CV>a A<ts^a^ . ^ <^ , '®74 
 
Class. 
 Book. 
 
 h "^'rj 4 
 
 L3 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 The Gonditioii and the Prospects of the State. 
 
 CONFISCATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY AND REPUDIATION OF 
 THE PUBLIC DEBT. 
 
 '' COLONEL RICHARD LATHERS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFOKE THE 
 
 NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON, 
 
 ON FOREFATHERS' DAY, DECEMBER 22, 1873. 
 
 ' Charleston, S. C. 
 The Jfews and Courier Job Presses. 
 
 1874' 
 
<^5 
 
NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
 This Speech has been reprinted by request, to supply a large demand 
 from our Northern friends and sympathizers of all political parties in 
 the interest of honest government, as well as for the use of the active young 
 men of our own State, desiring to circulate for consideration any practical 
 plan of relief against corruption and fraud in South Carolina, the spreading 
 and contagious influence of which is becoming a source of profound alarm 
 to all thoughtful men, both in and out of the State, because these frauds 
 and corruptions are rapidly invading other States, and even the Capital of 
 our National Government itself, by the force of example and the security 
 and success with which these thieves and public robbers have been able to 
 defy the attempted political reforms of a disfranchised people. It is now 
 felt all over the Union that this State is suffering under every political evil 
 which fraud, supported by ignorance, can perpetrate. 
 
 The people's credit has been pledged for loans of money, which the mem- 
 bers of the Legislature and their instruments have appropriated to them- 
 selves for private and corrupt purposes. Creditors have been defrauded by 
 large issues of bonds, without even the form of law, and with unblushing 
 effrontery, the Legislature has not hesitated to acknowledge the fraud by 
 repudiating obligations negotiated by themselves, but they have humiliated 
 tlie State by repudiating, also, the Bonds of the State, issued by their honest 
 predecessors, for funds honestly loaned, on the good faith of the State, and 
 honestly applied for public purposes. 
 
 All other sources of public plunder being cut off, by the general exposure 
 of their frauds, they now resort to practical confiscation, by an oppressive 
 form and amount of taxation, as indicated by the alarming frequency and 
 number of tax sales of even productive land, because the owners are no 
 longer able to keep pace with these exactions. 
 
 We are, therefore, under great obligations to the Northern press for their 
 hearty and friendly sjnnpathy expressed in their editorials, and the general 
 endorsement of the objects of this speech, as well as tlie advantage of their 
 courtesy in spreading it in part, or in whole, before the readers of their 
 widely circulated journals, by which our grievances can be made known to 
 our fellow countrj'men of the whole Union. And particularly we desire to 
 accord thanks to the Boston Post, New York Commercial Advertiser, 
 New York Tribune, New York Post, Philadelphia Ledger, Balti- 
 more Sun, and the New York World, from which last the following 
 hearty endorsement is taken : 
 
 " A HOPE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 " Colonel Lathers is well known for a staunch Democrat and an honest 
 man. But the address which he recentl}^ delivered before the New England 
 Society, of Charleston, shows that he is. moreover, a clear-headed, thorough- 
 going foe of dishonesty. And the people of South Carolina would do well to 
 
folloiD Up vigorously the course of action which he urges them to adopt. The 
 ballot-box is not the place to secure reform in the affairs of South Carolina ; 
 and until the ring of thieves and carpet-baggers who control the negro vote 
 is broken up, it will only be the place for consummating Radical schemes 
 for plundering the taxpayers. If it were once understood that open thieve- 
 ry in public offices would be followed by inevitable and relentless prosecu- 
 tion, the thief would soon be turned aside from running for office. And if 
 the thief were once turned aside from running for office, candidates for office 
 in South Carolina Avould soon learn to attach a stricter meaning than manj^ 
 of them now attach to the words they use in making promises to the peo- 
 ple. Retrenchment and ec(niomy, at least, could hardly continue to be in- 
 terpreted to mean increased taxation, as they are now interpreted by the 
 Radical Governor, Moses, and by the Radical Legislature, which, along 
 with Moses, was elected to office upon the most loud-mouthed promises of 
 retrenchment and economy. But the taxpayers cannot or will not see any- 
 thing good in jVIoses's policy of retrenching and increasing the taxes every 
 year ; and however difficult it may prove to inaugurate the course urged 
 by Colonel Lathers, they will hardly be adverse to acting upon his advice 
 wiienever it is possible to do so. And the opportunities for acting upon it 
 will not be wanting. Resolution and persistence, patience to abide the time for 
 striking, and promptness ichen the time arrives for striking at a public thief 
 with the hlunted weapons of the law, inay acrmnpUsh unexpected wonders for the 
 outraged people of this unliappy Stater — New York World. 
 
