Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-15

 an oligarchy when in 1876 they threw off the yoke of the negro and the carpet bagger
 Two appeals have been made to re- verse this verdict of the sovereign people, but it has been sustained each time with vehement determination. The reform movement had nothing to do with the election and registration laws. We re- ceived them as a legacy from the ad ministration of 1882. We have upheld them as the acts of the people and as constitutional means of self-preserva- tion. Some of these men who are re- sponsible for and who have enjoyed the benefits and honors of office under these laws have turned upon their state since their retirement. By an appeal to onsa of the bitterest enemies of southern civiliZation-a politician who disgraces the judicial ermine of the United States court and masqueradeS as judge-theT have succeeded in having declared the registration law unconstitutional, null and void.
 "The chief argument made before him was the defamation of your state. and insult, if insult could come from such a source, to your state officers. Under this decree the doors have been thrown open and the ballot again placed in the hands of every man, white or black, of the age of 21 years. The abuse and islander heaped upon the state by the cOunSeI TOT the pldlnCniS was 0nlV sur passed by that of the judge in his docu- ment, styled a decree in equity. But the pity of it, the humiliation and the shame is yet to be told. Besides this Jeffries on the bench sat an old man, whose head was grey. who had fought on the field of battle for states rights, who had been speaker of the house of representatives of South Carolina and in whose handwriting part of your rcgistra- tion laws exist in our archives. There he sat, wearing alike the judicial ermine, hearing his state defamed, his comrades in arms denounced as rebels and his own handiwork adjudged a crime. If the law was a crime, was he not the crim- inal? Should his head have not been bent and his eyes moist with tears of humiliation? Alas, they were not! With a mephistophelean grin on his wrinkled face, he nodded assent to the most infamous document ever emanat- ing from a court in equity, while the black audience exclaimed: "A Daniel has come to judgment; yea, Daniel
 'The eX-Senator, who has been holding caucuses in Columbia at private houses, having the ear of the court and holding the foot of the chancellor returned to his home feeling that his movements had not been detected, but the responsi- bility shall rest where it belongs. Let the people not blame the poor. lean and hungry counsel, who are barking mere- ly for bone, but visit the sin upon the heads of the arch conspirators.
 "A crisis confronts us, an issue has been thrust upon us without our will or con sent at time when peace was lowering over the state. South Carolina is enjoy ing an era of industrial improvement, factories are being built in greater num- Der than elsewhere in the south The credit of the state ranks higher than ever in its history, our bonds not being pur- chasble at a premium of less than 10 per cent. The march of progress is about to be stopped; the black pail of negro domination hovers over us; we must meet the issue like South Carolinians. There are only two flags, the white and the black. Under which will you enlist? The one, the white, peaceful flag of Anglo Saxon civilization and progress, or the other, the black flag of the debased and ignorant African with the white traitors, who seek to marshal the negroes in order to regain political power
 Tt is fortunate that the issue comes at this time, when a constitution is to be made, guaranteeing white supremacy once and forever. The constitutional convention must be controlled by white men, not white men with black hearts, nor negroes The world must be shown that we are capable of governing our selves, and that constitution or no con- stitution, law or no law, in court or out of court the intelligent white men of South Carolina intend to govern her Let the man who undertakes to lead the ignorant blacks against you suffer as he did in 1876, and remember that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
 'I will not call the legislature to- gether. They could do nothing. An ap- peal will be taken to the supreme court of the United States, but under the red tape and technicalities surrounding it decision cannot be had in time to affect the election of delegates It must be a free, open fight. I appeal to the sover- eign people of South Carolina, the wisest and safest and purest tribunal, to pro tect their homes and liberties. They have never failed to respond to duty. The government of the people must and shall be perpetuated, and we are ready to lead the fight under the white mans flag. Your obedient servant,
 JOHN GARY EVANS,