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 SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 DeKvcrcd before the Republican Mass Meeting at Spartanburg, S. (I, October 17, 1876. 
 
 COLUMBIA, Ss<$^ ** **%\ 
 
 SUNDAY HERALD BO^K AND JOB OFFICER 
 
 90hw M n 
 
 1877. 
 
A. D D R E S S 
 
 OF 
 
 
 OF 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 Delivered before the Republican Mass Meeting- at Spartanburg, S. ft, October 17, 1876. 
 
 COLUMBIA, S. C: 
 
 PRINTED AT SUNDAY HERALD BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 
 
 1877. 
 
j 
 
 DEC 2 3 1944 
 
 SOURCE UNKNOWN 
 
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION— 1870 
 
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 5 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of the State of South Carolina : 
 Lord Brougham has said "until time shall be no more will 
 a test of the progress which mankind has made in wisdom 
 and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the 
 immortal name of Washington." My countrymen, the name 
 of Washington stands like a Colossus upon the pages of his- 
 tory — the "Father of his Country," the Cincinnatus of 
 the west, who led his countrymen to victory and a nation to 
 glory. Heedless of his voice of admonitory and paternal 
 wisdom, the fierce strife of bitter sectionalism and disjunctive 
 provincialism has brought woes unnumbered upon our once 
 happy country, has crimsoned our land with the blood of 
 thousands untimely slain, and has cast the dismal glare of 
 barbarism over the face of fair America. In his farewell 
 address to his countrymen our noble Washington said: "It 
 will be worthy of a free and enlightened and, at no distant 
 period, a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous 
 and too novel example of a people always guided by an 
 exalted justice and benevolence." Again he said : " I have 
 labored to discourage all kinds of local attachments and dis- 
 tinctions of country by denominating the whole by the greater 
 name of American." Oblivious of those ideas of "exalted 
 justice and benevolence," forgetting the very name of 
 "American" citizen, the attempt was made to trample in the 
 dust the flag of our country, to tear into shreds its noble 
 history, and to establish upon a corner stone of human slavery 
 a southern sectional confederacy. For four long and bloody 
 years, on more than a score of battle fields, did I strive to 
 strike down the flag of my country, but there it floats still, 
 
4 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 
 
 the star spangled banner, over the land of the free and the 
 home of the brave, and I thank God that I am here to-day 
 to declare to you, my countrymen, that never again will I 
 essay to strike with uplifted hand that noble ensign of free- 
 dom. I thank God that I am here to-day to re-echo the 
 words of that noble soldier General Robert E. Lee. Here 
 are his words: "Secession is anarchy. If I owned the four 
 million of slaves in the south, I would cheerfully emancipate 
 them all to save the union." 
 
 My countrymen, I come before you at a time when there 
 are indications that dire calamities may again fall upon us; 
 when the whole air seems bristling with savage threats; 
 when the tramp of armed men seems to be resounding 
 throughout our commonwealth. I would to God that this 
 angry strife may cease, that this semblance of war may vanish 
 and that arras in the hands of civilians may be thrown into 
 the middle of the ocean. I would that by fair and temperate 
 discussion the truth may be evolved in regard to the mighty 
 political issues now before the people. I would that these 
 noble words of Louis XIV to the Dauphin of France might 
 be emblazoned in golden characters upon the sky above us, so 
 that all might read and ponder them : " My son, do not follow 
 my example with regard to war; endeavor to live in peace 
 with your neighbors; follow always the most moderate coun- 
 sels; endeavor to reduce the taxes; these are my last words; 
 let them sink deep into your mind; remember that kings die 
 like other men." 
 
 To enable us properly to discuss and consider the political 
 issues now before the people, it is necessary that we recur to 
 the past. We must recollect that gloom, desolation, decay 
 and death await those who ignore the past. We must study 
 it. We must listen to its voice. We must remember that it 
 is full of instruction and power, and that it is neither lightly 
 to be disregarded nor arbitrarily dealt with. 
 
 Now, what were the causes of our late war? In the lan- 
 guage of Dr. Francis Lieber, I would answer, slavery, states 
 rights doctrine and southern jealousy at northern progress. 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 5 
 
