The Daily Phoenix

Address of the Central Democratic Club to the Democratic Party of South Carolina.

Fellow-Citizens: The election for President and Vice-President of the United States is now close at hand. The great principles involved in the contest; the magnitude of the interests at stake, and the influence which this State may have on the result, make this a proper occasion to lay before you a brief address.

The tendency and purpose of the radical party, as manifested in words and acts, are the absorption of the liberty of the individual; the destruction of States; the subversion of the Constitution, and the erection upon the ruins of individual and public liberty, a grand, grinding, consolidated despotism. Already it has made rapid strides in that direction. Little, now, is left for it to do but to fuse into one mass, and then crystalize into permanent form its various acquisitions of usurped power.

Its capricious acts; its wanton cruelties; its corrupt practices; its enormous burdens you have felt and do know. Against these, and more than these, you are now called upon to continue a resolute fight with the peaceful, though potent, weapon of the ballot. The Democratic party here and everywhere are striking with you for the principles of liberty, and the forms of Government to which we have been accustomed, for a written Constitution, a Federal Union and a distinct existence of the States.

Surely, then, the principles of the contest are important, and the interest great. Arouse, therefore, to the magnitude of the emergency, and spare no efforts for success. When the time for registration shall come, let no man fail to appear, and none fail to vote. Let each one remember that his individual vote may decide the election in his own District, and that the electoral vote of the State may turn the scale in favor of the Democratic party.

Our people must not despond, nor relax their efforts, if there should be failures elsewhere. On the contrary, they will have reason to hope, and much to stimulate them to increased energy, for it is yet possible to win. State elections are influenced, and sometimes controlled by local issues; and it has often happened that these go one way, and in a few weeks thereafter, in the same place, the Presidential elections another. This may be the case in the present canvass; and, indeed, we have reason to hope so. Recently we have received reports from all parts of the State, which induce the belief that South Carolina, with proper effort, will be carried for Seymour and Blair. Let not the failure to do so be ascribed to you.

The canvass in which you are now engaged, is full of excitement, which will probably continue and increase to the end. We trust, therefore, that it will not be amiss to drop you a word of caution. The criminality of a few, and perhaps the indiscretion of many, have placed it in the power of malice and misrepresentation to injure us, and seriously to damage the common cause. We urge you, therefore, not only to prevent violence, but to abstain from the appearance of it. We are dealing with a false and subtle foe—prolific in inventions and venomous in purpose—a foe who fully understands the temporary profit of a nimble lie, which too often achieves its end before the truth can even buckle on her armor.

We need not urge upon you the policy and the duty of treating, with great kindness and forbearance, the colored population of the State. This you have ever done, and will continue to do, as long as you are permitted. We have no doubt you will make manifest the untruth of the malicious charge, that by force you have compelled their votes or by intimidation kept them from the polls. Their minds are rapidly opening to the truth that the vagrant white man from the North, as well as the renegade of the South, who live by deceiving and plundering them, and who have been driving them to destruction, are not true friends, and are unworthy of confidence and support. With a fair opportunity they will return to you, as their estrangement is owing entirely to the false teachings and malignant efforts of the Northern emissary. It cannot be forgotten that the State voluntarily, in 1865, invested the colored population with every civil right; and that the Democratic party, in Convention in April last, recognized them, under the previous action of the State, as an integral element in the body politic—and expressed its willingness, when in power, to enfranchise them to the extent which the public weal and their own good might warrant.

The position then taken by the Convention, and which was announced to the people of the State and the country, is now re-affirmed.

We beg you to remember that the Democratic party of the State was not organized for the purpose merely of supporting the nominees of the party, but for higher purposes and more enduring ends. It is possible that our present leaders may be defeated, but our principles will survive. The liberty of the individual, the being and welfare of States, the Constitution of the United States and a Federal Union under it, are objects worthy of patience and enduring efforts. In the success we hope for, our organization will be most useful; and, in case of defeat, it will become essential. We, therefore, desire to impress upon you the necessity of preserving intact and in full energy the admirable organizations of the Democratic party of South Carolina.

WADE HAMPTON,
Chairman Executive Committee.
J. D. POPE,
J. P. THOMAS.
F. W. McMASTER,
W. M. SHANNON,
S. McGOWAN.
JAMES CHESNUT,
Chairman Auxiliary Committee.
T. S. FARROW.