 In this connection, we desii-e, also, to thank the journals of our own 
 State, for their earnest and hearty support in this movement for effective 
 reform. 
 
soxjth: Cj^E^OLiisr^. 
 
 The Conditioii and the Prospects of the State. 
 
 CONFISCATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY AND REPUDIATION OF 
 THE PUBLIC DEBT. 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 COLOJVEL RICHARD LATHERS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY 
 
 OF CHARLESTON, ON FOREFATHERS' DAY, 
 
 DECEMBER 22, 1873. 
 
 [Reported for the News and Courier.] 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemeti of the New England Society : 
 
 I thank you for the kind expressions of your toast and its 
 complimentary reception, and in response to this valued expres- 
 sion of so much good feeling from my New England friends of 
 Charleston, I can only promise to try to deserve their confidence 
 by a ready and zealous co-operation with them at all times in 
 any practical measures for the development of the resources of 
 our old City and beloved State, and for the suppression of the 
 fraud and corruption in the administration of our public affairs, 
 which is so detrimental to their enterprise and industry, and cei'- 
 tainly derogatory to their manhood as American citizens descend- 
 ing from the Pilgrim Fathers, whose distinguished resistance to 
 misrule and oppression, and whose love of local self-government 
 and official honesty, have been so graphically laid before us to- 
 night by the reverend gentleman who has just so eloquently ad- 
 dressed us in behalf of their patriotic example. 
 
These festive occasions of our different societies, especially 
 those marking diiferent nationalities, sections, or races, serve to 
 exhibit not only the intrinsic force of human affection for its 
 own stock and a well cherished love for the place of one's nativi- 
 ty, but they keep alive that distinctness of habit and association, 
 and measurably the principles and practices which distinguish 
 them as a people. When these qualities are kept within proper 
 limits, in full harmony with the best interests of the community 
 in which they live, they are fraught with much good, and mu- 
 tually encourage a spirit of broad patriotism, and demonstrate 
 that measure of harmony which may spring from such a Mosaic 
 of national diffei-ences — jiroducing as it has the highest type of 
 civilized manhood in this our great nation. One prejudice seems 
 to qualify another, till prominency is only given to those great 
 catholic truths and principles which are evolved by fair and gen- 
 eral discussion. It was Avell said by Jefferson that error was not 
 dangerous while truth was left free to combat it. Nor is misrule 
 long tolerated in any free community where individuals are will- 
 ing to co-operate for reform. The " cohesive power of public 
 plunder" is but a rope of sand when the community determines 
 to test its power by an honest, earnest and unanimous effort to 
 break it. Social and political sham soon gives Avay to that form 
 of individual manhood which practically asserts itself regardless 
 of the prejudice of age, station, or political domination. Each 
 citizen plays his owni part; but in harmony Avith the interest of 
 the community, the rays, so to speak, are angular; but they all 
 converge to the great centre. The best musical productions are 
 not rendered by one instrument only, however sweet or power- 
 ful, nor by having all the instruments sounding the same notes, 
 but by a great variety of instruments j^laying a great variety of 
 notes, harmoniously rendering the strains of the composer. So, 
 too, native and foreign born, white and colored, Republican and 
 Democrat, all viewing the public interest from different stand- 
 points, and perhaps with antagonistic interests in many of the 
 (juestions agitated, yet as good citizens they must harmonize for 
 that which concerns them all alike, viz: an honest discharge of 
 ])ublic duty and official integrity; and a general co-operation of 
 individual effort to this end has never failed in any community. 
 Harmony and good government is, therefore, not the product of 
 