 The congress of the confederate states declared that because 
 of the election by the people of the United States "of a 
 president and vice-president hostile to the south and her insti- 
 tutions the southern states withdrew from the union." " Her 
 institutions," in the plural, means of course the one institu- 
 tion of slavery, for the south was characterized by no other 
 institution. Vice-President Stevens declared that slaverv 
 was a social, moral and political benefit, and that the southern 
 confederacy was founded upon the corner stone of slavery. 
 The Saviour of the world, in his sermon on the mount, 
 speaks of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand: 
 "And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds 
 blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the 
 fall of it." The slaves in the southern statt-s were held by a 
 tenure of force. Blackstone says that capture in war cannot 
 reduce a person to slavery and make him property, and that 
 a tenure by force gives no right of property in a human 
 being. White men and white women were bought and sold 
 by the Turks in Constantinople and in modern Barbary, and 
 yet they were not property. We know, as a historical fact, 
 that James Madison, that great and good man, a leading 
 member in the federal convention, was solicitous to guard the 
 language of the constitution of the United States so as not to 
 convey the idea that there could be property in man. What 
 says that great philosopher and legal writer, Dr. Francis 
 Lieber? "The idea of making a man a slave, that is of 
 subjecting all he has and is to the disposal of a master, who 
 is not bound on his part to render anything in return, is at 
 war with the first principles of bodies politic. Slavery can 
 never be a legal relation. It rests entirely on force." When 
 the southern confederacy was being founded upon that corner 
 stone of slavery what was the opinion of the civilized world ; 
 what was the opinion of the fathers of our glorious republic 
 in reference to it? In the fifteenth century the parliament 
 of Toulouse declared that every man who entered the king- 
 dom of France should become free. In the sixteenth century 
 the court of King's bench in England declared to the same 
 effect. The foremost minds in America were opposed to it. 
 
6 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 
 
 Hear what that noble patriot George Washington, the first 
 president of the United States, said in reference to it: "There 
 is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than 1 do to 
 see a plan adopted for ihe abolition of slavery." John 
 Adams, the second president of the United Slates, said: "I 
 have held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence that I 
 have never owned a negro or any other slave." Hear what 
 Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, 
 said: " With what execration should the statesman be loaded 
 who permits one-half of the citizens to trample on the rights of 
 the other, transforming one-half into despots and the other 
 into enemies, destroying the morals of the one part and the 
 love of country of the other." James Madison, the fourth 
 president of the United States, said: "We have seen the 
 mere distinction of color made a ground of the most oppres- 
 sive dominion ever exercised by man over man." The views 
 entertained by James Monroe, the fifth president of the 
 United States, and by John Quincy Adams, the sixth presi- 
 dent of the United States, were all in opposition to slavery. 
 Major-Geueral Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the 
 United States, in his address to the men of color on the 18th 
 of December, 1814, at New Orleans, said: "Soldiers, from 
 the shores of Mobile I collected you to arms. I invited you 
 to share the perils and divide the glory of your white coun- 
 trymen. I expected much from you. I knew that you 
 loved the land of your nativity and that, like ourselves, you 
 had to defend all that is most dear to man. But you surpass 
 mv hopes. I have found in you that noble enthusiasm which 
 impels to great deeds." That noble general, the Marquis de 
 LaFayette, who came from the shores of France to aid our 
 country in the struggle for independence, said: "I would 
 never have drawn my sword in the cause of America could I 
 have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery." 
 Such, my countrymen, were the opinions of the noblest 
 patriots this world has ever produced in reference to slavery, 
 that corner stone upon which the southern confederacy was 
 founded. Mr. Webster has said: "The lightning is strong, 
 the tornado is strong, the earthquake is strong, but there is 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITII. i 
 
 something stronger than all of these. It is the enlightened 
 judgment of mankind." Founded upon slavery, the southern 
 confederacy has gone down amid wreck and ruin, to rise no 
 more forever, drenched with the blood of thousands untimely 
 slain. 
 
 The next cause of our late war was states rights doctrine, 
 that disjunctive doctrine according to which each portion of 
 our country, called a state, is sovereign in the highest sense, 
 allowing us no nationality, no country, and consequently no 
 national government. The leading secessionists urged the 
 strange idea that the state was superior to the general govern- 
 ment, that a part was greater than the whole, overlooking the 
 fact that the United States had rights too, and greater rights 
 than any single state. A double allegiance would be a fear- 
 ful problem for a conscientious citizen and worse than the 
 allegiance of the feudal times, which was a graduated allegi- 
 ance but not a double or multiplied one. We cannot faith- 
 fully serve two masters. The leading secessionists overlooked 
 the fact that the constitution of the United States is a national 
 work from beginning to end, conceived by the living national 
 spirit of "one people" in spite of destructive provincialism. 
 The instrument, says Dr. Lieber, is called a constitution, not 
 articles. The word sovereign does not appear once. A 
 national legislature, the members of which vote individually 
 and personally, not by states, and an eminently national and 
 individual executive in the person of one man are established ; 
 and a majority of the people or of the states can oblige the 
 smaller portion to adopt amendments to the constitution. 
 No minority of sovereigns, however small, can be made sub- 
 ject to a majority of sovereigns however large. This single 
 fact would annihilate state sovereignty. We are a nation. 
 Washington said: "That bantling — I had almost said mon- 
 ster — state sovereignty." Alexander Hamilton said: "A 
 nation without a national government is an awful spectacle." 
 And yet Mr. Calhoun denied even the national character in 
 the president of the United States, and allowed only a joint 
 representation of the many different state sovereignties within 
 his individuality, by what mysterious process it is impossible 
 
