Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1895-05-29
aslisrrllanrou5 Rcaaing.
ADVICE FROM HAMPTON.
He Talks of the Political Situation in the
State.

State.
The following letter from Wade
Hampton, dated Washington, May %,
and addressed to the editor Of the
Spartanburg Herald, was published in
last Saturdays issue Of that paper:
| My Dear Sir: In the columbia
State" received yesterday, I saw your
kind and fattering call made on me
to come to the aid of our State. To-
day I see another communication from
one of our colored citizens i'll the same
line as yours. Let me say, before pro-
ceeding farther, that appreciate these
evidences of the confidence still re.
posed in me by some Of my fellow
citizens, and I hope they will never
have cause to change their opinions.
need hardly say that there is no per-
sonal sacrifice 1 would not willingly
make to preserve the honor or to pro-
mote the welfare of South Carolina.
All my efforts in the past for these
ends, give the best guarantee of my
sincerity now but with every desire
to work for our State, see no way in
which I could give substantial aid.
When I last attempted to plead for
peace, and restoration of the frater-
nal relations which since rs had gov
erned all of our citizens, South Car.
lima audience, refused to hear me and
drove me from the stand. / have
taken no part in public affairs in the
State since then not because my in
terest in them was abated but because
I had been rudely notified that my
voice had no longer any weight in the
counsels of the State. have, there
fore, kept silent, offering no advice,
uttering no complaint or reproach. l
have tried to serve the State when
called on to do so ; but when my fel-
low-ctizens declared that I could do
so no longer, I accepted this verdict
without one word of protest. But l
am still a citizen of South Carolina,
proud of her honorable record in the
past, Jealous of her honor, and deeply
mortified at the condition she now oc-
cupies, and the estimation in which she
is held throughout the Union.
1t is not my purpose to discuss how
this deplorable condition has been
brought about, for I do not intend to
indulge in recrimination nor in re-
proach, my only desire being to see
our people reunited and the State
placed where she stood proudly of
yore. I am in full sympathy with all
you say as to our present condition but
it seems to me that I can only aid by
my vote to bring about a better state
of affairs, and have even been refused
the privilege of voting because hap.
pened not to have complied with all
the requirements of the "dominant
party" to show that I was Democrat !!
Ifmy advice can have any weight in
the State, it would be for all Conser-
vatives, the only true national Demo-
cratic representatives in the State, to
refuse to 60 into the primary, or any
so-called compromise, to nominate in
every county the ablest and best men,
Conservatives and Reformers, who
will strive to make a good constitu-
ton, referring it to the people for rati.
fcation or rejection, and in all to set
their faces resolutely against all fraud
in our elections. I have no fear of
Negro domination-a cry used only
to arouse race prejudices and to put
the incoming convention under control
of the Ring which now dominates our
State
The Negroes have acted of late with
rare moderation and liberality, and if
we meet them in the same spirit they
have shown, they will aid in selecting
good representatives for the convention.
for one am willing to trust them,
and they ask only the rights guaran-
teed to them by the constitution of the
United States and that of our own
State. corruption wins not more
than honesty" and advocate perfect
honesty, for defeat on that line is bet
ter than victory by fraud. I have
never refused, when called on by the
people of my State, to serve them !;
my ability to serve them now may be
past, but the wish to do so, will ex-
pire only with my life.
The effort made by the Forty is in
the right line and is creditable to its
originators, but it seems to me to be
impracticable, for none of them have
authority to pledge any one save them
selves. We can work in conjunction
with them, and hope that the work
may be successful; but if any Conser-
vatives 60 into the convention by a
primary, they will walk into the trap
cunningly prepared for them, and will
thus be responsible in part for any
constitution framed by the Ring.
Thanking you and my colored friend
for the kind lines in which both speak
of me, am, Very truly yours.
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