Year: 1868

home and abroad; when you know that whatever
lerrors are committed here will be reviewed by nc
friendly eye; the duty is douby incumbent upor
you of framing constitution which will challenge
the criticism and commendation Of the most intel
jligent portion of the State.


! Believing as have said to you that you have
assembled here with proper motives; that the
constitution framed BY you will be the law under
which the people of South Carolina will live fol
years to come and occupying the position of Chief
Executive of the State, am here to give to the
. members of your body the benefit Of whatever
suggestions may occur to my mind, provided that
can do so without seeming to ntrude. My earn.
est desire is that this convention shall adopt con-
stitution which will meet with the cordial support
and approval of the white as we'll as the black
race If it be just, wise and liberal, when the
question comes upon its adoption, shall certainly
recommend my friends to vote for it. If unwise
or unjust, shall be equally free to urgets rejection.
1t is proper to say here, that in my Judgment it
was unfortunate that the election of delegates to
this convention should have been influenced by the
politics of the day. Members should have been
chosen without reference to their opinions upon
national politics. 1t was immaterial whether they
were Conservatives Radicals or Democrats. The
best men of each district without reference to an
tecedents or to present political opinions ought to
have been selected for the great purpose Of framing
constitution This was my advice to the people
of the State months ago. 1t was matter Of little
consequence who was elected as representatives Of
the State in the Senate or House of Representa-
tives of the United States, whether Radical mod
crate Republican or Democrat, as compared with
the important duty of framing constitution for a
people which was to last for years. The whites in
the State have abstained from going to the polls,
and the blacks, mainly, have been controlled by the
Radical party Although thus elected, let the
members of the convention remember thatthe con-
stituton which they adopt for the people of South
Carolina may, mall probability, be the Constitution
of the State for the next twenty years-when Radi-
cal, Republican and Democratic parties may have
passed away and others have taken their place
Anything, therefore, which savours Of a partisan
purpose incorporated in the constitution, may, in
pose, its supporters and its p1oteges.


In framing a constitution, many Improvements
may be made upon the existing laws of the land,


beg very briefly to call your attention to some Of
them. IF they are adopted, in my judgment, when
the question is presented to the people of the State
to ratfy or reject the constitution, you will be able
to command in its favor much larger vote than
was poed in the election of delegates to the con-
vention.


First. Upon the question of the elective fran
chise, desire most earnestly to recommend that





you allow every man in the State even those who
have been disfranchised under the constitutional
amendment, to exercise the right of suffrage, and
of holding Office, with the restrictions that no one
shall exercise that franchise unless he may be able
to read and write, or has a property qualification
such as youmay determine.


In voting upon the ratification of the constitu-
ton you may adopt, all registered voters will of
course be included, which WILL Of course, secure its
adoption. With the view of carrying out fully the
views of the convention, the first legislature to be
elected under the constitution, may be elected BY all
male voters over twentyone years of age, but after
qualified suffrage extending to all classes and races
be provided for in the constitution. A man who
goes to the polls after January l., 1870, whether
he be white or black, who is not able to read or
write should be excluded from the privileges of a
voter.


Representing, as you do, almost exclusively, the
colored element of South Carolina, you are not in
visible to the fact, and to the legitimate results,
that very many of the voters who have sent you
here have not that intelligence with reference to
men and measures which should entitle them to
cast vote. You know that thousands Of them
are utterly incompetent to exercise this high pre-
rogative.


You may think that to perpetuate your power
and to preserve your organization, it is necessary
to continue the franchise to this class Of persons,
but eventually youwil find that you have been sad
ly mistaken. Many of the colored men of the State
have on intelligence which entities them, in their
new relations, to the privileges of citizens; but
very many are incompetent to exercise them with
discretion or judgment. These will become the
prey of evil, vicious and bad disposed men. When
an election is to occur with such voters, the bad
will get their voters and not the good


IL n IL Il. Il ,,1oS,n
have a large majority in this State, and that the
bulk Of them are to be controlled by these evil In
fuences, what kind of judges, legislators and exc
cutiye officers can YOU hope for? Is vice and ig-
norance to elect your judges? Are the representa-.
tives of vice andgnorance to elect your legislators!
If so, what security have you for the rights of life,
liberty and property? I, therefore, in view of the
responsibility before U.S. and in all probability in
antagonism to the sentiments of very large ma
jority of this body, recommend earnestly that in
framing that feature Of the constitution comforting
the elective franchise, you establish an educational
qualification for the voter, but-not being able to
read or write-that you establish property quail
fcation.


Second If you desire that this convention should
commend itself to the favorable consideration of
the people of the State, white and coored, re-
commend that you adopt in the constitution pro-
vision for a liberal homestead law-that you make
it applicable to all thosew own homestead, and
protect them against antecedent debts. The dis
asters resulting from the war, the abolition OF sa
very, and thereby, the wiping out of the fortunes
Of very many of those who were wealthy prior to
the war, as matter Of humanity, demands that
you should protect them, as to hepast, bya liberal
homestead law, and securing that home to its own
er in the future. The homestead law which guar
antees to family fifty dollars or one hundred acres
in the country, and town lot or house in the city,
is not only humane but patriotic. In the country,
where the head of family knows that his home
stead is protected he goes to work to beautly and
adorn the same. He plants his orchard and his
vineyard. He erects his buildings, dccoratcs his
dwelling, and makes all of his surroundings COM
Portable, and invites happiness and content to his
hearth.


Perhaps one of the greatest troubles in American
legislation has been in not protecting the home
stead. 1t has made the American people almost
as great wanderers as the Arabs. When father
planted an orchard or vineyard he had no assu-
rance that five years thereafter the result of his
care and labor would not pass into the hands OF
strangers Grant, therefore, liberal homestead
law, providing against past and future debts, SO
that the white man who has his home now, and
the black man who may secure home by indus
try and economy, hereafter can feel that 1t is Sc
cured to him, and you will find, not only an in
crease in the prosperity and happiness of the State,
but YOU will stimulate a patriotism which has not
heretofore existed. Wherever you identify man
and his household with the soil upon which he
lives YOU make that man, if from no higher con-
siderations of love of country defender OF the
country when it is assailed because the assault IS
,no, BIC pdiyiduol housphoId