8 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSM1TH. 
 
 for us to see. With him liberty appeared to consist in a 
 warring opposition to the national government, and he openly 
 declared the loosest possible confederacy the best of all gov- 
 ernments while the whole world was agreed to consider it in 
 modern times the worst, and confederations good only in as 
 far as they unite and not as far as they sever. Mr. Calhoun 
 even went so far as to contend that states should be admitted 
 into the union by couples — one free and one slave state at a 
 time — overlooking the fact that slavery has never been a 
 stable svstem, but has always melted away before advancing 
 civilization. It is strange that Mr. Calhoun never allowed 
 the noble words of Patrick Henry to touch a chord in his 
 breast when he said : " Where are your landmarks, your 
 boundaries of colonies? They are all thrown down. The 
 distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvaniaus, New York- 
 ers and New England ers are now no more. I am not a 
 Virginian but an Ame7'ican" Why did Mr. Calhoun not 
 consider the warning wor^s of General Charles Cotesworth 
 Pinckney, when he said: "Let us then consider all attempts 
 to weaken this union by maintaining that each state is sepa- 
 rately and individually independent as a species of political 
 heresy, which may bring on us the most serious distresses." 
 The ideas of Mr. Calhoun, in regard to government, do not 
 appear to have emanated from any consideration for the real 
 wants of the people, but his political course seems to have 
 been dictated by an ambitious design to force his own peculiar 
 and fanciful theories upon them. He lacked that lofty feel- 
 ing for humanity which is so characteristic of the noble 
 patriot. Said Mr. Wirt of Aaron Burr: "Civil life is 
 indeed quiet upon its surface but in its bosom this man has 
 contrived to deposit the materials which with the slightest 
 touch of his match produce an explosion to shake the conti- 
 nent." Happy indeed would it have been for South Carolina 
 had she heeded the voice of that noble South Carolinian, the 
 hero of Talladega, of Tohopeka and New Orleans, Major- 
 General Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United 
 States, when he said: "Take care of your nullifiers you have 
 amongst you, those men who would sever and destroy the 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSM1TH. 9 
 
 only good government on the globe, and that prosperity and 
 happiness we enjoy over every other portion of the world; 
 who would involve the country in civil war and all the evils 
 in its train, that they might reign and ride on its whirlwinds 
 and direct the storm. Let them meet the indignant frowns 
 of every man who loves his country. The tariff, it is now 
 known, was a mere pretext and disunion and a southern con- 
 federacy the real object. The next pretext wdl be the negro 
 or the slavery question." Happy indeed for South Carolina 
 would it have been had she heeded the voice of warning of 
 tint n^ble patriot Chief Justice John Belton 0'N«all, when 
 he said: "Secession will be the ruin of South Carolina." 
 
 The third cause of the war, says Dr. Lieber, was southern 
 jealousy at northern progress — a fevering jealousy when it 
 was perceived that civilization, number of population, the 
 arts, education, the ships and trade, schools and churches, 
 literature and law, manufactures, agriculture, inventions, 
 wealth, comfort and power w< re rapidly finding their home 
 at the north to the great disparagement of the south, weighted 
 down by slavery, which nevertheless the south would not 
 recognize as an evil. All periods of such developments or 
 changes of power and influence from one portion of a country 
 to auothcr, or from one class to another, have been periods of 
 heartburning, but in this case the vaunting pride of the 
 receding or lagging portion forbade them to acknowledge the 
 cause. Like Pericles, with regard to the Patricians at 
 Athens, the leading secessionists paid court to this unfounded 
 prejudice against the north and fanned a flame which resulted 
 in a wide spread conflagration. 
 
 For the causes which I have enumerated our entire country 
 was plunged into a bloody war, in which three millions of 
 armed soldiers were engaged in the work of death. In the 
 dreadful carnage which followed secession the best and purest 
 young men of our entire country sank down into early graves. 
 The war was fought mainly by those who had no part in 
 bringing it on, while many of those who were instrumental 
 in bringing about the contest took no part in the bloody con- 
 
 2 
 
10 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 
 
 flict. Arc! so it has ever been. The men who make the 
 quarrels are not the only men to fight. Upon this point 
 what said that noble soldier General Robert E. Lee? Here 
 are his words: "The position of the two sections which they 
 held to each other was brought about by the politicians of 
 the country. The great masses of the people, if they had 
 understood the real question, would have avoided the war." 
 Governor Orr said that in 18G0 there were not ten thousand 
 secessionists in the statn of South Carolina, and yet a few 
 violent secession leaders forced the people out of the union. 
 
