Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-01-30

having been bamboozled or dcbauch
ed, at the very next session left II
only as a sinccure with fat salaries
and no power. We have just seer
the disgraceful farce repeated. The
law was vastly improved at the ses.
sion of 1888, but after a year, which
has shown the weakness and unfit
ness of the present iEcumbents, fol
they have done very little, the Sen.
ate preemptorily refused to make
any changes. The Railroad Com
missioners now in Office have been
"tamed," 50 to speak, by the rail
roads, and men who have not been
SO long under their wing might have
done something in the interest OF
the people; but that same Senate,
which has again and again thwarted
the people, which refuses to reduce
salaries, which fought the Clemson
College and yielded at last to necos-
sity only, which is the stronghold of
arist"cracy with its old, cxtravagant,
non-progressive, impracticable ideas,
which in word is dominated by
Charleston's rich politicians that
Senate resolved to maintain this
"existing institutions" too, stat,t
quo.
OF all the taxes we pay, the pen
sions to Confederate veterans are
submitted to most willingly, and we
regret that we cannot increase the
pittance they receive. But the con
tinuance of men in office rs political
pensioners, after their ability or
willingness to serve the people is
gonc-whcn the interests and even
rights of the people are thereby
sacriticcd-this pandering to scnti-
mcnt-this favoritism-is % crime,
nothing more and nothing less. Ro-
tation in Office is cardinal Demo
cratic principle, and the neglect to
practice it is the cause of many of
the ills we suffer.
We cannot elaborate the other
counts in this indictment. We can
only point briefly to the mismanagc-
mcnt of the pcnitcntiary, which is a
burden on the taxpayers, even while
engaged in no pnblic works which
might benefit the State. TO the
wrong committed against the people
of many Counties (strongholds Of
Democracy by the failure to reap
portion representation according to
population, whereby Charleston has
five votes in the House and ten votes
in the State Convention, which choose
our State officers, to which it is not
entitled. TO the zeal and cxtrava
:ace of this aristocratic oligarchy,
whose sins we are pointing out, in
promising higher education for every
class except farmers, while it ncglccts
the free schools, which are the only
chance for an education to thousands
of poor children, whose fathers bore
the brnnt in the struggle for our re-
dcmption in 1876. TO the continued
recurrence Of horrible lynchings-
which we can but attribute to bad
laws and their inefficient administers
ton. TO the impotence of justice
to punish criminals who have money.
10 the failure to call constitutional
convention that we may have an or
ganic law framed by South Carroll
mans and suited to our wants, thereby
lcsscning the burdens of taxation
and giving us better government.
Fellow Democrats, do not all these
things cry out for change? Is it
not opportunc, when there is no ma
tional election, for the common peo-
pie who redeemed the State from
Radical rule to take charge of it?
Can we afford to leave it longer in
the hands of those who, welded to
antc-bcllum IDEAS but possessing lit
tie of antc-bcllum patriotism and
honor, are running it in the interest
of few families and for the benefit
of selfish ring Of politicians; as
real Democrats and white men, those
rho here re,eW oar 3otedg to make
the fight inside the Democratic party
and abide the result, we call upon
every true Carolinian, Of all classes
and callings, to help lis purify and
reform the Democratic party, and
give us a government OF the people,
by the people, and for the people.
II we control the State Democratic
Convention, Legislature in sympa-
thy will naturally follow; failing to
do this we risk losing all we have
gained, and have no hope of any
change for the better. The logic Of
pypuiS and mast oypnrionnn chou,