Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1881 — WHAT RILED LORD ROSCOE. [ARTICLE]

WHAT RILED LORD ROSCOE.

Scathing: Speech by Senator Butler, ol South Carolina. [From the Congressional Record.] Senator Butler called for the reading of Gen. Walker’s report on the alleged frauds in South Carolina. Mr. Butler then said : This full and complete reply to the imputations of unfairness and fraud ought to satisfy the minds of all men and put to shame the authors of the baseless calumnies : but I am not content to stop here. A certain Republican stump orator on a certain occasion in New York city, where there was evidently an uncontrollable desire to “ fire the hearts " of his audience, concluded that a just and honest recital of the truth would fail of that purpose, and, therefore, chose the following language of insult and misrepresentation as a more potent appliance tor the occasion: “ Perhaps this point will seem to you to challenge tome attention. For the population of Southern States we must go back to the census of 1870. That count of the people was made by enumerators not selected by Southern Senators and members of the House as 1 nonpartisans’ and professional reformers. It was made by the regular Marshals and their deputies, and the compensation was so adjusted as to induce thorough visitation and at the same time to guard against exaggeration of numbers. No imputation of fraud was ever cast upon the work. Such a thing as a plot to fabricate a monstrous increase of population in one section in order to baffle the course of nature and the logic of events in another—a plot to change the balanoe of power and population in order to aggrandize one section by establishng a false basis of representation and apportionment, thus robbing other sections of their sharo in governing the country, in levying taxes and appropriating money, had not at that time occurred to the conservative foes of radicalism. That particular spoke in the wheel of deviltry had not turned up to the shifty patriot of that day. Now such schemes seem to wax apace. We read of producing false heirs to thrones and estates, but to multiply false heirs without any one to personate them on a scale so grand as seems now in process would stupefy the ingenuity of a French novelist, or anybody else except a thoroughgoing, non-par-tisan conservative disciple of the Democratic persuasion, wanting nothing for himself, but ready to do and to suffer for a white man’s government with • reform’ and ‘ a change.’ ’’ The same orator makes also the following gratuitous fling: “ This is the ordinance of higher power than a South Carolina census-taker.’’ And, in the course of the harangue of the aforesaid stump-orator, broadside after broadside of figures, problem after problem in arithmetic, ingeniously ciphered out, were hurled at the South ; plausible and delusive, calculated to deceive, but as disingenuous and unfair as the intellect that fabricated them, and malignant in tlieir purpose as the heart that inspired then- utterance. It will be observed, Mr. President, that Gen. Walker states his side of the case in the best possible temper, and with entire impartiality, giving to every ground of suspicion the fullest c msideration. To any fair-minded, man it would seem that this candid explanation should huve disarmed adverse criticism, and deserved an honorable withdrawal of every charge of fraud against his work ; but such is not the case, and the Government has been subjected to the expense, and Gen. Walker to the trouble and annoyance, of dispatching Col. Butterfield for lurtiier investigation and report. In regard to the census of 1870, and the machinery under which it was taken, Gen. Walker is not content with his own testimony, but brings his predecessors to court, and lie characterizes the whole business “as clumsy, antiquated, and barbarous ; ” that “ the machinery it provides is as unfit for use in the census of the United States in this day of advanced statistical science as the smooth-bore, muzzle-loading queen’s arm of the Revolution would be for service against the repeating ritto of the present time.’’ It answered its purpose at the time it was put in operation, as did the “ smooth-bore,” but it belongs to a bygone age. The World Las movod, and had moved in 1870, and yet somo of the Republican Senators ana stump orators of that time permitted a fraud to be perpetrated upon the country under “ its clumsy, antiquated, and barbarous” “machinery,” and now in advance, and without investigation or a hearing, denounce the work of the tenth census because, forsooth, “ Southern Senators and members of tho House selected the enumerators.” I am prepared to take my shore of the responsibility for the selections. Tho Superintendent of the Census will bear me out in the assertion that as far as I could control it I would consent to tho confirmation of no man, Democrat or Republican, whose character was not a guarantee to a faithful, honest performance of his duty. I asked for the appointment of no friend or partisan. I tried to secure the appointment of those only who would do their duty irrespective of party or party interests, and I beliqye I know only such were appointed and confirmed for South Carolina. And, Mr. President, it, will requiro something more than the sneers and snarls of charlatans, and carpings of disappointed malcontents, to drive me from tho good opinion I have of the work on tho tenth census in that State. Those intrusted with tho work do not belong to that breed of cormorants foisted upon her and sustained by the malevolence and hatred of some of those Republican patriots qf 1870 who now challenge the efforts and misrepresent the motives of those of us who strive to rescue her from the palsying, paralyzing touch of their vulgar henchman. No, Mr. President, there has been no fraud in the enumeration of the inhabitants of South Carolina. The census has been taken with fidelity, and the proof is conclusive, overwhelming, and yet the author of the charge has not the sense of justice to withdraw ft, to make honorable amends for a gross misrepresentation. A Presidential election was pending. and perversion, preludice and injustice were more efficacious for the purposes in hand than truth and justice, afid right recklessly wero they wielded. They served their purpose, but the traducer qt my State and her people alkali not escape exposure. The result of that enumeration has converted many confident predictions of partisan politicians as to the drift of political power into dismal fallacies. It has baffled tho calculations and clouded the hopes of so many who hate the South and foretold her decadence, that perhaps some allowances should be made for their bad temper and recklass accusations. Not content with criminal participation in despoiling the South ’by commissioning for tk»t special service a band of greedy vampires, and sustaining them while they plied their insatiate avocation, after she is plundered and bled to depiction the chief railer of that band of spoliators depreciates her because of her poverty, and upbraids her for her humiliated attitude. Why, Mr. President, when the professional highwayman or outlaw overcomes and robs the helpless wayfarer he, even, is too magnanimous to insult his victim by hUrling at lnm vulgar anathemas and bitter curses. Let this political highwayman go learn humanity and magnanimity from the reckless outcast, and shelter his ignominy from the hissing storm of scorn and contumely. The lesson, Mr. President, which this last census teaches is an instructive one. It deserves to be prayerfully Studied 1 by those who have spent anxious hours “arguing out” the “steady decline” and “ stagnation" of the South.