The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-06-14
Audi Alteram Partem.

the negro. A great deal of fnamby-pamby.
sentiment is wasted on him by some OF
our Northern brethren.
I propose to speak of the negro as cltl-
zen and laborer, and in both respects
expect to show that he is not desirable
possession.
AS citizen the negro's sphere is very
circumscribed. He exercises no lnfiu-
ence on the social or industrial life OF the
State, and since the enactment of the rog-
istration law and the eight7box law no
influence in politics. He is, therefore,
nonentity except in 80 far as his moral
character is concerned, and IN that light
I will consider him.
For twenty-eight years he has borne
the responsibilities and duties of citizen
ship. All these years he has had schools
supported by the State for his education;
he has had his own ministers and
churches, and has had the example OF the
best class Of whites to help him to a
higher life. He has learned to read and
write; in great many instances he has
learned to live without work he has
learned certain kind of shrewdness,
end has initiated the faults more than the
virtues of the white people. His moral
character is best exemplitied by reference
to some notable events that have recently
transpired in this State, to which the
attention of the whole country has been
directed, and which serve as comparisons
between his character now and hereto
fore.
Within the past decade, and increasing
In frequency as the years have gone by,
rapes have been of frequent occurrence.
The crime has reached an alarming state
Of prevalence. Within the past two
months three negroes have been lynched
in South Carolina for cutraging white
escaped capture and within the same
time four or FIVE negro girls have suffered
like fate from men of their own race.
It has come to be very serious matter
with people who live in the country and
have to send their children by long and
lonely roads to school. Where the chill
dren are all small they run fearful risk.
Many of the cases have happened this
way. The, lynching at Denmark, the
24th of April, and that az Laurens, the
10th of May, were for outrages commit
ted on young girls on their way to aud
from school in the country.
: From 1861 to 1865, when every able
bodied white man was in the wa, and
the women were at the mercy o the
negroes, there was not even an insu BY
one of them to white woman. I'll is
often recalled to their credit. True l. y
were then slaves, but slaves as they Wee
they had no more reason to fear the coll
sequences then than now. They were
then not only respectful, as became their
position, but they were kind in their dis
position.
And during the DEMONSTRATION"
period-when the entire State was under
his control, with United States bayonets
to back him and Courts and juries all In
TO were not known in this State.
When the Northern people understand
the situation down hero they will assur-
edly cease to condemn us for taking sum-
mary vengeance on the despoilers Of
women; whether they do or not, how
ever, swift and certain death awaits the
offender. We don't care to argue about
it, but we are fully determined, and
denunciations against "mob law" are as
the idle wind. Recent occurrences In
some of the Northern States show that in
this respect the two sections are OF the
same mind.
I might show that in other particulars
than that mentioned the negro has dete-
riorated morally since he secured his free
dom. He grows more lazy and thriftless
every day he is more given to thieving,
and the number of executions and the
increasing number Of negro convicts in
the State Penitentiary for homicides show
that from having been harmless and
tractable he has become blood thirsty
and reyepgefnl, They often kill each
other for scarcely any proyocat;on-a!i
carry firearms and are quick to use them.
In short it is q fact so universally recog-
4 H. %1,nk axyy RI ion q
it that the negro has deteriorated morally
since he became freeman.
speak, of course, of the average negro.
There are many negroes who have made
good nse of their freedom and the oppor-
tunities 1t has brought them, and who
are an honor to their race. But what has
been liberty to these has been license to
q great many more, who haYe grown up
like wild animals, with no moral charac-
ter and no restraint upon their brutal
passions but fear. It is not surprising,
therefore, that where they think they can
escape detection they sometimes prove
themselves beasts in human form.
Enough on thst branch of the subject.
AS q laborer the negro ia curse to the
State. He is to the South, especially to
South Carolina, what the l"Heathen
Chinee'' threatened to become to the
Pacific States, and would have been but
for the Anti Chinese legislation by Con-
gress. Thousands of poor white men in
South Carolina are ruined by negro cheap
labor. In this State the land ls going
into the possession of few men, COM
paratively speaking. These large land
owners do not object 70 white labor
they had as lief hire white man on the
plantation as negro, and will pay him
as much-and no more. A white man
cannot live decently on negro wages any
more than he can on Chinee wages.
It might seem that as heads OF families
die, and their lands are divided among
their heirs, the number Of landowners
would increase, and that would be the
case if small farmers, who are more
iaborers than proprietors, did not have
to compete with negroes. The number
of landowners in South Carolina was 8
per cent. less in 1890 than in 1880. Small
farms, instead of being divided among
heirs, are put on the market and the
proceeds of the sale are divided. The
farms are usually bought by men who
already have large holdings, and who let
them out to negro Htenants.'" The heirs
of the small farmers take their little
shares and go West. ! can call over the
names OF hundreds of young white en-
between the ages Of IS and 90 who ! se
left this small county of 30, 600 inhs i
tants in the past fifteen years, and WI It
has happened here has happened over d
large part Of the State, the emigration
being largest where the negroes are most
numerous. The census shows that
despite the large increase in the town
caused chiefly BY the building of an
immense cotton mill apd splendid graded
population Of the county,
including the town, was sixty-fve less
in 1890 than in 1880. A small colony Of
negroes left the county three years ago,
and another two years ago, through the
influence of Western emigration agent;
but the State has put q stop to that sort Of
thing by enacting lazy making ita crime
punishable with $1,000 hne to solicit
hlaborers'' to leave the State. While this
law builds Chinese wall to keep the
negroes in, the young white mon are
emigrating constantly-driven out by
abundant and cheap negro labor.
The negro is cheap laborer, and that
is Yhy he is guarded so jealously from
the seductive tongne Of tho emigration
agent. Big plantations apd hordes of
cheap negro laborers to work them are
robbing this State of its best blood.
As purely a laborer our young white
men must turn to the mechanic arts
and even there the negroes are beginning
to crowd them. Cotton mills and rail-
roods o;va am n1ovmant IN thousands Of