Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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0 THE J EDGEU: GAFFNEY, S. C., NOVEMBER f>, 1890. HEW COUNTY ARGUMENT. READ AND BE CONVINCED ON THE SUBJECT. A Comparison of South Carolina Coun ties With Those of Other States. Why We Have So Few Counties. What will facilitate the smooth working of such a mighty and de sirable revolution in the industries, occupations, habits, manners, and customs of our people is tiie pres ence of so many millions of robust, unambitious, light-hearted and easily governed negro laborers, who can find no employment e-xcept in agri culture. But the negro cannot stand alone left too much to himself; so t he white land owner living in the village must | be in supporting distance and that • village ought not only to be near at hand but it ought to have a court house and jail if possible, whence law” supported by a strong white “pcsse comitatus” when necessary, can speedily, cheaply, and efficiently be administered to enforce contracts, suppress riots, punish the guilty and protect the innocent. Therefore, again I say let us have another court house and jail in every proposed new county where a majority of the voters within its specified boundaries are willing '.o construct them. To uo so will be only taking time by the forelock and accelerating the tiie wonderful revolution already on foot that may give us the finest )>eusantry in the .world ami at the same time surround our whites with new conditions that may make them happier and more prosperous than ever before. But independent of the special reason last mentioned, from every consideration of common sense, justice and wise policy, the state ought to erect numerous small judi cial counties as fast as a majority of the voters within a proposed new county shall call for it. 'i his was long ago done in all the older states of the Union (except Foutii Carolina) and it is yearly being <lone in the newer states. By way of contrast and comparison 1 have pre pared a table of the relaiive area of judicial counties in ten contiguous states, beginning with Georgia and extending to Illinois. The first column gives the name of the state, the second its area, the third the number of counties, tiie fourth the average area of a county. HtuteH A rea So. of A v. : S<|U. lire uilit ■«. t'outii o n .-<iu.il e 1 Oeorjifa. .4.4.0110 1:17 m h. t aroliiiit dEtxiit :e> '.17.1 X.i'Mrolltm .'.o.Toi Mi .728 Teuitebsee. j.i.I.’lO !li 47.) Keuiui'ky.. ar.ixi ll« :i|t< Vir^linu >.:UH l!lt) \Y.\ irxitila ii.eiKJ .'a 4-Vi Ohio :r.u KX 4.74 Itidiiinit... 1*2 •l»i7 Illinois... .V.,410 1!« 512 From this table it appears that the average area of u county in South Carolina is more than three times that of one in Kentucky, more than twice that of one in (ieorgia, Ten nessee, Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, and nearly twice that .if one in North Carolina or Illinois. If the list was extended to include even ail of the older new states the disparity of our counties, compared with theirs, would he equally apparent, and more apparent stiU if compared with those 4»f the New Fnglumi states, which undoubtedly possess tin* wisest or ganization of any states in the Union for securing real home rule and local .self-government. This is done mainly by means of a peculiar local institution called "the tow n,’' which, although hut a sub division of a small judicial county, is yet a sort of little republic within itself controlling the details of exten sive legislative, judicial and executive authority, while leaving the larger judicial counties original jurisdiction over only big civil suits or felonies and appellate jurisdiction over ap peals from the township courts. Thus for most purposes of govern ment in daily life the township is us much u juidicial administrative sub division us it is an election division, ami does nut only all hut more than ail for a country township there that u municipal council does for a com pact village here. As every New England town chooses its own repre- •entulivc to the legislature, names all its local magistrates, provides for its own poor, regulates its own schools, erects its own bridges and ferries, works its own roads, pays its own officers, rates its own taxes, col lects those taxes and appropriates all funds for local objects, the town ship becomes a nucleus around which tiie rights, duties and passions of the whole community collect and cling. 