 I have referred particularly to the causes of our late war to 
 show how untenable they were, because the democratic leaders 
 have declared over and over again, since the war ended, that 
 they never will admit that the cause itself failed and that the 
 principles which gave it life were wrong. That the war 
 which was inaugurated by violent sectional partisans for the 
 causes enumerated should have utterly failed in its object was 
 not unlooked for by the philosophical historian. The south- 
 ern confederacy fell, and its fall is thus graphically described 
 by McCabe in his "Life of General R. E. Lee:" "Up the 
 ascent to the capital of the southern confederacy was the 
 array, with its unbroken line of blue, fringed with bright 
 bayonets. Strains of martial music, flushed countenances, 
 waving swords, betokened the victorious army. Along the 
 line of fire, in the midst of the horrors of a conflagration, 
 increased by the explosion of shells left by the retreating 
 army, through curtains of smoke, through t'-e vast aerial 
 auditorium, convulsed with t''e commotion of frightful 
 sounds, moved the garish procession of the grand army of 
 the United States, with brave music and bright banners and 
 wild cheers. Thus fell the capital of the southern confede- 
 racy. It went down in a sea of suffering and sorrow, such as 
 had never been known before." 
 
 As the result of the bloody conflict of secession the supre- 
 macy of the constitution and laws of the United States over 
 the constitution and laws of any state was established and 
 freedom flashed down upon four millions of slaves in the 
 southern states. It came like a flash of golden light from 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WIKSMITH. 11 
 
 heaven, and the republican party was triumphant. In the 
 very hour of victory Abraham Lincoln, the humblest of the 
 humble before his own conscience, and among the greatest 
 before history, laid down his life for human freedom. Like 
 Socrates, he died for the cause of truth. While contemplat- 
 ing the triumph of ihe republican party upon the Held of 
 battle we must not omit to consider the great ideas which 
 hovered above the conflict, of a tins. When two armies meet, 
 says Cousin, there is presented a much greater spectacle than 
 that from which philanthropy (urns away her eves in horror. 
 She sees only thousands o! men who arc about to Cut cadi 
 other down. But here men are not the object of contention, 
 but causes, the opposing spirit of an epoch, the different ideas 
 which in an age animate and agitate humanity. Battles are 
 the signal promulgation of the decrees of civilization itself. 
 Thus Napoleon, after marching through Europe, and putting 
 his foot upon the heads of kings and princes, said at Fontain- 
 bleau, in the hour of his misfortune: "I am not conquered 
 by coalesced armies but by liberal ideas." Tlie triumph of 
 the republican party in the late conflict was the triumph of 
 the union over disjunctive provincialism, of freedom over 
 slavery, of northern progress over southern torpidity and 
 exclusivenes<% 
 
 When the war ended, the democratic leaders at the south 
 utterly repudiated its results and proceeded to establish a 
 galling system of peonage or serfdom upon the debris of 
 slavery. In 1865 the democratic legislature of South Caro- 
 lina enacted a monstrous law, known as the Black Code, 
 among the provisions of which was the following: "The 
 master shall have the right to inflict upon the servant such 
 corporal punishment as he may think proper." Seeing the 
 cruel spirit manifested at the south against persons of the 
 dark class, the republican party of the nation, through the 
 congress of the United States, adopted the reconstruction acts 
 and amended the constitution of the United States, giving the 
 right of suffrage and all the rights of American citizens to 
 persons of the dark class. Even then, when the democratic 
 leaders had shown such a violent hostilitv to the results of 
 
12 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WIXSMITH. 
 
