Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-05-27
Mistellauepns &eadima,
is THE PARTY 4 FAILURE?
THE DEMOCRACY OFSOUTH CAROLINA And
ITS DUTE

THE DEMOCRACY oFSoUTH CAROLINA AND
ITS DUTY.
CHESTER, May, Is, 1886.
To the Editor of the News and Courier: 1t
is said of republics that the existence of two
well organized rival parties therein is a ne
cessity, and the nearer these parties are
equal in power and representation the near
er is the approach to perfect health in the
body polite. This has almost become an
obvious truth, and, therefore, the condition
of South Carolina with only one party is
not one of unalloyed happiness. The DEM
ocratic ship is becalmed and the sails of its
usefulness flap idly against the masts.
Each year, like sailors in a calm, we whistle
for a political breeze. This has been too
often tried, so that during the approaching
canvass it will be hard to create a ripple of
interest, much less of excitement. Since
1876 the party has existed in full power and
compactly united, because of the continued
attacks of the Federal Government on our
election laws; that force being removed,
the menace comes not from without, but
from within.
The first consequence of having but a
single party, practically without an antago-
mist, was the establishment of primary cleo
tons to determine the choice of candidates
for members of the Legislature and all
county officers, including those offices the
appointment to which is the exclusive pre-
rogative of the Governor. These primary
elections are now an institution in the State,
and upon their results the fate of candidates
absolutely depends, and the general cleo
ton is merely used to record the results,
and have the sanction of the law. All in
terest is centred in the primary elections,
ard the vote is large because the candidates
must necessarily enter the arena of contest,
their friends and partisans are aroused, and
it partakes of all the excitement of an elec-
ton with opposing parties. The choice OF
candidates rendered by Democrats at these
elections is cheerfully acquiesced in, and,
therefore, they are generally preferred to
conventions. At the general elections the
attendance and the vote get less and less
each election for very obvious reasons, and
it will not be a matter of surprise if some
day it is announced that at certain remote
polls in the counties no one but the mana
gers have voted.
The situation of inertness in which the
Democratic party of South Carolina finds
itself has produced a movement recently
fraught with most incalculable danger to
the State, if the result had been as feared.
The Farmers Convention recently assem-
bled at Columbia, under quite a specious
disguise, was really projected by its origina-
tors to assail the Democratic party, and its
recognized leaders; and it would have been
a success in that way but for the fact that
the farmers of South Carolina love the par
ty of their fathers, and know that IN the od-
solute, irreuoca6le Mion Of its members de-
pends the safety and life Of this State, and,
knowing this, they could not be used for
any hostile purpose. 1t is, however, use
less to deny the fact some of the utterances
coming from that convention had truth and
reason in them, and have taken hold OF the
minds of those who, by their votes, will
determine the complexion of the next Legis-
lature, and the choice of our State officials.
It is true that the business of agriculture is
not now ~remunerative, mainly due, how
ever, to it's being carried on under a system
of ruinous credit, and to the disasters of
three years with the crops.
1t is true that the present machinery of
government as organized under the Consti-
tuition of 1868, so far as the county govern
ments are concerned, is too expensive a sys-
tenn for a poor people, but it is not true that
the State government, executive, legislative
and judicial, is carried on in extravaganza.
1t is true that there is need and opportunity
for retrenchment and reform, but it is not
true that State taxation is excessive, but on
the contrary, it is quite moderate, and the
burthens of which the farmers complain
arise in many counties-aS in this county
from self-imposed railroad taxes, and gen.
orally from the expenses of the county gov
ernments.
1t is necessary that the Democratic party
should take heed of all the well-founded
complaints announced by the Farmers Con-
v~ention. That convention was composed,
with but a half dozen exceptions, of Demo-
cratic voters and of those who represent
quite a majority of the voters of this State.
In consequence of the enmity Of the Re-
publican party of the North, the hostility of
the Federal Government and the unhappy
political complications at home, the policy
of the Democratic party since coming into
power, has been one of eXpedients; intend
ed to be purely temporary and to bridge
over some present difficulty. Inthe Gener-
al Assembly it may be said practically not
to exist the party caucus is gone, the party
lash hangs idly upon the walls; and it has
not infrequently happened that important
general laws, vital to the interests of the
people, have been determined by the votes
of the handful of colored Republicans in
the Senate and House. This cannot longer
be. The Democratic party needs a more
perfect organization, and it must announce
its State policy on all important general
measures. To meet the present condition
of public affairs requires a bold and not a
timorous policy. We have no party discip-
line, and to this laxity may be attributed
every attempt to create new issues and new
political instrumentalities.
The most vital matter of organization
which suggests itself is the subject Of pri-
mary elections. They have grown up out
side of the constitution of the Democratic
party: nave been adopted as a system by
the action of the county conventions of the
various counties, and in no two counties are
the rules alike. 1t is clear that the whole
subject should be regulated by the supreme
authority of a State convention to adopt
one common harmonious set of rules to
govern them. 1t was suggested at the