'J in re is only one place—tiie town liull (or cupilol) at or near the center of the towtinliip to discuss or tran sact public business. This may he called intense local self-government, but it is free government, and it is what has imparted Hie striking char acteristics of New England—sleep less, intellectual, moral, industrial, economical and political activity. After having studied the subject long and carefully, I believe the imst fortune any man could wish South Carolina would be for tier to adopt tiie tow nship system say of Connecti cut. Bride and prejudice w.il doubtless prevent it being done, but New Eng land only copied the institution from Oid England with amendments, and South Carolina could just ns well ap- propriale it as any of the many laws and institutions of the mother coun try she has appropriated. The present is an auspicious mo ment to inaugurate the experiment. At tiie last general election, the abominable county commissioners system of county government was wisely repudiated by our people and some substitute must be found. It seems probable that cither we shall go back to the old system of numer ous boards of commissioners or we might, and 1 think emphatically ought to abolish the county govern ment altogether, except for higher judicial purposes, and substitute therefor the township system of local home rule, that lias done so well at the north generally, and in New England particularly. County government is and has been the least efficient and most expensive part of our polity, being both faulty and defective as well us full of leaks to waste the public money. Some mem ber of the legislature has the oppor tunity to immortalize himself and do the state incululble service. Shall tiie man and the hour meet? Time will tell. If our former system of county government by commis sioner boards is to be revised, every candid man must admit that counties ought to be smaller. ) Where a county is at once a legis lative, judicial and executive sub division of a state, us with us, every such sub-division should not only be small in area, but the last one of them that ever ought to be erected should be established as soon as practicable, to excite a spirit of em ulation throughout each nook and corner of the state, and put all the agencies of a high civilization perma nently at work, acting and reacting on eucli other. In a small county, the ordinary or normal course of events is for an election, and every oilier governmental process or social force to regulate itself of its own volition, in the best mode. As it is wortli no local candidate's wliilo to try to "honey-fugle” a small constituency, every man who wants an office must strive to take the lead in promoting the common weal. To do so successfully, he must not only he an exemplar in society, but he must cultivate his mind, and think as well as work for the good of the community. He must likewise succeed in the conduct of nis own affairs to prove himself worthy of being entrusted with the state’s business. Emulation thus springs up, not .only in establishing high characters and improving private fortunes, but in suggesting and exe cuting enterprises for the public good. This generous emulation com municates itself to the very women and children of rival aspirants and their followers—in fact, tiie whole community—as example is conta gious. The noblest aspirations and the strongest energies of the whole com munity in a small county thus be come aroused, and are constantly ex ercised. Where all the counties are small, not merely does emulation ex ist among all tiie inhabitants of the same county but it prevails in lively vigor among ail the inhabitants of the state. Each county strives to bo the ban ner county in at least some depart ment of progress, simply because each county, being a distinctly organ ized political community for most purposes, is put upon its best temper for working out a memorable histori cal career. Few men care to dwell in a county that can not trutlifullj boast its equality, if not superiority, when compared with other counties. As such a representative and judi cial county rarely affords many men or families to achieve distinction for it, each must be up and doing, or the county will remain unknown and un honored. As each citizen has an open Held and fair light, tie will at least strive to bo first at home, if he has to he second a f . Borne, and the severe training he undergoes to win the county honors will uil tiie better prepare him for the harder race at the capital. The pulse of such a body politic is never stagnant, but is al ways beating with self-renewing en ergy ; and the generous efforts thus put forth by every citizen of every county push the whole commonwealth onward and upward. It generally re quires considerable time for a new state, much more a new county, to earn up enviable record. Therefore, as South Carolina needs more than double the number of counties she now lias to give her people an equal chance with those of Georgia and of oilier states, and us she cannot com mence too soon to let each small com munity have an opportunity to create family reputations to preserve and examples to imitate, it is high time site was at it. WHY WK IIAVK SO HEW COI’XTIKS. The question naturally suggests itself : Why has South Carolina so few and such large counties com pared with those of other states ? Charleston alone is to bluinA. The state was first colonized in and for ninety-nine years after the lirst settlement hud been made the only court house in the whole state was at Charleston. Yet in when six other