7 
 
 unanimity of sentiment, predominiuice of race, section or reli- 
 gion, but that no one element shall assume undue influence, and 
 that every individual shall exercise the right and duty of public 
 action, restricted only by a proper subordination to tlie rights 
 and sentiments of others whose interests are as important as his 
 own. 
 
 Statesmen have sought in vain for a unity of power and senti- 
 ment by which to harmonize political interests, but with all the 
 defects incident to universal sufli"rage and the warring elements 
 of individual selfishness, yet defective, as we must admit them to 
 be. Democratic institutions, in their broadest sense, form the 
 safest, as well as the broadest, foundation for national freedom, 
 the rights of property and individual liberty. It is the criminal 
 neglect of individuals to perform their public duties, which our 
 form of government implies, when these duties devolve on the 
 people, wdiicli intensifies, if it does not produce, the evils peculiar 
 to a Democracy; and it is feared by many of the friends of the 
 South that nothing will reform those evils but that culmination 
 of corruption and misrule in this State, which will bring home to 
 every individual personal losses which cannot be resisted, and 
 which wdll induce at least earnest and co-operative individual 
 energy to eradicate the evil. Old age for counsel, and youth for 
 action; but old age should be wise and practical, and youth 
 should be thoughtful as well as active, and both should be im- 
 pressed with a sense of their individual responsibility in tolerat- 
 ing a form or practice of government which virtually deprives 
 themselves and their families of their rights as American citizens, 
 as well as the hard-earned product of their honest industry. 
 
 It seems to me that our young men do not suflliciently appre- 
 ciate their own abilities and qualifications, and their own respon- 
 sibilities, in this connection. Especially at this time they are 
 peculiarly fitted for the direction and even moulding of public 
 affairs. Older men, whose tastes, habits and privileges were 
 formed and established under other and more genial circum- 
 stances, can hardly be expected to conform willingly to the hard 
 conditions which now confronts them; nor can they be expected 
 to co-operate fully with the necessary measures wliich the result 
 (jf the war forces, practically, on the people of the South. 
 Whether these radical changes in the policy of our country are 
 
the root of all the evils which we suffer under is not so important 
 to determine, as whether these evils can be cured by a prompt 
 conformity to the changes; and certainly the past four years 
 have demonstrated that a prompter and fuller acceptance and 
 conformity to the new relations in which we found ourselves 
 Avould have greatly modified, if not cui'ed, the evils under which 
 we suffer. Men, Mr. President, of our age, are passing away, and 
 the young men have duties to themselves and their families to 
 perform as citizens, whose future is to be made for themselves. 
 Nay, more: — aay amelioration they can produce now is due from 
 them to the older members of the community in consideration of 
 the advantages which they have inherited, and while every re- 
 spect should be paid to age and experience, yet practical wisdom 
 is often found in young men whose opportunities, and even neces- 
 sities, point to measures of relief. A naval friend furnishes me 
 with an illustration of this principle: An old, perhaps superan- 
 nuated, officer taunted a younger one with not fully respecting 
 his experience in reference to some duty, which modern naval 
 science had somcAvhat modified; but the younger officer, having 
 accomplished the service, according to the modern process, re- 
 plied, " I do respect your venerable age and experience, but I 
 cannot value them above my own practical knowledge, without 
 failing in my professional duty." 
 
 I would now occupy your attention, a few moments, with the 
 encouraging features of the mercantile prosperity of our city, 
 hoping that our business men will take courage in the steady 
 and substantial advance which their industry, economy and en- 
 terprise have produced in the way of accunuilated capital and 
 increased resources for future earnings — comparing favorably 
 with any city in the Union whose business has been confined to 
 legitimate operations, and far exceeding the most sanguine ex- 
 pectations of our best friends. 
 