 the war, and when Senator Sherman, the author of the recon- 
 struction acts, was urged to insert in them a sweeping clause 
 of disfranchisement, he said, in the United States senate: 
 "Men ought to be satisfied without further exactions from the 
 late rebels. They had lost everything they held dear and the 
 people of the north did not demand their disfranchisement." 
 Notwithstanding the magnanimity of the national republican 
 party, in removing political disabilities from the democratic 
 leaders, they have kept up a fierce strife against the govern- 
 ment of the United States, refusing to acknowledge in good 
 faith the rights of citizenship conferred upon thp dark class, 
 holding the reconstruction acts to be revolutionary, unconsti- 
 tutional and void, and looking for their overthrow. They 
 have declared that they never will admit that the cause of the 
 southern confederacy failed, and that the principles which 
 o-ave it life were wrong. These men have inaugurated a sys- 
 tem of persecutions and outrages upon republicans by armed 
 and disguised bands of midnight marauders which have 
 shocked the civilized world. Of these outlaws, the Hon. 
 Revcrdy Johnson, who was brought down from Maryland to 
 defend them, was compelled to say: "I have listened with 
 unmixed horror to some of the testimony which has been brought 
 before you. The outrages proved are shocking to humanity ; 
 they admit of neither excuse or justification; they violate every 
 obligation which law and nature imposes upon men; they show 
 that the parties engaged were brutes, insensible to the obligations 
 of humanity and religion. The day will come, however, if it 
 has not already arrived, ivhen they will deeply lament it. Even 
 if justice shall not overtake them, there is one tribunal from 
 which there is no hope. It is their own judgment — that tribu- 
 nal which sits in the breast of every living man — that small, 
 dill voice that thrills through the heart — the soul of the mind, 
 and as it sjieaks gives happiness or torture — the voice of con- 
 science, the voice of God. If it has not already spoken to 
 them in tones which have startled them to the enormity of their 
 conduct, I trust, in the mercy of heaven, that that voice will 
 speak before they shall be called above to account for the trans- 
 actions of this world. That it will so speak as to make them 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. G. WINSMITH. 13 
 
 penitent, and that trusting in the dispensations of heaven, whose 
 justice is dispensed with mer cy, when they shall be broughit before 
 the bar of their great tribunal, si to speak, that incomprehensi- 
 ble tribunal, tliere will be found in the /act of their penitence, 
 or in their previous lives, some grounds upon which (rod may 
 say pardon." 
 
 I, too, join in the prayer of the great advocate, and trust 
 when the great day comes, when thes-ecrets of all hearts shall 
 be known, God may say to them pardon. 1 would also 
 desire that <he lenders may be pardoned if they shall become 
 penitent. I trust no monstrous apparition may rise before 
 them to say "thou shalt see me ;it Phillipi." I trust they 
 may never be compelled to exclaim "oh, coward conscience, 
 how dost thou afflict me!" I trust they may never have to 
 say "thou art too like the spirit of Banquo — down!" 
 
 To-day, my countrymen, what do we behold in this nation? 
 Two political parties arrayed against each other in the contest 
 for supremacy; and what are their elements? On the one 
 side we have the glorious national union republican party. 
 The national convention at Cincinnati spoke with no uncer- 
 tain voice. The nomination there made means that this 
 country shall continue to be a nation; it means that every 
 citizen of the United States shall be free, not in name only 
 but in reality; it means protection to the humblest individual 
 in the expression of his political opinions and in the exercise 
 of his political rights; it means the education and elevation 
 of the toiling and struggling masses of the people, and it 
 means the establishment upon a sure and firm foundation of 
 all the results of the war for the preservation of this union. 
 In the national convention at Cincinnati what do we behold? 
 Patriots of the dark class of our countrymen freely consult- 
 ing with patriots of the light class for the best interests of 
 the nation. There no false ideas in regard to color contracted 
 the minds of our noble representatives. They met together 
 upon a common level as free American citizens, striving for 
 the welfare of our glorious republic. The nominees of that 
 convention were that gallant general and noble statesman 
 General Rutherford B. Hayes, for the presidency of the 
 
14 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. W1NSMITII. 
 
 United States, and that statesman without fear and without 
 reproach the Hon. William A. Wheeler, for the vice presi- 
 dency. For the union, for freedom and equal rights to all 
 men, General Rutherford B. Hayes toiled and struggled and 
 freely shed his blood. During the war he was nominated for 
 congress, hut what whs his reply? "Thanks, I have other 
 business just now. Any man who would leave the army at 
 this time to electioneer for congress ought to be scalped." 
 The Hon. William A. Wheeler, of New York, republican 
 nominee for the vice-presidency, is a statesman of great intel- 
 lectual capacity, a pure patriot, and noble champ ; on of free- 
 dom and equal rights to nil men. 
 
 Now let us reverse the picture. What do we behold on 
 the other side? A democratic convention at St. Louis. 
 There not a single representative of the dark class was 
 allowed to invade the sacred presence. The nominations 
 there made were made by white men and lor white men only. 
 And who are the nominees? S. J. Tilden for the presidency 
 and T. A. Hendricks for the vice presidency. And who is 
 S. J. Tilden? We will let the Hon. Horace Greeley answer. 
 Mr. Greeley, in speaking of Tilden's connection with the 
 great frauds of Tammany and the democracy throughout the 
 empire state, said: '"You, S. J. Tilden, not merely by silence 
 but by positive assumption, have covered these frauds with 
 the mantle of your respectability. On the principle that the 
 receiver is as bad as the thief, you are as deeply implicated in 
 them to-day as though your name were Tweed, O'Brien or 
 Oakey Hall." Tilden, the boon companion of W. M. 
 Tweed, the champion thief of the age, the democratic nomi- 
 nee for the presidency of the United States! The democratic 
 nominee for the vice-presidency is T. A. Hendricks, a knight 
 of the golden circle, a traitor to the union in the hour of 
 greatest peril. Out of his own mouth let him be condemned. 
 On the 16th of February, 1866, he said, in the United States 
 senate: "We do not propose to let the negroes vote. lam 
 free to say that I do not want to make any of them voters. 
 We are not of the same race. We are so different that we 
 ought not to compose one political community." T. A 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WIXSMITII. 15 
 
 Hendricks, a narrow minded, malignant and selfish white 
 liner, the democratic nominee for the vice-presidency of the 
 United States. 
 