court houses wore established, four-fifths of the territory of South Carolina had been pretty well settled up by over lot),000 inhabitants, according to tiie estimates of Doctors .Milligan and Howill. Indeed, from the soldiers furnished by the backwoods ol South Carolina during the Revolutionary war, which broke only six years after the nix new courthouses hud been founded, and from other reliable data, the population of the state would •com to have been rather over Lliun under the estimate given. No other scats cf justice were created in the state until many years after t he Rev olution, but by the year 1800 the state had been divided into twenty- eight judicial counties, of which old Bendleton was one. Still, from that year until the close of the civil war in ISG.'j, Bendleton, the largest county in the state, was the only one that had been divided, both judicially and politically, and it required thirty years’ persistent agitation to effect her political division. During those sixty-five years that South Carolina was erecting one representative and I judicial county Geofgin erected about a hundred. Why did South Carolina fail to erect more? Was it because they were not and still are not needed? No. To say nothing of tiie want of more counties in other parts of the state, the broad region between the Savannah river on the west and the Saluda, Oongaroe and Santee rivers on the east, from the seaboard to the mountains, is even now almost unor ganized territory, as regards suitable counties, for the purposes of a high and progressive civilization. Did South Carolina omit to create more counties because the people omitted to ask for them. No; memorial after memorial was presented to the legis- latnre, praying for new counties, but in vain. At least a score of new counties were ardently desired by a | majority of voters resident within the proposed boundaries (the only ; condition precedent in other states); j but ns our wise, just and patriotic legislature ut the dictation of Charles ton ever seemed to regard the county question as a finished piece of busi ness, the friends of the new county projects, after many fruitless efforts, in hopeless disgust, abandoned their enterprises, now happily reviving all over the state. To explain lirst why it was next to impossible to establish a new county in South Carolina prior to the close of the civil war, and second, why the counties in this state average each about 1,000 square miles (several nearly 2,000) while those in most of tiie other states average but about too square miles—it is necessary briefly to trace the history of the sub-divisions of this state for appor tioning representation in the legisla ture. That history will show that the insuperable obstuble to the for mation of now counties, previous to the year lS(jj, was the unalterable determination of the low country to control the legislature, and thereby to control the election of all Import ant. an most of the unimportant state oflicers, who were formerly chosen by the legislature, and not by the people. The first white settlers of South Carolina located on the sea coast and organized the first state government. Having possession of all the faculties of the government, they never would agree to admit the ruder masses of the interior, as tiie up country peo ple were then called, to equal repre sentation in the legislature, especially in the Senate. The middle and mountain counties had no option but either to commence civil war or rest content with whatever scant repre sentation the arrogant coast people were gracious enough to accord. In truth, most of the inadequate repre sentation allowed at any time pre vious to 1808 to the inhabitants oc cupying over two-thirds of the .state’s interior territory was at last wrung from tiie first coiners on the coast almost at the point of the bayonet. The one-sided constitutional basis of representation agreed upon in ls<)S, and known in South Carolina as tlio famous compromise between the up and low country, was sanc tioned by the latter only to avert ci the senate, mark the contrast when a similar application came from a parish. In 1855, when the present Clarendon county, which was then an election parish of Sumter judicial coun*y, asked to bo erected into a separate judicial county, the parish senators and representatives, almost to a man, voted for it. at the very first session of the legislature, to which application was made, and us the up country could have no un worthy motive for voting against it. the people of Clarendon obtained at once what they wanted. It must have been a poor rule that among patriots and honest men could not work both ways. Previous to 1808, as already stated, the non-parish counties were virtually excluded from representation in either branch of the legislature, and between 1808 and the year 1805 the twenty-three little parishes had things all their own way in the senate —one of which ways was to preserve the status quo about counties. By the long-cherished, one-side compromise