The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-08-07
The Political Duty Of the Hour.

The Political Duty OF the Hour.
Politics is so near to morals and so
concerns all phases of our life that even
the religious press feels its influence and
is concerned in its issues the more so
when party feeling runs high and men
lose 81 ght ofhigher duties in the rage and
rush Of conflicting opinions and interests.
Religious papers should certainly let
partisan issues alone, but political meas
ures and conduct are within their sphere
and demand their criticism and warn
ing.
The heat and passion rife in South
Carolina just now conduce neither to
moral profit nor to political peace. Bit.
terness and strife, partisan and personal,
have taken the place of all real issues,
and the campaign, which started to be
educational, has become wrangle that
is disgraceful alike to individuals and to
the State. The Advocate, as q religious
paper, is not concerned with the differ.
ences between men and parties, but as
conservator of morals and an exponent
of religious conduct it feels called on to
protest against this undignifed and i'm.
moral canvass. The rules of courtesy,
the ordinary restraints of politeness
should forbid such scenes as the last
month and half have seen enacted on
the hustiugs in this State; should make
impossible such expressions of hate and
bitterness as have teemed in the public
prints. As these do not, the religious
sentiment of the Christian people of
South Carolina should be appealed to,
and it is to this large body that the
Adyocate would call to reverse the meth.
ods of this most harmful political strife,
and soften the harsh animosity of this
madness that threatens disaster TO socie.
ty and morality among US; not so much
on account of party splits and political
changes as on account of the degradation
of personal character am disregard of
truth and right that must characterize
such state of generalization as that
which now endangers us.
Religion has been kept out of politics
until politics is rotten until the methods
of barbarism and brutality have come to
seem the normal characteristics # politi.
cal warfare. We have campaigns con.
Quoted by men who do not represent the
people, after methods that paganism
found it necessary to abandon. And yet
Christian men submit and pass over the
management of their country's interests
to such men and methods. The reform
we need in politics should go far deeper
than any mere exchange of party for
party, or ring for siug. Our political
principles are wrong the land over. The
axe should be laid to the root of this
Upas tree of dishonest political manage
ment, and the whole poisonous growth
cleared and burned.
But what can one man do? asks some
burdened soul, wearied at the state of
affairs but despairing of remedy. Let
each man who values his States pros
perity, and who stands in awe of God,
speak his protest against this madness
and rage that has nothing to do with the
issues. 1t is the part of the Christian
man to keep his temper, to bear q great
deal and to think no evil. Let him not
abandon politics; it is the duty to stand
by what he conscientiously believes in
politics as elsewhere. But it is his duty
as we'll to govern his own spirit and to
help his neighbor govern his; to keep
clear eye on the real questions in dispute;
to refuse to be blinded by the dust and
mud raised and flung to darken the air
and bespatter the enemy. If there are
real issues involved, search them out
and be ready to give an intelligent rea-
son for your stand on this or that side.
In a word, carry the spirit of tolerance
and forgiveness into the discussion and
the methods of common sense, and Chris.
tian conduct into the settlement OF
them.
The political stock in trade of the hour
is the coin current of the slums, Liar
and thief and scoundrel and the like,
implied or expressed-it is all one-never
proved anything yet, but that the utterers
were unworthy of confidence and unfit
for high place, or low for that matter
Let us not feel any satisfaction in the
fact that as yet no blood has been shed,
no serious riot arisen. It is serious
enough when those who claim to be the
representatives of South Carolina culture
ana honesty anu excellence cau stoop W
the low level of the cockpit and prize
ring And that is not putting it too
strongly. Tit serious enough when the
crowds that attend these meetings can
forget not only fair play and manly right,
bit deliberately scout courtesy and de-
celcy and manifest the animus Of mob.
South Carolina is TO day the sensation
theme of the press. Her canvass takes
rank with suicides and murders and rapes
in the paraded head lines of the corrup.
tion m,pgering press. We are making
ourselves the show of the country, our
State by-word on the lips of our enc
mics, and an object of compassion in the
eyes of our friends. We are acting in q
manner unworthy of our past and disas'
trous to our future. There are enough
Christian people not yet bitten with this
mania to save the State from this dis.
grace. Let them protest; let them cry
aloud and insist, in private and in public,
from press and pulpit and rostrum and
stand, till this sad disorder be put down
and mems furious passions be controlled.
Southern Christian Adrocate.