The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-02-06
LET US HAVE PEACE.
A PATRIOTIC APPEAL TO THE PEO-
PIE SOUTH CAROLINA.

sether and Stand Together rs They did
in 1876.
To the Editor of the News and Cou
rier: Brothers, embittered and estran
ged with high indignation that scorns
reconciliation, meet at the sick bed oi
their mother, mingIe their tears and
prayers, and are friends forever more.
No explanation, no adjustment of past
differences; only solemn recognition
in the private sanctuary of each soul,
or the nothingness of petty pride
and resentment when compared with
the immutable bonds fixed by Nature
the awful responsibilities of living.
Invoting for the Constitutional Con-
vention I cherished the hope that the
solemn duty of Constitution-making
would prove the means of reuniting
our distracted people, as a foreign war
calls all Frenchmen to but one love
and but Que duty. Are South Caro-
linians less loyal7 Blood is thicker
than water, and though, in this COM
mercial age, fellow-citizenship has
ceased to mean blood-relationship and
the sentiment of patriotism is growing
weak, yet no other people have a
more national character and spi1it
than South Carolinians, for none have
more pronounced agreement of
minds and of interest, which is the
condition that is the efficient cause
and rational basis of harmony and
patriotism. Hence South Carolina has
always stood as a unit, guarding
zealously her interest against the rest
of the world
SOLID FOR SOUTH CAROLINA
Though of late her citizens have
been arrayed in two hostile factions,
yet while their passions were inhamed
and their. understandings convinced
as they cannot be again infamed and
convinced against each other, all at
tempts to bring them to open party
division have nevertheless failed. The
verdict is unmistakable. In their an
priest moments the great BODY of our
people have clung to the semblance
of unity. They would not cross the
Rubicon. And why should they?
Could we know where lies the path to
the highest welfare of our State who
would follow another path? If We 60
different ways we are tagging in the
race. All our honest differences are
due to want of information and to err
rors of Judgment. As rational men
our one duty is to search diligently,
to reason together, and thus finding,
shoulder to shoulder pursue the true
path to the welfare of US all.
With Indignation exhausted and
passions now cooled, with understand
ings sobered and disposed to grapple
nationally with the causes of the dis
tressing conditions that are now upon
us, with a wider range of view now
than when, fve-mile post below in
our ascent of this century, we formu-
lated opinions and went to battle upon
them. there is among us a growing
consciousness Of the groundlessness of
continued formal division, and a
yearning for unity. To this desired
result the near approach of the Con-
Convention has contributed
no little, and the renewed fraternizing
of our people should find it's consum-
nation in the election of delegates to
that Convention and in the conduct Of
these on its door where many cour-
tesy can be shown by chivalric gen
tlemen.
How shall these delegates be elected
is the absorbing problem. Patriotic
promoters of unity have suggested a
plan, but the task is more delicate, the
iuncture in our affairs is more critical
than seems to be fully appreciated.
There is a method which will leave
nature to take its course, whereupon
the wound will heal on first inten-
tons. and there is a method which
might mistakenly Interfere with ma
lures work, keep the wound a run
ming sore and possibly make of it a
lasting scar. A blunder here would
be crime. Be sure we are right, and
then 60 ahead.
NEITHER FACTION SHOULD BE REcoG-
NIZED.
The plan of prorating delegates be-
tween the Conservatives and the Re
formers was naturally the first to be
thought of, and, therefore, is but
step towards the discovery of one less
crude. Such discussion and approval
as it has received have done much to
cultivate and further disseminate that
spirit of unity which has been slowly
growing among us. But let US not
beguile ourselves into believing that
county should select its delegates as
Conservatives and Reformers. Let not
this Convention 60 down in history as
one in which delegates acted as Till
NANTES and Anti-Tillmanites. Let
US not push an artificial and personal
division to a result so belittling to the
State. Let there not be parties, and
consequent caucusses and drove-like
voting. Let each member be free to
speak to the reason and conscience of
the others with expectation of win
ming, with no recognized impossible
gulf between-no lurking prevailing
suspicion that every proposition is
Trojan horse. If the Constitution be
the product of such Convention it
will be an enduring monument of
shame to our State. Let men stand
not on past, but on living issues, not
on personal or factional, but on ra-
tional agreement, with one agreed
premise on which ali appeals may be
based-supreme loyalty to South Car
olina. Thus only can the Convention
be a deliberative body or afford to sue
ceeding generations an honorable and
dignifcd example of patriotism, as
Convention in which men met as
South Carolinians, knowing in their
counsels no party atfiliation, but the