<* To thine oi?n self be true, and it must follow, as thc night the day, thou can'st not then be false to any man.'1
BY li. A. THOMPSON & CO.] PICKKNS C. H., S. C., SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1806. [VOL. I-NO. 18.
From thc Abbeville Press.
Governor Jenkins
Wc have read with the greatest possible
pleasure the inaugural address of this distin
guished Southerner as Governor of the I?5tu
pir? State of the South. Ile is one of our
first favorites. We have observed his course
and read everything that has fallen fron? him
since " thc huge eclipse" of Appomattox.
He has not published a word tn reference to
our difficult public afVairs, which has not
touched a responsive chord in our heart ; and
we have not bad a thought or feeling on tho
subject, which he has not expressed much
better than we could have done ourselves. Wc
well remember his eloquent speech in Augus
ta last summer. Brave, though not defiant;
frank, though not servile-'.urging reconstruc
tion, but in such sad tones, and with so much
grateful tenderness for the Confederate dead,
that it was plain he spoke the honest convic
tion of a brave, frank, true heart.
Thc views he suggests in reference to the
negroes in our midst are truthful, just and
magnanimous It is tnoSt true that they were
happy and contented in slavery ; that they
increased in a ratio unparalleled in the history
of population ; that they were made a multi*
tude by that institution ; which also raised
thom toa position of comfort and civilization
never attained by any of their race before in
their own country or elsewhere. It is also
true that in the main they were faithful du
ring the war. They were indeed, in most
cases, as loyal and as anxious for our success
ns our own people. It is most just that in
this their day of trouble, we should be kind
?nd gent?o and humano to them. We should
give them thc amplest protection in their per
sons and property ; but that same kind regard
for their welfare should make us sternly with
hold from them "social and political equali
ty." That would he their utter and speedy
ruin-that is the forbidden fruit to them. If
they are ever nominally made the equals of
the. superior race, and thrown into fierce com
petitions with them, their doom is sealed and
that speedily. Their safety as well as their
happiness must come from tiieir weakness,
from their dependence-their acknowledged
inferiority.
But we were even more struck with the re
marks of the Governor, upon tho political sit
uation. Touching our very anomalous position
re regard to-ine Union, he speaks like a leader
in Israel. Ile invokes his fellow-citizens not
to bc discouraged at thc " tardy progress of
re-construction or at the suspicion and distrust
so palpably manifested towards them." It
has struck us as strange that the victors in a
war avowedly for the Union, should, when
offered, refuse the very thing they have been
fighting for. It has seemed to us still more
strange, that they should desire the process of
rc-coustruction to be carried on by those who
skulked, rather than by those who did boldly
what they conceived to bc their duty. It
would seem natural that they should desire
the very men who fought them to be the in
struments of re construction. This would be
the ease unless they distrusted them. What
a mistake ! Thc brave are always true. Val
or and truth are indeed "twin sisters." Those
who conducted the waroo our side were guilty
of no " duplicity." Our victors will find no
where " the trail of the serpent " They did
what they thought they had a right to do, and
neted in the face of day. They used no du
plicity because they are not conscious of any
sin. They obeyed their States. They did
not rise against or attempt to overthrow any
Government, but simply to withdraw from one
and establish another. There was not the first
element of insurrection in thc whole move
ment. They acted under the form of law,
peaceably and quietly. They were loyal to
their friends, their principles and their imme
diate governments. They do not feel ashamed
that they were so. Wc are of opinion that
any Southern man, who could remain in thc
Southern States duri tig tho four years of tre
mendous sacrifices and struggles, and not feel
a sympathy for his own blood engaged in a
desperate contest, is either morn or less than
man. Wc believe that iti most of such cases,
thc ruling motive was ar of bullets or fear
of losing property. These are not the mon to
bo trusted ! but rather those who went with
their States, and periled all in the contest.
Whatever offoncj they livty be held to have
committed, it can hardly be said that they
were guilty of thc crime of moral treason.
We respectfully suggest that i' isa misno
mer to call the late war " rebellion," which
is defined to bea " renunciation of thc author
ity of thc Government to which one owes al
legiance." All must agree that we owe some
sort of allegiance to our ?States, for they can
undoubtedly punish for treason, and that alle
giance the Southern people did not " re
nounce." If the States had the right to se
cede, then it was clearly a war between inde
pendent powers. If they had not that right,
neither did the other States have the right to
coerce a State. Nothing indicating such a
right exists in the Constitution. It is well
known that the framers of that instrument re
fused to incorporate such a power, so that in
any view it was a war of States outside of thc
Constitution-a war on thc ono side for inde
pendence, and on the other to prevent it. But
even if the States had not the right to secede,
and those which did not secede had thc right
under the Constitution to coerce thc seceding
StMtes, yet in the conflict, the seceding States
did as matter of fact exact the obedicuce of
their citizens, and therefore such obedience
cannot be made treason. Even in England,
which is not famed for leniency to opposers of
authority it is well settled that obedience and
assistance to a " de facto " government is not
treason. Mr. Blackstone says: "The true
distinction seems to be that the statute of
Henry thc Seventh does by no means com
mand any opposition to a King (h'/are but ex
cusos the obedience paid to a Kin?; "de facto."
