The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-11-02
Candidate RusselYs Address to The 70.
terS.
ANDERSON, G. H., 8. c., 1882.

ANDERSON, y. b., =. u, 1859.
To the Voters of the Third Congressional
District AS candidate seeking your
suffrage for q seat in the 53rd Congress,
desire to define my position on those po
litical issues of the day which are OF
grand interest to all parties. Had / en-
tered the canvass sooner 1 would haYt
been glad to have discussed them in de
tail before you, but now can make only
a brief statement of my views on the
subjects. Three of the leading questions
which are agitating the public minc
throughout the whole nation to-day art
the tariff, free coinage Of silver, and the
so-called, force bill.
lam in favor of home markets an6
plenty of them, as the best and simples
way of settling the much vexed question
of how to increase the circulating me,
dunn to meet the requirements Of trade
We should not be paying freights bott
ways on our own productions by ship
ping raw materials, and importing the
manufactured articles. We have the ma
terial, tho climate, the labor-let Us utll'
ize them. :,
The silver dollar with 81 cents Of sill
YER in it meets all the demands of oul
own country and her people. By having
the Government stamp upon 1t, it passes
current and buys as much as gold or
paper dollar. But when it comes to trad
ing with foreign countries it can only
pass as 81 cents worth of silver There.
fore we cannot have free and unlimited
coinage of silver again until all or q
large majority Of the countries with
which we trade shall have agreed upon
what shall constitute silver as well as
gold dollar, thus establishing standard
silver dollar for the world.
To offset our share Of the revenue to
the general Government, given in pen
sions, etc., I would work lnoessantly 1oI
heavy appropriations for our rivers and
harbors, and would insist that the cot
ton tax money De refunded to our State
to be applied to pensions OF disabled
Confederate soldiers.
OF all the scarecrows that have ever
been held out to the Southern voter the
Force Bill is the greatest. Every bill! that
was ever enacted by any Legislative body
in a measure is q force bill, because il
necessary, the power Of the State can be
invoked to enforce the same. That troops
are to be, or can be used at the polls gen.
orally, is simply absurd, to say the least
of it. To prove the folly Of such an idea
let all sensible men remember that the
United States army consists Of $4,000
men, 5000 of whom are sailors. This
leaves 1900 to distribute at the polls.
Supposing there are 100000 polling pro
cincts in the United States--of these it is
estimated that in the thirteen Southern
States there are about 10000 precincts.
Thus YOU see we could not, even if de-
sired, have an average Of one man at
each Of the precincts. The sum and sub
stance Of the awful bill is, simply, that
the signature of representative Of the
United States as well as that of the Gov
ernor shall be attached to the certificate
of election given to Congressman. This
is right, because they are national legis-
lators, and, in all other transactions be-
tween the State and the general govern
meut the officials of both are required to
sign the documents.
These are in brief the views that I hold,
and if entrusted with your interests at
the national capital the people Of the
Third District will never have cause to
complain of my actions. I am native
of this county, all my dead for genera
tions are buried in her soil, all that is sa-
cred and dear to me is here-then why
should I be recreant TO single trust?
Respectfully,
W. W, RUSSELL.