Charleston county alone, in which “the city’’ is situated, had ten sena tors, out of a total senate of only forty-live members, (one more added for old Bendleton in 1854-5,) and both Williamsburg and Marion coun ties, from geographical location and social as well as business relations, always voted with tiie parish sena tors on the new county question. Hence our present well grounded complaints about the absence of suitable judicial and representative sub-divisions of the state can fairly be ascribed, primarily, to the over reaching ambition and selfishness of “the city” not to be a city ruling within corporate limits, like Boston or London, but to b(! a “city state,” like Athens or Rome, ruling the whole commonwealth. What enabled Charleston and the pari.-lies to maintain the upper hand so long under “the compromise” was that the legislature held its numer ous election by secret ballot, and as the up country had about four times as much white population as the parishes during the last thirty or forty years of the compromise, of course the former section also had four times as many candidates for office before the legislature. Char leston and the parishes originally gave the election of all state and many county officers to the legislature, and established the secret ballot system of voting there on purpose to retain their tyrannical power over the up country, and, ns I have stated, they did retain it by those two devices, and would have retained it indefinitely but for the civil war. Every up country aspir ant for office was afraid to offend the parish representatives, and if one did attack their unequal and ifnjust representative power he was silenced by the gift of an office or ovex*come by selfish and ambitious up country candidates uniting with the parishes against him. TWO KILLED AT A CROSSING. Train on tin- Cnntral Italli-n.-i<l of Now Jer sey Dailie* Into n Carrlit^o. Kkw Youii, Oct. 27. — Dr. W. W. Palmer and Miss Fannie Palmer, his Bra nddanglitor, la years of age, of Keaushurg, N. were killed, ind Wil liam Hainan of Atlantic City, was probably fatally injured bv ■, train of tiie Central Railroad of New Jersey at Kennglmrg. Mr Hainan bad gone to Keansborg to visit the Palmers, and all throe, with a daughter of Dr. Palmer, were in a carriage crossing the railway track, when a train that hadtlxieii uuobserv l by them struck the vehicle, wreckin'? .i. Dr. and Miss Palmer were kil':d in stantly. Hanran can scare :v survive his injuries. Dr. PaLnorV. daughter was not seriously hart Czur's Vinit to Tranco Meant Pence. Vienna, Oct. 2 7.—A statesman, un derstood to bo Prince Bismarck, assorts, in an interview witli tiie Hamburg cor respondent of the Noun Freie Prosae, that the czar’s visit to France was m i ’ essarily for tiie maintenance of the rela tions hitherto existing between Franco and Russia and to keep the French ip a good humor “From the tripple alli ance point of view the visit increases the existing guarantees of peace,” ic said. “The overpowering question be fore the world is the Russo- English an tagonism.” For a Pun-American Congreis. City of Mkxico, Oct. 27.—Prepara tions are making for a second Pan- American congress, which is to assem- bio here on Nov. IH. Delegates will bo in attendance from the United States, 8outh and Oentrul America and llayti. Secretary Amlcr-ion In Xcw York. New Yoke, Oct 27. — Among the passengers who arrived by the Amen- can line steamer Berlin, Southampton, was L irz Anderson, secretary of the United Stat s embassy at Rome. The ISrllMt Fleet Nut Inornate I. London, Oct. 27.— The officials on duty at tiie admiralty denied the re ports cabled from Halifax, N. S , of the increase in the strength of British fleet in American waters. RFECT <'i»d permanent are the cur<-s by Hood’s Sarsaparilla, be cause U makes pure, rich, healths-, life and health-giving BLOOS?. A mm cured - AND A - UFE SAVED By the Persistent Uso cf pf s Sarsaparilla / *‘l was troubled tyr years v.itli a sore on my knee, which several physicians, who treated me, called a earner, assuring me that nothing conUWte done to save my life. As a last resort, I was induced Jo try A yen's Sarsaparilla, and, alter tak ing a number of bottles, the sore . * Vf. V / '- - J ') U\ : -y-fj began to disappear and my general health improve. I persisted j i this treatment, until the sore we en tirely healed. Since then, 1 use Ayer’s Sarsaparilla occasional.y :;s a tonic and blood-purifier, ami, i:i- deid, it seems as though 1 c ould not ke.-p house without it.”—Mrs. S. A. 1':ki.d>, Bloomfield, la. The Only World’s Fair Saisaparilk Ayer’s Pills Regulate the Liver. You throw A p.