When therefore an usurper is in possassion
the subject is excused and justified in obeying
and giving him assistance; otherwise under
an usurpation uo man could be safe ; if the
lawful prince had a right to hang him for obe
dience to tho powers in being, as the uauiper
would certainly do for disobedience."
Rebellion ! foul dishonoring word,
Whcsc wrongful blight so oft has stoined
The holiest cause that tongue or sword
Of mortal ever lost or gained.
" How many a spirit horn to bless
Halli sunk beneath that withering name
Winna hut a day's, an hour's success
Had waited to eternal fame."
President Johnson and the Radicals.
Events are now transpiring in thc other
hemisphere, fraught with the destiny of a
gallant race, and important to all civilized na
tions of the world. On Monday week thc
Congress of the United States assembled at
Washington, and the contest between conserv
atism and radicalism has by this time been de
cided. The President with a true magnanim
ity, generosity and statesmanship for which
we accord him thc greatest credit, as our first
impressions were against him, had determined
to reconstruct thc Union and once more to
form a sisterhood of States. His measures for
insuring this grand result, and for blotting
out in happy forgetfulness the sad scenes of
the past, were based upon a thorough knowl
edge of human nature.
The .attempt of the Northern radicals in
Cong.iess to gain their object by a perversion
of the Constitution is an effort to accomplish
by trickery and fortuitous circumstances the
complete annihilation of political power in the
hands of the Southern whites, and its transfer
nominally to the debased freed slaves, but really
to the military satraps and other officials which
the greedy North will send down to prey upon
an already impoverished and oppressed people.
Thc test has been made, and wc shall soon
learn whether the President stands his ground
in favor of the Constitution and the equality
of the Southern whites, or whether bending
beneath the power which threatens him, he
has consented to place the victims in the hands
of a blood-thirsty faction.
The return of the Southern States to Con
gress would put the radicals in a minority, and
they are unwilling to yield thc power which
they have held for four years. They are thc
rod republicans of the French Revolution in
a new guise, and their success must bring
commercial disasters upon their own country,
the reflex wave of which will sweep upon us
and bring misfortune in its train. Every
thinking man must east his wishes in thc scale
of that policy which would bring peace and
prosperity, and wc cannot but hope that Prov
idence may in some way avert thc dangers
looming up in such grand proportions, and
may give to President Johnson the moral
COU ra ire to resist and the power to overcome
the dangerous faction, which will ruin thc
United Stales and involve other countries in
War if its policy of hate and plunder and re
ycugc can bc carried out.
[London Post, December 12.
Deferred Mutters
COMMERCIAL.-Thc well-informed com
mercial editor of tho " South. Carolinian,"
says :
That the Charleston market, in every de
partment of trade, is in an unhealthy condi
tion, no one conversant with business in ?his
city will venture to deny. Thc absolute needs
of thc community, caused by four years of war
and blockade, have been supplied, and thc
lively demand which they created for the ne
cessities and comforts of life has subsided.
Thc small supply of coin which was left in the
country has been drained, mid the reserve
crops of cotton seems well nigh exhausted.
Thc consequence is that thc immense impor
tations, which thc ready sales at the close of
hostilities invited, remain a drug upon thc
market, or are forced off below cost to meet
demands abroad. If this state of things con
tinues, there must bc a number of failures
here, unparalleled except in times of financial
collapse, which were great national calamities.
It is of thc utmost importance to know the
true cause of this present and prospective evil,
in order that it may be removed or avoided.
Thc laws of trade, read by the light of actual
circumstance, draw us inevitably to thc con
clusion that thc root of all this evil is to be
found in the entire paralysis of our agricultu
ral interest. Mother earth is the bank from
which flow thc riches of the world, and when
she stops payment there must be universal
failure Ciedit to thc planter is the one thing
needful to revive trade in our city, and the
)?i eat problem is, how is he to obtain it ? Make
li . land productive and tho problem is solved.
I nc question then naturally arises, what are
the obstacles now to the productiveness of bia
land ? Thc answer is plain, that there is but
one obstacle, and that is thc want of labor. It
is not to be expected that thc negro will work
for the white man so long as he has hope of
obtaining land on which he can work for him
self; this hope is still held out to him by the
Freedmen's Bureau. Nor is it to be expected
that the respectable emigrant from Europe
will voluntarily become the citizen of a pTov
iu2C, liable to be oppressed by a radical Con
gress, when he can as well settle in a free State,
with every prospect of obtaining the full ben
efits of national citizenship. It is useless then
to look for a revival of our trade until the
State has been restored to her rights in the
Union, and the authority of the Freedmen's
Bureau turned over to the State courts, for not
until then will our agricultural interest be
placed on such a basis as to command credit
WADE HAMPTON'S departure for his Mis
sissippi plantation, taking with him a large
number of freedmen as laborers, ?H the subject
of very fluttering comment in Washington.
