The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-08-28
An Appeal to Reason by T. Larry CAN'T.
ARTICLE V.

notice that some of our State press
think it best that the white voters OF
South Carolina divide and organize
two political parties. In certain sec.
tions OF this country it is best for the
interests of the people that there be
two parties and the vote nearly as
equal as possible. This serves as a
check upon Office holders, and it is the
best security for an honest administra-
ton of public affairs.
When one party or faction feels it
self entrenched in power there is sure
to be corruption and extravaganza.
We have only to cite the long and al
most unbroken reign of the Republican
party in our national affairs to prove
this. And what applies to the general
government will apply with equal
force and justice to State, county and
municipal oficeholders. If public
official thinks he can obtain his Office
for long series of years, backed by the
all-powerful political machinery of his
party, there is great danger of corrup-
ton; for many men believe that there
is a difference in robbing the public
and wronging an individual, l could
cite hundreds of instances like those OF
Treasurer Polk of Tennessee and Vim
cent of Alabama, who possessed the
unbounded confidence OF their party
and betrayed their trust.
1t is certainly wrong, but there is a
tendency in all political parties and
factions to shield their members when
guilty Of wrongdoing, under the belief
that an exposure would weaken their
cause. For over three hundred years
the stability and purity of the English
government is largely due to the exis-
tence of its two political parties, the
Wings and the Tories. One party
served as guard and a check on the
other, and upon the first suspicion OF
corruption or mismanagement on the
part Of the party in power an appea! is
made TO the country, and often in a
single election, the administration OF
that great nation is reversed. New
men are placed in power, the accounts
of the defeated party are rigidly en-
amined and if anything is found wrong
| the offenders are brought to punish
ment.
But in our own State of South Caro-
| lima | do not see how we can afford to
let our white voters divide. We have
in our midst a serious menace and a
danger in that large negro population
outnumbering the whites.
It is true that under our new con-
stitution the negro is at present dis
| franchised. But the suffrage is only
a temporary makeshift, and if the
white vote is ever divided, that educa-
tional provision will not be worth the
paper it is written on. When it's pow
er and supremacy is threatened or
endangered, you will see the party or
| faction that controls our State govern
ment at the time seeking to make
terms and deal with the negro, and the
names of thousands of blacks will be
placed upon the list OF voters. There
will then be scramble for the black
vote, and you will see illiterate white
men. who do not belong to the domin-
ant faction be disfranchised, and in
their place negroes made voters. l
opposed the call OF a constitutional
convention, for / did not see how the
Democrats of South Carolina could i'm
prove on that seven-box law, and which
was all the safeguard we needed
against black ignorance.
| admit that our new constitution IS
now working like charm and the ne
gro is eliminated from politics. So
long as the white people are working
and voting together, there is no cause