 It will be remembered that before the war Charleston had an 
 invested capital in Banks and Insurance Companies of about 
 115,000,000, which, with the capitals of the merchants and the 
 accumulations of her retired citizens and others, were totally 
 destroyed, and a large part of the residences, stores, and appli- 
 ances of business; and domestic comfort and railway connections 
 were 2)rincipally destroyed or rendered useless, paralyzing the 
 
9 
 
 energies of the people and almost defying the labors of the most 
 hopeful and energetic. Yet, under these discouraging circum- 
 stances, see what courage, economy and industry have produced 
 in about eight years, in actual accumulation of capital, and 
 what, perhaps, is still better, the enormously increased facilities 
 for earning capital and in fostering enterprise in our old city: 
 
 1865, • 1873. 
 
 ►Bank Capital $200,000 $4,000,000 
 
 Bank Deposits 200,000 2,750,000 
 
 Phosphate Companies' Capital 4,000,000 
 
 This table does not include the private bankei's, manufactures, 
 and mercantile capital, so largely accumulated during this period 
 from the industry and enterprise of the individuals who have so 
 largely developed the mercantile resources of the city, while so 
 worthily enriching themselves by the following resources of their 
 business: 
 
 1865. 1873. 
 
 Cotton receipts 111,714 bales 386,128 bales. 
 
 Rice 4,019 tcs. 48,943 tcs. 
 
 Naval Stores 32,136 bbls. 225,683 bbls. 
 
 Lumber 8,389,171 feet. 20,749,280 feet. 
 
 Vegetables 101,629 pkgs. 
 
 Phosphates 7,884 tons. 56,298 tons. 
 
 To show the steady increase in the receipts of Cotton at 
 Charleston, I give the receipts from September 1st to December 
 20th in each year, from 1865 to 1873. The period is less than 
 four months in each year, yet the receipts have swollen from less 
 than 40,000 bales in 1865, to 208,674 bales in the present year. 
 The full table is as follows: 
 
 In 1865 bales. .39,882 
 
 In 1866 59,222 
 
 In 1867 98,106 
 
 In 1868 78,807 
 
 In 1869 121,335 
 
 In 1870 187,353 
 
 In 1871 147,261 
 
 In 1872 187,837 
 
 In 1873 208,674 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 The ships now in Charleston harbor, loading for foreign and 
 domestic ports, with Cotton, Rice, Phosphates, Naval Stores and 
 Lnniber, are greater in number and tonnage than at any former 
 period before the war. 
 
 The fleet of square-rigged vessels and steamers, bearing the 
 IJritish, German, French, and Spanish flags, indicate the impor- 
 tance of our staples in the international trade of our country, and 
 the important part which our old City by the Sea is destined to 
 take in it depends mainly on the merchants and citizens them- 
 selves, not only in developing the commercial and industrial re- 
 sources of our State, but in effectively reforming every public 
 abuse i« the State or City Governments which tends to burden 
 its industry and commerce. 
 
 Charleston now receives over one-tenth of the cotton crop, and 
 sells, through her own factors, most of it; while many other large 
 receiving ports simply pass the Cotton througli the forwarders' 
 hands to be sold in Northern ports or Europe, The jobbing 
 trade of the city readies seven or eight millions of dollars, while 
 the machinery, manufactures, and other industrial and ])rotitable 
 pursuits aggregate large annual incomes in the way of wages, 
 and productive in the way of accumulated capital. These figures 
 I have hastily compiled from the columns of The News and 
 Courier, whose valuable statistics and zealous and intelligent 
 suggestions connected Avith the commerce and interests of our 
 city deserve the highest commendation. They are adduced only 
 to show the extraordinary increase of the resources and capital of 
 our business men during the past eight years, by no means ex- 
 hausting the sources on which we can rel}'^, but only quoted to 
 compare a few of the more prominent features of success, to en- 
 courage our young men to increased efforts of business industry 
 and enterprise, and to stimulate them to protect such advantages 
 for themselves and their children against the wholesale frauds 
 which so terribly menace not only their business advantages, but 
 their dignity as men. These frauds to which I now call your 
 attention are not the evils wholly of a perverted political theory, 
 nor are they confined to race, color, or section, nor can they be 
 practically dealt with by referring to past issues or corrected by 
 so-called great political reforms, which too often is but the sub- 
 stitute of one form of fraud for another, and the acceptance of a 
 