 My countrymen, the great question presented by the two 
 political parties in the United States to-day is whether our 
 fellow-citizens of the dark class have rights which the light 
 class is bound to respect. The republican party of the nation 
 says they have. The democratic party; by its entire course 
 since the war ended, says tlwy have not. Let us show how 
 unfounded is this democratic prejudice against our fellow- 
 citizens of the dark class. The revolutionary war with Eng- 
 land found the colored as we'l as white soldiers fighting side 
 by side in the struggle for liberty and independence. Who 
 does not remember the history of Crispus Attucks, the noble 
 colored hero who poured out his life's blood for American 
 freedom at Boston on the 5tii of March, 1770. "Don't 
 hesitate! Come on ! AY e will drive these British minions 
 out of Boston!" Mere the last words of this martyr to Ame- 
 rican liberty. .In the war of 1812 the colored soldiers helped 
 to fight the battles of our country both by land and sea, and 
 we find that Major-General Andrew Jackson, the hero of 
 New Orleans, acknowledged their services in the highest 
 terms of praise, for addressing them on the 18th of Decem- 
 ber, 1814, he said: "Soldiers, the president of the United 
 States shall be informed of your conduct on the present 
 occasion, and the voices of the representatives of the Ameri- 
 can nation shall applaud your valor as your general now 
 praises your ardor." In the late war thousands of colored 
 soldiers fell on the field of battle, fighting for liberty and the 
 union. The republican party of the nation acknowledged 
 the noble services of the dark soldiers. Now, what was the 
 course pursued by the confederate congress in regard to the 
 colored men? McCabe, in his life of General Lee, says: 
 "The act of the confederate congress authorized President 
 Davis to accept such slaves as the masters might choose to 
 put into the military service. In short no inducement was 
 to be offered to the negro. He was to be forced to fight for 
 his own captivity." This, my countrymen, was the solemn 
 
1(3 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WIKSMITH. 
 
 act of the confederate congress, although General Lee said 
 "the colored men furnish a more promising material than 
 many armies of which we read in history which owed their 
 efficiency to discipline alone. I think those who are em- 
 ployed should be freed. It would be neither just nor wise, 
 in mv opinion, to require them to serve as slaves." \\ hat 
 has been the course of the democratic party since the war 
 ended in reference to citizens of the dark class? That party 
 has been forced at the point of the bayonet to accept the 
 results of the war, but has it adopted them? The democratic 
 leaders have all the while said to their followers "agree 
 among yourselves that you will not employ any one who 
 votes the radical ticket." What a silly and monstrous pro- 
 position! It is suggested by minds festering with feudal 
 tyranny and medieval barbarity. These democratic leaders 
 have thus attempted the daring anachronism of establishing 
 a system of serfdom or peonage in the nineteenth century 
 upon the debris of slavery. They would transform into 
 despots the latifundium holders, who would trample upon the 
 dearest rights of the poor laborers. They would destroy the 
 morals of the one class and the love of country of the other. 
 What a spectacle would have been presented to the world by 
 the immortal Franklin being compelled, as an apprentice, to 
 vote at the behest of some besotted employer! The owner of 
 property is not always a patriot and a wise man, while on the 
 other hand the laborer may be very patriotic and intelligent. 
 But why would these democratic leaders incorporate the dis- 
 graceful farce of allowing the laboring men to vote at all? 
 Why not let the property holders vote for them? This, it 
 would seem, would simplify the case very much. The pro- 
 position of these democratic leaders is shocking to humanity. 
 As well might the attempt be made by property owners to 
 dictate to their employees what their religious opinions should 
 be as to attempt to deprive them of the liberty of the elective 
 franchise. The constitution of the United States guarantees 
 freedom alike in the expression of both. Do the democratic 
 leaders presume that the sole object of the republican party in 
 conferring the elective franchise upon men of the dark class 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WISSMITH. 17 
 