ADVICES from Washington of the 1st, state
that the President will issue a proclamation
declaring thc restoration of all States to the
Union as soon as Florida aud Texas are rec
ognized.
TUE President is so well satisfied with thc
condition of the South and our foreign rela
tions that he has determined on a still further
reductiou of the army.
ADVICES from Arizona represent constant
fighting there between thc Indians and whites.
Twenty-eight soldiers sent out 1st November
arc missing.
HON. HENRY WINTER DAVIS, of Balti
more, a distinguished man, died in that city
of pneumonia, on thc 30th ult.
IT will please thc little folk to hear that the
; Rev. W. T. Farrow is again engaged in the
Missionary work; that he is receiving a full
stock of Sunday School books ; and wants
their aid and hearts in this behalf!
Gov. OUR lins appointed John L. Boat-1
wright, Esq., of Columbia, his Private Sec
retary.
THE FIRST BIULE EVER PRINTED.-In
thc royal library of Berlin is a copy of thc
first Bible that was ever printed, a venerable
and really magnificent book. It is printed on
parchment, is about equal in size to the largest
pulpit Bibles which are now printed, and is
Said to be the first book in which moveable
types were used.
From the Darlington New Kra.
Immigration.
From the time of thc surrender of thc wast
ed and shattered legions of Lee at Appamattox
Court House, and those of Johnston near the
old battle-ground of Guilford, it has been ap
parent to every unprejudiced observer and
correct thinker, and that all those old notions,
which were the offshoot of slavery, were
doomed like the institution itself, to a grave
from which there would be no resurrection.
Among thc "things that were" which have
been consigned to the tomb of the Capulets,
is that old jealousy of foreigners, which was
fostered and grew and flourished in the times
of the ancients in Southern history. Thc pol
icy of the country must bc entirely reversed.
If we would hereafter prosper and flourish, if
we would save ourselves from utter and hope
less ruin, our country from becoming a waste
howling wilderness, and ottr habitations the
dwelling places of bats and owls, We must yield
our old prejudices to the new ideas which the
logie of events has forced upon us. We must
offer inducements to the immigrant to settle
within our borders and help Us to build up
our exhausted and desolated country. We
must not stop to inquire whether he hails from
Germany or New England, or any other part
of the world. Our inquiry should rather be,
is he intelligent, industrious, enterprising?
The opinions of the editor of this paper are
well known. In an address issued to the
voters of Darlington pending the election for
the recent Convention, he taok strong ground
in favor of immigration. In the Convention
he had the honor of introducing resolutions
encouraging immigration from the North and
from Europe, which but for want of time he
believes would have met the approbation of
that body, and been endorsed by its vote.
Since his connexion with the " New Era" he '??>
has persistently advocated the same policy,
and is happy to find that his views are sup- .
ported by the leading journals of this and the
neighboring States. There are some among
us however, wc regret to say, who are so blind
ed by prejudice we fear, as to be unable to
take a proper and statesmanlike view of tho
subject. We regret to find that even our
friend General Easley, a gentleman and a law
yer of eminent talents and respectability, has
made remarks in thc Legislature discouraging
the immigration of Northern men into the
South. On this subject we cannot do better
than adopt the remarks of the Charleston
" News," for they are identically our own :
" Herc in Charleston, we haven number of
Northern capitalists. They have come here,
bringing money and thc necessaries of life.
They bring wealth with them ; and a sincero
desire to live with us, to be of us, and to help
us ; and while they do this we should thank
them instead of abusing them. Our Southern
merchants visit the North, their old accounts
are arranged satisfactorily to them, and they
buy new stocks on time. It has been justly
a subject of comment that thc Northern im
porters and jobbers have extended every fa
cility and kindness to our merchants since tho
breaking up of the war. Therefore tho re
marks of (Jen. Easley does not represent the
feelings of our people. The issues of the great
struggle are dead and buried, and we now de
sire, as honorable people, to invite all enter
prise, from whatever source, and to thank
those who come among us with no embittered
feelings, to help build up our impoverished
and ruined homes. No matter whether they
como from Germany, Switzerland, England,
France or Yankccland, all that come with a
desire to help us arc welcome ; and we cannot
but know that the most active and enterpri
sing people in the world arc Yankees, there
fore the Yankees are most welcome."
HERE and there over thc country, thero
have been holiday riots. Says thc New York
" News " of December 27 :
" Thc negro riot last evening at Alexandria,
was a terrible and bloody affair. The negroes
were aggressors. Their bad conduct was pa
tiently borne a long time, but when they be
gan to break into houses and insult women
they were fired on. Crowds of negroes then
rushed to tho attack, and in thc fight five white
men and seven negroes were killed, and many
severely wounded bil both sides. Shooting
was going on till a late hour last night in ev
ery direction, and the doors of many houses
were perforated by tho balls."
J?3T A negroes died recently in Athens
supposed to bc one hundred and twenty-one
years old.