11 
 
 renegade candidate from one party to the other, after exhausting- 
 the patience as well as the purse of those he left. These frauds 
 against the people ot the State, reaching as it does every indi- 
 vidual, white or black, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican, 
 native or foreign born, merchant or clerk, planter or laborei-, 
 mechanic or professional man, each and all of these are reached 
 by taxation — and the poor in greater ratio (according to their 
 means) than the rich. It has been well said that "Taxes and 
 death are the common heritage of all men." I propose, there- 
 fore, to lay before you a few of your burdens, which these frauds 
 put upon you, by a comparison between an honest discharge of 
 public duties in the State under a former period and the dishon- 
 est administration of the present period. 
 
 The taxable property of tlie State before the war. . .|i490,000,000 
 
 The taxable property of the State now 1 70,000,000 
 
 The highest tax ever levied before the war did not 
 
 average over 500,000 
 
 The tax now levied 2,720,000 
 
 Legislative expenses before the war 40,000 
 
 Legislative expenses this year 291, .3.39 
 
 Public Printing before the war (under) . 5,000 
 
 Public Printing this year o31,945 
 
 So you perceive that while the capital of the State, be- 
 fore the war, reached, at a very low valuation, nearly 
 $500,000,000, the taxes on the same did not reach |!500,000. 
 The present exaggerated valuation of tlie taxable projierty 
 is only about one-third of the former amount, the taxes on 
 the same are nearly five-fold; and the printing bills of the 
 Legislature, for a learned and intelligent body of men, falling 
 under 4!5,000 per annum before the war, are increased now to 
 |;);31,945, leaving yet unpaid, I understand, 1118,055 more for 
 this item for a Legislature, many of whom cannot read the print- 
 ing which they tax our labor so heavily to pay — so that the tw o 
 printing bills alone of the present State Government actually 
 exceed tlie average yearly taxation of the State before the war 
 in any period of ten years. I do not propose, on this festive oc- 
 casion to trouble you further with details of this sickening char- 
 
 y/ 
 
12 
 
 acter. You have only to read the clear and indignant protests 
 of the honest portion of even the Radical party itself on this 
 subject. The speeches of a distinguished member of the Senate 
 of this State, during the last Presidential canvass, denunciatory 
 of these glaring frauds, and the promise of reform on the }>art 
 of the prominent State candidates, with full acknowledgment of 
 the rottenness of our State finances and the corruptions of most 
 of our Stale officials and agents, are confessions more convincing 
 than any details which I can at present furnish. I know that the 
 whole North, including the extremest element of the Republican 
 party, are shocked and disgusted with the unblushing frauds of 
 the ruling party of this State. I know that every decent col- 
 ored man of intelligence, in or out of the State, feels the degra- 
 dation of being coupled with miscreants of so disgraceful a char- 
 acter, and I know that whatever may be feared to the contrary, 
 that an active and zealous movement on the part of the honest 
 people of the State will rapidly find itself supported by large 
 majorities in every County, and of every shade of political creed, 
 color, or section. Let us form " Granges " for the overthrow of 
 fraud; Western Granges have been formed to resist extravagant 
 railroad charges on their produce; let the Lodges in every Coun- 
 ty in the State be organized, disregarding party lines, color, or 
 place of birth ; let each member pledge himself to abstain from 
 accepting any office for two years, so that the dangerous leaven 
 of office-seeking may not aftect their usefulness or seduce their 
 honesty; let funds be raised by contributions derived from a 
 small percentage on each person's last general tax, and i^rocure 
 the co-operation of the legal talent of the State in vigorous and 
 searching prosecutions against every official, past or present, 
 against whom evidence can be j^rocured, and test the honesty of 
 every Judge by arraying the thieves before him. I have but 
 little misgivings of the most doubtful of them when confronted 
 by the whole power of the intelligent and honest bar of the 
 State, and the publicity which we should be able to give every 
 trial, in the face of the sympathizing press of the country. We 
 have the full sympathy of the whole press of all parties in every 
 Northern State in the Union, and I believe that the sympathy of 
 the Administration of the Federal Government would be with us 
 in an honest movement for relorm of this kind, conducted, as it 
 