 was to enable them to vote the satellites of the democracy into 
 office and power? Do not the democratic leaders admit that 
 men of the dark class constitute a large part of the wealth 
 and intelligence of South Carolina, and by far the greatest 
 part of the labor of the state? Yet look at the democratic 
 ticket. Upon it we see not a single representative of liie dark 
 class, although that class has a majority of thirty thousand 
 voters in South Carolina Why do the democratic leaders 
 not acknowledge the rights of citizens of the dark class? 
 Will they not admit that all men have descended from the 
 same common ancestor? Hear the noble words of the 
 inspired apostle, after the celestial light had flashed into his 
 soul, when he stood in the midst of the Areopagin, sur- 
 rounded by the sages and philosophers of Athens, "God 
 hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on 
 all the face of the earth." Hear the enunciation of the father 
 of the English common law: "We are taught by holy writ 
 that there is one couple of ancestors belonging to us all, from 
 whom the whole race of mankind is descended. The obvi- 
 ous and undeniable consequence is that all men are in some 
 degree related to each other." The continental sages of 
 America re-echoed in Independence Hall, one hundred years 
 ago, the immortal declaration "all men are created equal." 
 Under Lincoln and Grant and Sherman this great truth stands 
 forth a noble realization, though it has been sprinkled with the 
 blood of tens of thousands of the heroes who battled in the 
 cause of freedom and equal rights to all men. The thoughtful 
 student of history can never for one moment doubt the high 
 capacities of men of the dark class. He sees Osiris and 
 Sesostris leading their countrymen to deeds of valor and 
 glory. He beholds them passing over the Caucasus and the 
 dark stream of the Don to teach European Thrace that they 
 were the kings of kings. He sees them driving eastward 
 their chariot steeds to slake their thirst in the far Ganges. 
 He beholds the soldierly qualities and high military renown 
 of those dark generals of antiquity Hamilcar, Asdrubal and 
 Hannibal. He sees Masanissa, a Numidian general, second in 
 3 
 
18 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 
 
 command to Publius Cornelius Scipio, gaining brilliant vic- 
 tories. He beholds Lucius Septimius Severus, an African 
 bom, Roman emperor. He sees men of the dark class mem- 
 bers of the British parliament and of the French assembly. 
 In tracing the pages of history the philosophical historian is 
 impressed with the fact that throughout all ages intellect and 
 moral worth have been the tests of advancement and promo- 
 tion, without regard to external circumstances of hue or con- 
 dition. And shall it not be ;>o in America, in this the 
 nineteenth century — in this the land consecrated to freedom 
 and equal rights to all men? The republican party of the 
 nation savs that it shaU be so. But, ah! the leaders of the 
 democratic party my that because men of the dark class form 
 a part of the body politic the governments are corrupt! 
 What will these leaders say in reference to the testimony of 
 Governor McNutt, of Mississippi? In his message he says: 
 "Thirteen tax collectors are in default for the year 1838 in 
 the sum of $23,000, and twenty-one in the sum of $32,000 
 for the taxes of 1839." What will these leaders say in refer- 
 ence to the Yazoo fraud in Georgia? The Georgia legisla- 
 ture was bribed to sell a part of the public domain. Sparks, 
 in his history, the "Memories of Fifty Years," thus speaks 
 of the infamy of the act: "Jackson, heading the new legisla- 
 ture and the indignant public, proceeded in procession to the 
 public square where the law and the fagots were piled. 
 Addressing the assembled multitude, he denounced the men 
 who had voted for the law as bribed villains, those who had 
 bribed them and the governor who had signed it. He 
 declared that fire from heaven only could sanctify the indig- 
 nation of God and man in consuming the condemned record 
 of accursed crime. Then with a Promethean glass condens- 
 ing the sun's rays he kindled the flame which consumed the 
 records containing the hated Yazoo act." I have cited these 
 instances to show that corruption is not alone incident to the 
 governments in which men of the dark class form a part of 
 the body politic. I do most solemnly condemn fraud and 
 corruption in the administration of government wherever 
 existing. Republican officials who have betrayed their trusts 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WTNSM1TH. 19 
 
 are amenable to the laws, and justice will surely overtake 
 them. lam here to advocate the noble and enduring princi- 
 ples of equality and justice, upon which the republican party 
 is founded. If the government is placed in the hands of the 
 democratic party is there any assurance that the rights and 
 liberties of the toiling and struggling masses of the people 
 will be respected? Let me cite an instance in the history of 
 the late confederate states. MeCabe, in his Life of General 
 Lee, says: "It would have been some comfort to the men in 
 the confederate army to see the government meet iis obliga- 
 tions, and a still greater comfort to have been able to scud 
 the money to those who were starving at home; yet this was 
 denied them. President Davis and his aids drew their pay 
 promptly, but the men in the trenches were supposed to have 
 no use for money. Meanwhile their families were starving." 
 My countrymen, let not the democratic leaders again delude 
 \ou. The triumph of the democratic party would bring 
 strife, dissension and civil discord upon our fair land, and the 
 palsying gloom of black despair would settle down upon us. 
 Class distinctions would be revived and a fierce struggle to 
 overcome all the beneficent results of the late war would at 
 once be inaugurated. 
 
