The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-05-16

SIlOWs HSuCIdl OoIuSS L INC "oo
sent by President Grant in 1872 and
1873 to investigate and report the
status of affairs in the South. He
made a report and afterwards wrote
a book, entitled, "The PROSTATE
State" In speaking of the officials
then in power he says:
1It is the dregs Of the population
habilitated in the robes Of their in
telligent predecessors, and asserting
over them the rule of ignorance and
corruption through the inexorable
machinery of majority of num-
bers. It is the barbarian over
whelming civilization by physical
force. It is the slave rioting in the
halls of his master, and putting that
Master under his feed"
"The rule of South Carolina
should not be dignified with the
name of Government. It is the in
stallation of huge system of bri-
gandage. The men who have it in
control, and who now have it in con-
troll, are the picked Williams of the
community. They are the highway
men of the State. They are pro-
fessional legislative robbers. They
are men who have studied and prac-
ticed the art of legalized theft. They
are in no sense different from, or
better than, the men who fill the
prisons and penitentiaries of the
world. They are, in fact, Of pre-
cisely that class, only more daring
and audacious. They pick your
pockets by law. They rob the poor
and the rich alike, by law. They con-
fscate your estate by law. They. do
none of these things even under the
tyrant's plea Of the public good or
the public necessity. They do all
simply to enrich themselves person
ally. The sole, base object is, to
gorge the individual with public
plunder. Having done it, they turn
around and buy immunity for their
act by sharing their gains with the
| ignorant, pauperized, besotted crowd
who have chosen them to the sta
tions they fill, and which enable
them thus to rob and plunder. It is
hybria, born of unnatural con-
nections, offensive alike to God
and man."
Parenthetically, we may remark
that the civilization of the South,
would have been destroyed, and we
would have sunk to the level OF
Mexico and the Antilles if it had
not been for the bravery and wisdom
of the South, in daring to organize
the Ku Klux. The mysterious work
ings of that organization frightened
the negroes, kept them indoors at
night, and checked them In their
carnival of lawlessness.
There could not be greater con-
trast between the people of the
South, when they were under the
political heel of the negro, the scala
wag and the carpet-bagger, and the
political power they now possess.
History shows that the South re-
cognized the immortality of slavery
long before it seemed to prick the
conscience of the North.
Virginia, it is well known, IN the
year 1884, ceded to the United
States then united only by. the
original Articles of Confederation.
her vast possessions northwest OF
the Ohio, from which the great
states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Min
nesota, have since been formed. In
1879, before the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, the celebrated
"Ordinance" for the government. OF
this Northwestern Territory, was
adopted by the Congress, with the
full consent, and indeed at the ex-
press instance of Virginia. This
Ordinance included six definite Ar
ticles of compact between the orlgl-
nal States and the people and States
in the said Territory" which were
to forever remain unalterable un-
less by common consent. The sixth
of these Articles ordains that there
shall be neither slavery nor involun-
tary servitude in the said Territory,
otherwise than in the punishment OF
crimes, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted"
The first bill to allow a slave-hol..
der to free his slaves was introduced
by Thomas jefferson. -.
jefferson urged that a provision
be inserted in the Declaration OF
Independence, that the slave trade
be forbidden. John Adams, of Mas
sachusetts, was opposed to such a
provision.
A committee of five Virginians-
Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe,. Mason
and Thomas Lee-was appointed to
revise the laws and prepare all
Shareholders in the State, for. the
gradual emancipation Of their slaves:
Thomas Jefferson advocated that
all shareholders free their slaves by
gradual emancipation, as soon as
possible, for, by the Missouri Com
promse, where a States right was
|interferred with by other states, ne
saw plainly that the day might
come, when sudden emancipation
would take place, and he said "hu-
man nature shuddered at the pros
pect of it." but he thanked God ne
would not be alive to see it. =,
George Washington urged the
gradual emancipation of his slaves,
and freed them by his will, and told
Thomas Jefferson he wished that all
slaves could be freed.
George Mason believed in emanci-
"a fnooJ bic c1auoa