13 
 
 should be free of party bias. Tlie example of the City of New 
 Yoik should encourage us. The Penitentiary can be as surely 
 the end of the public robbers of this State as that of the wealthy 
 and popular Tweed. We have as patriotic and astute lawyers to 
 volunteer their services as they had in New York, and no Judge 
 here can be more corrupt than Bai'nard, who fixed the bail of the 
 first culprit brought before him at |1, 000,000. 
 
 The arrest and indictment of even one of the leaders of this 
 ring, and the seizure of the property which he has stolen from 
 the State, followed by a zealous and searching examination of 
 witnesses, including documentary evidence, so accessible in the 
 official records and in the public speeches of many of the more 
 honest members of the Legislature, exposing these frauds, will 
 lead to developments criminating others, as was the case in the 
 ring investigations in New York, which will drive the culprits 
 from the State, many of whom will be desirous to turn State's 
 evidence, as the thieves did there, hoping to purge their own 
 fi*auds by aiding the public in the conviction of others. It is the 
 want of practical measures against fraud which has so fearfully 
 developed it. A want of co-operation and that stern persist- 
 ence which evidences public duty, even at the expense of some 
 personal inconvenience. Surely the bravery which carried thou- 
 sands to the field to defend an honest but hopeless sentiment or 
 theory of government is not to be found wanting in measures of 
 far more importance, practically coming home to every man's 
 fireside and his sense of manhood. Shall a set of thieves deprive 
 honest citizens of their rights and property for want of co-opera- 
 tion in the simple remedies which all civilized people have 
 through their Criminal Courts ? You have found political reme- 
 dies unsuccessful, because suffrage is not the cure for fraud. Let 
 us try the remedy which counteracts the disease. Thieves are 
 not to be punished by merely excluding them from office, but by 
 efforts to send them to the Penitentiary, and by wresting from 
 them their ill-gotten gains. They have protected their friends 
 and themselves by l^arty supremacy. Let us try to overthrow 
 them by an appeal to the justice of the State and the underlying 
 honesty which, I believe, will respond, when that issue is made 
 pure and simple, and supported with zeal by every honest man 
 who loves the privileges which an honest administration would 
 insure them in the Palmetto State. 
 