 I would here say a word to those whose inclination is to 
 come into the republican party but who have been deterred by 
 fears of what is called social ostracism. Ostracism! What is 
 that? Remember, my friends, the ostracism of the virtuous 
 Socrates and of Aristides the just. But you will find that the 
 Athenians, repenting of their cruelty, punished the murderers 
 of the former with death, and recalled the latter to posts of 
 the highest honor in the state, banishing into eternal exile his 
 dastardly calumniators. Subject, my friends, your motives to 
 action in regard to your political course, to the approval or 
 disapproval of that inward monitor whose utterances are not 
 to be disregarded. Do not be driven from the path of duty 
 by the combined power of ridicule, opprobium and scorn, the 
 dull sneer of the coxcomb or the compassionating shrug of 
 the dastard. Possess yourselves with the lofty spirit of 
 Alcibiades, who when liis house was surrounded at midnight 
 
20 ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 
 
 bv armed bands of li is calumniators, and set on fire, rushed 
 forth, sword in hand, to meet the assailants of his honor. 
 
 Fellow-republicans, the union republican party intends that 
 ours shall be a grand continental republic. In the eloquent 
 language of Senator Morton, "we have one language, one 
 flag and one common destiny." The union republican party 
 intends that this union shall be composed of states which can- 
 not be destroyed. It intends that this American nation, with 
 the French, the English, the German nations, shall draw the 
 chariot of civilization abreast, as the ancient steeds drew the 
 car of victory. The union republican party of this nation 
 has labored in the cause of freedom, so that to-day the sun 
 does not shine on any slave in our broad land. We are all 
 to-day free American citizens, and what a glorious privilege 
 it is to be an American citizen! There is no spot on this 
 globe, however remote, where the "starry flag" will not pro- 
 tect you While under its sacred folds foreign kings and 
 principalities and powers dare not molest you. At home, in 
 our own country, the union republican party has declared that 
 you shall be also protected in the exercise of all your rights, 
 no matter what may be your color or your religious or politi- 
 cal opinions. If there be any so blinded by hate and party 
 prejudice who would attempt to outrage you and deprive you 
 of your rights the heavy hand of the national government, 
 like an avenging fury, will be laid upon them. I trust we 
 may all be mild and tolerant in the expression and discussion 
 of our political opinions. It does appear that there should 
 not be greater prejudice in reference to differing political opi- 
 nions than in regard to differing religious sentiments. It 
 can never be the desire of the true patriot again to see three 
 millions of armed soldiers engaged in the work of death. 
 The triumphs and blessings of peace are far more pleasant to 
 contemplate than the horrors of war, and I would that the 
 bright rays of prosperity and happiness may be continually 
 shed abroad over our entire country. 
 
 Fellow-republicans, the union republican party of this 
 nation, moving forward shoulder to shoulder, will bear to a 
 triumphant success next November our nominees for presi- 
 
ADDRESS OF GENERAL J. C. WINSMITH. 21 
 
 dent and vice-president of the United States, and the union 
 republican party of the state of South Carolina will also 
 achieve a noble victory for all its nominees on state and con- 
 gressional tickets. Under the stars and stripes, under the 
 flag of our country, under that banner which symbolizes free- 
 doom and equal rights to all men, let U3 all work together as 
 one man, using all honorable means for the success of our 
 nominees. All the intelligence we have from the great north, 
 the great east and the great west, goes to show that the union 
 republican party there is united in solid phalanx. Our 
 friends there arc doing their whole duty, and they expect 
 us to do ours. We cannot, for one moment, think of sur- 
 rendering the government of this grand national republic 
 into the hands of the democratic party. We must rally with 
 the national union republican party to establish upon a /xr.sis 
 which never can he shaken freedom and equal rights to all 
 men. Our friends at Cincinnati, our friends throughout the 
 nation have spoken, and they mean that next November vic- 
 tory shall perch upon our banners. On the 4th of March 
 next General Rutherford B. Hayes will ascend the steps of 
 the capitol as the president of more than forty millions of 
 free citizens, and the people of this great continental republic 
 will rejoice with loud acclaim at the triumph of freedom and 
 unity. Then when the silken folds of our star spangled ban- 
 ner wave in triumph over the land of the free and the home 
 of the brave — when the deep mouthed cannon announce the 
 inauguration of the imposing ceremonies of the day — then 
 may we all re-echo the sentiment of one of America's noblest 
 patriots and grandest orators, "liberty and union now and 
 forever, one and inseparable!"' 
 
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