The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-06-19
you who are constantly in the State in
regard to public affairs in Columbia, l
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/
can say TO you that I have been felicitat.
ing myself upon the honorable conduct
of public business in South Carolina,
felicitating myself upon the fact that
when paid my taxes to the State Gov.
erument, Ely taxes and yours would be
disbursed honestly by the gentlemen whom
you have put in charge of The State.
And I ask you now: Is there any allie:
CATION anywhere that any public official
in South Carolina has stolen your money
and mine and applied it to his own ben.
eft.
To the shame of several of the South
ern States he it said that there have been
several instances of defalcation by their
trusted financial officers, but to me, as
your representative in the Senate of the
United States, it has been cause of
pride that no man could say that not one
of yonr officials had stolen dollar.
(Applause.
1t has been matter of profound pride
to me to hear it stated that her credit is
as good as any other State in the Union.
1t has been matter of profound gratifi
cation that when I heard capitalists in>
quiring for secure place to invest their
surplus money l could point to South
Carolina as State where it could be put
adVantageously, and where it would be
protected.
Whatever may be wrong in this State,
and no human government is perfect,
none but presumptuous man, with the
weakness of human nature upon him,
can declare II am, or will be, infallible
in any position"
AS God is my witness I have tried to
perform my official duties as God gave
me ability to perform them, but know
that have made mistakes. AS an old
! Senator from Iowa, Senator Kirkland,
said to me once: "Sir, I make it con-
dition with my constituents that I be al
lowed to make mistakes half the time,"
but they knew that they were honest
mistakes and made allowance for them.
lam sorry to hes ofa disposition in
various parts of the State to array class
against class, farmers aga: lst lawyers
and merchants. Why, ladies and gen.
tlemen, we are all one people. Our des.
TIMES are bound up in the same fate A
man may be farmer to day, lawyer to-.
morrow, or lawyer to day and a farmer
to morrow. But has it come to this in
South Carolina, that because we cannot
all pursue the same calliDgs we are neces-
sarily hostile to each other? God for
bid I expect [ am more of farmer
Just now thar any thing else-a poor far.
mer, perhaps, as was poor lawyer
when followed the law.
Judging.from what / have heard I
might have expected my friends here who
make a'liviDg by tilling the soil in rags,
stepped in degradation, prosecuted worse
than the Jews were of old. But l find
that it is not 30, that my friend here,
Captain Bates, is wearing good clothes, is
| fat and hearty, and looking rs if ne were
we'll fed. Laughter.
Now if you meet friend, even doc.
tor, and tell him every morning that
be is looking very badly and must be i'll
the chances are that at the end Of week
be will believe it, take to his bed and
die. Laughter. We have been telling
the farmers so often that they are doing
badly that some of them actually believe
it. Applause.
know what am talking about when
! ] say that the farmers of the South, and
particularly of this State, are getting on
better than those of any other section.
In the Northwest they have reason to be
respondent with corn, their great staple
crop, selling at twelve cents bushel or
burned for fuel, and their farms mort.
gagged beyond redemption. And can
| say to you that those farmers of the
Northwest have never realized until now
what has been the matter with them.
But the scales are falling from their eyes.
Politicians have cultivated their hatred
against US. But they are finding out
that, like our farmers, the chief cause OF
their troubles is not in the State govern
ments, but in various Federal laws which
are taxing agriculturists to death.
When vas speaking in Greenville
two years ago Imade reference to the
expressions of the tariff. A man got up
after me and pooh poohed. he said it
was not the tariff, but the trusts which
were the trouble, failing to see that the
trusts were the fruit of the vicious sys.
tenn of taxation which the Republican
party had put upon us. This man said
that it was not the tariff, because ploughs
and horse shoes were cheaper now than
before the war. But that is because of
improvements in manufacturing-be-
cause articles which were then made by
hand are now made infinitely cheaper by
machinery. But if ploughs and horse
shoes are cheaper now, why, in the name
of common honesty, should they not be
made still cheaper to our farmers by the
reduction of tariff taxes upon them2
Now am going to astonish you. l
tell you that everything which every
man, woman and child in this hall has
to buy is taxed on the average forty
seven cents on the dollar! You pay that
much to the manufacturer or to the
treasury of the United States. You don't
feel it directly in every coat and shoe
and dress you buy for yourself or your
wife, because it is an Indirect tax, but
you pay it all the same. Yet every
effort we make to reduce this tariff taxa.
ton fails. The large manufacturers Of
the country have raisen corruption funds
of millions Of dollars and placed men in
Congress to prevent the reduction of such
taxes.
However, from recent developments
am inclined to think that the farmers Of
the Northwest, will not be Influenced
much longer by the sectional cry against
rebel brigadiers and Southern hostility.
believe will claim the right of an
American citizen and q South Carolin'
ian to express my opinion on any public
question. | have some papers on the
sub-treasury scheme, and intend to talk
about it, but I don't think III bore you,
("Go ahead w "Go ahead !" "We want
information about thatr') All right. ]
will 60 ahead.
| One of these bills provides that the
Secretary of Agriculture Republican
now-upon the petition of one hundred
citizens, with certain certificates, in Ger.
tain counties of the United States, pro.
duciug certain agricultural products to
the value of half . million dollars-upon
the filing of these papers, shall cause to
be built in each such county agoyern.
ment ware house, with elevators, bins
and weighing apparatus, and that when
4 built the products of my. friend, Jack
Bates and myself, corn, cotton, wheat
oats and tobacco, can be placed in one Of
them, we receiving q certificate to the