14 
 
 A league of this kind would furnish a basis to support the Con- 
 servative and honest element in the Legislature, and would also 
 become the nucleus around which the honest co-operation of all 
 parties in the State could assemble, and Avould form a barrier 
 against legislative or even judicial corruption, while it would 
 also become a firm defence to sustain an honest discharge of judi- 
 cial duties against legislative or official interference. I believe 
 our Judges have needed at times moral support of this kind, and 
 while I cannot coincide with some of them in the policy of procur- 
 ing certificates of the justice and honesty of their official course, 
 yet I believe that much of this questionable reputation grows 
 out of the weakness of their position, and their want of that in- 
 dependence, without which the efficiency of the Bench is greatly 
 impaired. A Judge who can regard himself safe against legis- 
 lative interference, and finds himself confronted by an honest 
 and powerful bar, supported by a legion of honest and prominent 
 citizens, demanding justice against public robbers, would hardly 
 have the temerity to refuse it, and that, too, in the face of the 
 powerful press of this nation, and the just indignation and dis- 
 gust of the honest men of his own party in all sections of the 
 Union. A single meeting of Taxpayers in Columbia, in 1871, 
 saved the State from an issue of 16,000,000, virtually compelling 
 the Legislature to burn the " HterUng Bonds^'' saving the State 
 from a fraudulent issue of that amount. Xovv let us try what a 
 vigorous co-operation can do in the way of prosecuting the fraud- 
 ulent individuals, and an attempt to compel them to restore the 
 money of the people. If we do not succeed in getting back the 
 stolen property, we may send them to the Penitentiary, as the 
 New York Taxpayers have succeeded in doing with Tweed, and 
 we shall certainly make it dangerous for the future practice of 
 frauds by the officials who have hitherto regarded the people of 
 the State asleep, or too much engaged in abstract political theo- 
 ries to descend to the practical grievances which is fast desti'oy- 
 ingthe best interests of the State, and seriously impairing our suc- 
 cess as a people. When Tweed was taunted with his glaring 
 frauds by some modest citizens, on the eve of his arrest, he re- 
 plied, in all the plenitude of his financial and political power, 
 and the disdain which he felt for an unorganized people, " Well, 
 what will you do about it .^" But an organized body of citizens 
 
15 
 
 answered tlie question when he found himself, with his head 
 shaved and a felon's striped garment upon him, a convict for 
 more than the probable period of his natural life. In that case, 
 the alleged corruption of the Judiciary, unlimited political and 
 financial power, succumbed to stern justice at the demand of an 
 earnest body of honest men, whose ideas of public duty over- 
 came political prejudices, and that indifference which too often 
 characterizes the suffering citizen when he despairs of co-opera- 
 tive reform. We have reached that point in the history of this 
 State which devolves on us all the rights and the duties of Caro- 
 linians and American citizens. The colored man just enfran- 
 chised from slavery — the Yankee just fresh from New England — 
 the hardy emigrant just from Europe, are here all endowed and 
 recognized by all with equal rights, and, therefore, have equal 
 responsibilities with those to the manor born. We are all un- 
 worthy of the glorious old State, which is to protect ourselves 
 and our families in future, and we are unworthy of the great 
 nation which guarantees to us the rights of freemen, if we fail to 
 protect ourselves against these frauds and corruptions which 
 practically enslave us, and, in effect, proclaim to the world our 
 imbecility. If every effort fails within the law, and fraud and 
 misrule is to mark the public counsels and the administration of 
 the State, then the unalienable rights of freemen, so well ex- 
 pressed in the Declaration of our Independence, forces upon us 
 the right of Revolution. And what freeman dare controvert this 
 last remedy of an oppressed people ? California, many years 
 ago, was infested with a band of robbers, and the law failed to- 
 tally to vindicate public justice; a Committee of Safety was at 
 last organized, and public justice was vindicated by hanging a 
 few of the leaders. It is said the balance of them took the hint, 
 and either reformed or emigrated to })laces where men were less 
 earnest. Many deplored the violation of law, but the respect and 
 esteem follows the leaders of that Committee to this day. If the 
 Ku-Klux had discriminated properly by hanging the thieves 
 which surrounded the Capital, and treated the poor colored men 
 Avith the proper consideration due to their unprotected and in- 
 offensive condition, they would have cleared the State of fraud, 
 and however irregular the remedy, the fact would have been satis- 
 factory, as an evidence how great good may spring from a small 
 
16 
 
 evil. I liope, and believe, that an earnest co-operation among 
 oiii' people will lead to a restoration of honesty in the adminis- 
 tration of public affairs through the instrumentality of the Crimi- 
 nal Courts; but should this fail, I would advise the thieves to 
 emigrate before the spirit of honest men are compelled to resort 
 to natural remedies for the protection of their rights and prop- 
 erty. 
 
THE TAXPAYERS' CONVENTION. 
 
