The South has not entirely recovered
from the effects of the scandalous days
of reconstruction, when, keen-witted
knaves from all parts of the country
flocked hither, lusting for wealth, and
finding the ignorance of the negroes
and their gratitude for a supposed ser
vice, sympathetic strings to play upon,
bound the weeping, heart-broken,
prostrate South with the fetters of race
prejudice, and, vampire-like, sucked
her very life-blood away, until she was
the mere shadow of her former self.
But the end to all this had to come.
You can never whip a Southerner. You
may beat him into insensibility, but
as our gallant old Mart Gary once
said, "He's sure to come again, as
soon as he gets his breath."
And the time did come with us in
South Carolina in '76 and Radical
ism was swept from the South. The
blood of many of our relatives and
friends washed out the last of the stains
left by the plunderers, and no such con
dition as existed prior to 1876 can
ever possibly be brought about here
again under any combination ot cir
stances. Our chivalry would all have
to be obliterated.
But the negro realizes all this, and
it is therefore needless to recall the
memories of those stormy days.
At the same time, as I have already
said before, we owe him educational
facilities, and we should give them,
and with a good grace, too. That he"
can avail himself of them will be am-!
ply evidenced by the showing which
will be made here in his department.
