Year: 1868




of South Carolina. It was after,


wards referred to the Central


Executive Committee, with dis,


cretion to publish. The Commit


tee has kindly furnished US with a


copy:


The Convention Of the Demo.


cratic party of South Carolina
feels it a high and bounden duty


to speak to you candidly and ear
nestly, and with no further apollo
gy than that our intesests are to a
certain extent Identical.


You have been suddenly put in
position to- exercise certain pow
ers, the abuse Of which may re-
suit disastrously to you and to US.
1t is impossible that your present
poacer can endure, Vhether you use
1t for good or i'll. The white race
already .out-numbers you in the
South. Disease has made the
mortality among you twice what
it is among the whites, and the
rate is daily increasing. Emigra-
tion has carried off thousands of
your color to distant States, while
it already begins to fill their
places with whites from Europe.
Let, not your pride, nor yet your
pretended friends, flatter you into
the belief that you ever can or
ever will, for any length Of time,
govern the white men Of the
South. The world has never seon
such a spectacle, and its whole
history, and especially the history
of your race, gives no ground for
the anticipation. Perhaps, how
ever, you expect to attain power
by the aid of the radical party at
the North. The Almighty, in
his wisdom, (perhaps to prevent
the amalgamation of the separate
races which he created and
marked,) has implanted in every
human breast, a sentiment called
the prejudice Of race; and when
this feeling is once aroused, it is
one Of the strongest and most uni
versal passions Of our natures.
When your race was among us as
slaves, this sentiment slumbered,
and only a compassion for you
Influenced every honest heart
those among your masters-to
treat you kindly ; those who be-
lieved you wronged, to desire to
set your free. When you were
set free, compassion ceased to ex-
ist. When undue power was
given you by the radical party,
(from motives which all men ap-
preciated and despised,) prejudice
of race sprang up. The whites Of
this State endeavored to allay it
at least-by inviting you
to a course and a compromise
which would have given it moth
ing to feed upon. But their efforts
resulted in such an utter failure,
that it would be mortifying had it
not been a Christian duty to make
the effort. Every step of your
political career, so far, has cultiva-
ted this prejudice, until it now
speaks aloud in England and is al
ready rapidly changing the poll
tics of the entire North. This is
the odium which must soon prove
the death of the radical party.
1t is too strong to be resisted, be-
ing the operation of a law Of ma
ture. Do you not see it even in
your white radical friends, in
spite of their industrious efforts
to conceal it, so long as they have
use for you? Is it not apparent,
also, in the officers, and even the
very private soldiers; Of the army
whose bayonets still prop up your
power. only because they are paid
to do it? Do you fatter your
selves that your Loyal Leagues"
can prevail against it ? blood is
thicker than water" and the
league which the Almighty has
organized is one to which there
will be no traitors, when once an
issue is fairly made.


To repeat, then, as we Began !;
Your present pow er must surely
and soon pass from you. Nothing