^- ■1 L. ji You % >" ,Ti n r \ f > V * 3 ” W&ea YouiPay $100 for .a Typewriter. A 'mTT A vr li ii u v la wliat gives Hood's .Sarsaparilla its great popularity, its constantly increasing rales, and enables it to accomplish its wonderful and unequalled cures. The combination, proportion and process esi’d in preparing Hood’s Sarsaparilla ru'e unknown to other medicines, and make Food’s Sarsaparilla £3 vil war. The up country was actually preparing for a conflict of arms when Robert Goodloe Harper brought forward the compromise proposition, which the back-woods men adopted in a spirit of self- sacrifice—not becaus * it was either a I jimt or wise measure. By t his compromise the six coast ; counties retained a majority of rncni- i hers in the senate up to the close of ! tiie civil war. These counties were Charleston, Georgetown, Sumter, Orangeburg, Colleton and Beaufort. They all adjoin Charleston county except Beaufort. Each of these six judicial counties was sub-divided into small election townships, like tiiose of New England, but they were cal Ad parishes in South Carolina be cause such sub-election districts had been given that name when the Episcopal Church was the established religion of the state, and civil govern ment subordinated to religious gov ern merit. Each of those little parishes had a senator, and was, of course, on a par in the senate with Barnwell, Edge- hold, and the other large judicial I counties of the state which had only I one senator ap'oee. Thus less than one-third of the state’s territory, con taining only about one-fifth of her population, and during the last thirty or forty yeargof tiie compromise con taining only about two fifths of her colored population and less than two- fifths of hor aggregate wealth, actually governed the Senate of South Carolina with an iron rod in respeat to the formation of new counties. The parishes would never consent to the construction of a new judici.il county in the interior, be cause they said it would inevitably lead to the establishment of a sena torial county also; and when, after a thirty years' struggle, they did finally yield to Jet the old Bendleton territory have another senator, th'*y almost swore on the holy evangelists that no other new judicial or election county, outside of parish limits, shotild ever ho created in the statu. While every application for a now court house in the up country was 1 treated with supreme contempt by eculiar to itself cares a wide range of diseases because of its power as a blood purifier. It acts directly and positively upon the blood, and the blood reaches every nook and corner of the human system. Thus all the nerves, muscles, hones and tissues come under the beneficent influence of — Tin; — BLICKENSDERFER ! typewriter! WVi’iJis hut ?■ \ ‘’omuls him) Dovt ?>n• r *o. I I hi pi i«*Di n;; I !»*• Worl. nf ;t i. y or i Jr «■*' ;i rt!*. rh $100 M.’iHiitu s -I lilt* ihdbIvH. I'i iictit :il n b- rantf'-d k<\-ho;iri. WBiliiijr j • ' aHjriiTMCfii. . 'Ijusijihh* lino spriuer. wri^hi 1 six pounds, mI» ; • ■' iy j**‘. Only > purls ns r«nr! »*.| to RHK) to A ** in t ).** n\ « j*- * ti^r *.n :< itiu • i*' f’.f • '?. !#lt Ol A . .tiiii Minis ; tihd • n lortii- fi t <■ K. n. TURNER, GENERAL S<H TMERN AGENT, N<> U X. -i.. Daily i.Vrori Jpi:i ATI.A VI \ ( H ' i. i IM< (UK M !> Nat"! I ■ > D o -i.i.e. No -.di !•.. Main Si. WASH I NT.T!»V I * i I:l(IIM(N\D. VA. • Airma © TC RLAD BGTiJ SIDES OF THE QUESTION? The New York Jounikt fs the enh IVIriropoIiikn paper inc^ra: y TY 1 i'i x r'JYJ u.;- a ,. . L / and it daily po&bbrs a tildes hy the leading flnancd-scf' hz cour- try on Loth sMce of th: qvc'r'on, Oliver veistdG <Yod- h is progressive, liberal ani always espouses the cacs-r. cf the rinses. Every broad minded nir. should veai it, whether Rt-o loUc.-iR or Democrat. n m pi mm nil lid limit tiik-ii M. Dali/ ----- i c. r * e. ory*'. koi a. aubscrlptlon for Ono luont , iacludlner Sundr.y - - - - 7.0 Two Months und f> Half • • $1.00 Send subscription to The New York Clrcnlatloa Dcpartnciit, ! ' W YORE. t-Zr ’rCKt , OC-’-'-C- r -/OOOOO-C <J arsapariila f. i raeBkiodPaHfler. $l;sixfor«S. . " • ' . . Y l !i(* One True lilund I'uriller. $1; six for $5. j , svu riin ' Ills; easy to 1 IGOU S PlllS takv. easy to operate. 25c. 1 t — - l < V-- HARDWARE COMP'Y. >1*— BELTING, PACKINGS, UT.UIUATOKS, INJECTORS, PIPING, And all steam fittings. A lino line of CUTLERY, GINS, PISTOLS, CARTRIDGES, SIIKLLS, And ulinoMt anything you may call for. We cut and fit Pipe. Smith Hardware Go. i t I tf m [■: , • .••j.-./-*:. : •ia.-.iij-, i .r**w'-r. ‘ • ; 1 4- ;* i '' ! T “nijca, etc. jL' -ji - i f .. ,• 'rid/vtl. ’ 1 ! ». v’tRfJM. D-k - >Ii;i’“ . Die r .- f • i' D IM. ;*Ii iht > ©v • i L LYY.Ve ii - -r * »i s-m,- ( .mi.. C ;. . n — / S I XVnrinly q d CVtrmemU-«l A i y !■ t il. |- iiiii nl (!/« «.» V. I>, <M-. ,|„| , Irtl.. . 1 ■’ •!. - iiu i .1 V In' ll Il'.iUil : ; T>. Z BZZ.7 PC « EVcR> ?.ODY j ■SCAUCC f i. In e-.'.y *•_> F:).! the xwinl -vnvlcj. ■, ft Is e ;."y to c-.crluNi the prr.vji’.infior. s It Ii ■- v 1 ■ trace tha prouia ol worj. , It !a easy to E-.irn vvhrt a word iut-i'.:i. T';' ffa.VfgR St'Wtt <C" I.iV'.vrvrr j.ny s; C (iilf i’ : lit I. iviii. ■ v . r !■ u.irriy I - C J ;,-l III", 11 ' . .till* I-.II.M i. >,1 t ,, A ) Uw. I.to-r * r!..i. r (i 1 . i- ii-f i*i>m* i! c •) ll .4 I I . 1 i IP* II (. II* • O ! 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