers who are here this familiar
face and that, which she remembered as
among the foremost of those who redeem
ed the State in '76 she turned and said:
"Johnnie, you boys have been fooling me;
my farmers are not prosperous. l can see
that with half an eye. l shall 60 into this
Convention and hear what they complain
of and try to redress their grievances, be-
cause although have neglected them, they
are my children and have supported me-.
l know who to depend on, and if these boys
are going to move 1 am going to follow
them. I can't depend on your city chaps
and lawyers any longer. I think shall
move back to the farm any way; my
health has not been good of late, and l am
nearly dead for piece of home-cured ba-
con and corn bread. These farmers ought
to raise more meat and corn, and / am
going to show them how to do it,"
So, you may rest assured fellow-citizens,
our good old mother is here, either in per-
son or in spirit, anxious, at last, to heed
our demands Let moderation and har-
mony guide our counsels, and there is no
earthly power that can thwart us or prevent
our complete success.
But there is another aspect to the political
side of this movement. In and out of sea-
son some editors and others, who have writ
ten for their papers, have urged, begged, de-
manded that we should confine ourselves
solely to discussions on farming and such
topics, leaving the Government and its man.
agement alone. "Talk about your crops
and fertilizers, leave politics to us. We
will attend to them and choose your candi-
dates for you; we will also enact such laws
as shall graciously be considered for your
benefit. You are only farmers, and farmers
are made to vote and put us in Office" Say
you men who own the soil of Sonth Caroli-
ma, who pay three-fourths of the taxes,
whose devotion and courage made South
Carolina Democratic and have kept her so,
how do you like this wet-nursing, this pat
ronizing, this assumption of superiority,
this insufferable insolence? What freeman
has not felt his heart swell with indignation
and been ready to burst with anger at the
idea that we don't know what we want,
and must get on our knees to beg for it? l
am not made of that kind of clay myself,
and hope none of you are. Let US agree
upon what we think is just right for our
selves and the State and 60 home and take
it. Let us find out here what are the wish
es of the farmers about our free schools, our
colleges, our system of taxation, our multi
plicity of offices, our department of agrcult-
ure, our State Constitution.
Let us do all this in calm, dispassionate
way, and then go home and see to it that at
the next Democratic primaries and in the
next State Convention men are chosen who
will loyalty carry out our wishes. l care
not what profession they belong to-lawyers,
preachers, doctors or merchandise they are
true men and will stand on our platform.
beg you, though, to give these how-dye-do
fellows q rest. Their wrists are sore in
pity, spare them. The cry that we must
not meddle with politics reminds me of the
| doggerel- ~;y-.-
"Mother may I 60 out to swim?
Yes, you may, my daughter,
Hang your clothes on hickory limb,
But don't 80 nigh the water
Did you come here to take a swim on
dry lando confess l did not, and if there
are any miss Nancys" among you who
are afraid to exercise your rights as citizens
and taxpayers to discuss these and other
questions 80 vital to our interests you had
as we'll withdraw, for we are going to take
swim in the political mill pond just for
our healths' sake, and we are going into
deep water at that. How else are we to
remedy existing evils and lift so much of
the burden of taxation from our necks as
can be done? leave some of those who are
sent here "to restrain Tillman" to answer.
I only desire to say that if others shall be
as conservative as / am, not only will the
State receive no detriment, but no class of
| its citizens will be able to find just cause of
complaint with our work.
In conclusion, 1 desire to say this: l feel
deeply and have long felt the heavy re-
sponsiblity resting on me. Thereare many,
both here and at home, who have high
hopes of something wonderful or great being
accomplished by this Convention. Their
ideas are vague and often unreasonable.
am not responsible either for these great
expectations or for the fears that have been
excited lest we do something terrible and
dangerous. What we want and how to get
it. have no Aladdin's lamp with which
to transform poverty and ignorance into
wealth and knowledge, at least in night,
nor in decade. Our present condition has
been the slow growth of years. The recov-
cry must be as gradual. The 1sraelites
wandered forty years in the wilderness.
We have been lost for twenty-five.
If the reforms in our educational policy
which l shall advocate are adopted, if our
farming interest shall obtain that fostering
care and attention their importances re-
quire, think we will have touched bottom
and the public will soon brighten with hope
instead of being obscured by gloom and
darkness. claim no inspiration but COM
mon sense, and that has been burnt into
me by getting in debt, renting to negroes
and making cotton on bought food for horses
and hands. 1 have passed through the Red
Sea, though it was pretty deep where l
crossed it, and am on firm ground once
more-"clothed and in my right mind"
still do not know how to farm, but have
learned the alphabet, and hope to get into
the First Reader after awhile. Perhaps by
the time am dying with old age will have
learned what an agricultural college would
have taught me in four years.
In some respects no assemblage which
has ever met in South Carolina has been
confronted with graver problems or is look
ed to with more of interest and Of hope.
If wisdom and moderation shall guide our
counsels, if we lay aside all feelings of sell
fshness and animosity and apply ourselves
| to the work before us conscientously and