 UNANIMOUS A(!TION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SUMMON- 
 INfi THE CONVENTION TO REASSEMBLE. 
 
 Charleston, Tuesday, January 13, 1874. 
 
 The Executive Committee of the Taxpayers' Convention met 
 to-day at the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, jxirsuant to 
 the call of the President, ITon. W. D. Porter. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by the President, and Mr. J. 
 Adger Smyth was requested to act as Secretary. A letter was 
 read from S. Y. Tapper, Esq., President of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce, enclosing the following resolution ado]>ted by that body: 
 
 Charleston Cha^iber of Commerce, } 
 Charleston, S. C, December 31, 1873. \ 
 
 At a regular meeting of this Chamber, held on the 29th 
 instant, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: 
 
 Hesolved, That in the opinion of this Chamber it is expedient 
 that the Taxpayers' C^onvention, which adjourned subject to the 
 call of the President and Executive Committee, sliould be called 
 together at an early day, to take into consideration tlie present 
 condition of the taxpayei's of the State, and that the President of 
 the Cliamber be requested to communicate tliis resolution to the 
 President of the Convention. 
 
 The letter of President Tapper also informed the Executive 
 Committee of the ap|)ointment, at the request of tlie President of 
 the Convention, of tlie following Committee from the Chamber 
 of Commerce, to meet and consult with tliem, viz: lion. (t. A. 
 Trenholm, and Messrs. Richard Lathers, F. W. Dawson, W. A, 
 AVardlaw, and J. Adger Smyth. 
 
 On motion, tliis Committee was invoked to join in the delibe- 
 rations of the Executive Committee of the Taxpayers. 
 
 General James Chesnut, the Chairman of the Executive C\im- 
 mittee, took the CMiair, and, alter a full discussion, the i'ollowing 
 Preamble and Rtsolutions, introduced by Colonel Thomas Y. 
 Simons, were unanimously adopted, and tlie Delegates from 
 Columbia were requested to make the necessary arrangements 
 for the meeting: 
 
IS 
 
 WiiEUKAS, tlie Convention of tlie Taxpayers of tlie State of 
 South ('arolina, lield in JMay, A. D. ISVl, with a view to tlie 
 protection of tlie rights of the citizens, adjourned, subject to be 
 reassembled on the call of its President and Executive Commit- 
 tee ; and, whereas, the necessities of the times, and a due regard 
 for the common welfare of all interests and classes, requires that 
 the Taxpayers of the State should again meet for counsel ; 
 therefore, 
 
 liesolved, That the Taxpayers' Convention of this State be 
 summoned and requested to reassemble in the City of Columbia, 
 on Tuesday, the 17th day of February ensuing, at twelve o'clock, 
 meridian. 
 
 Resolved, That for the purpose of enlarging the said Conven- 
 tion, the taxpayers of the State of South Carolina Avho are op- 
 posed to the frauds and corruptions which prevail, and who are 
 in favor of honest government, with exact and equal justice to 
 all, are requested to meet at the County seats of their respective 
 Counties, on the first Monday of February, ensuing, and then 
 and there elect or appoint additional delegates, equal to the repre- 
 sentation of each County in the House of Representatives of the 
 General Assembly, to represent them in the Taypayer's Conven- 
 tion of the State with a view to the security of right and the 
 prevention of wrong. 
 
 W. D. PORTER, President. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
 
 JAMES CHESNUT, Chairman. 
 JOHNSON HAGOOD. 
 THOMAS Y. SIMONS. 
 C. W. DUDLEY. 
 
 E. B. C. CASH. 
 
 F. F. WARLEY. 
 A. P. ALDRICH. 
 HENRY GOURDIN. 
 H. C. SMART. 
 WILLIAM WALLACE. 
 R. L. McCAUGHRIN. 
 T. J. GOODWYN. 
 
 J. S. WESTMORELAND. 
 A. H. DAVEGA. 
 A. B. WOODRUFF. 
 JOHN L. MANNIN(4. 
 M. L. BONIIAM. 
 A. BURT.