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rl Till-WEEKLY EDITION. C.,_ECEMERL12___;_ REPIIB;LICA S WHAT TIlE STATE CO-M3iTTE; SAYS.OF THE CONT EN1 -. it NWVIl be R esisted I- "Al Legitimuate Means"-An Ad;ress to e er pie of the Stat--3ome !bs olutions Adped. At a meeting of the Rcpublic n e_ ecutive committe, '.eld in Coiu:bia on the 2nd inSt., the 'Qllowin addr.s: and resolutions were ad opted and or dored published at the discretion of the chairman, Cap L. D. Melton: To the PeorF of Sod i Ca'oia : It has been weil said that no gues tion can be regarded as diinitely set tied until it has been settled aright, that is, on the basis of right ard ji,s tice. If this saying is tr e, certa_Ui the suffrage queetio: cannot be regard-11 ed as definitely settled by the reccnt enactment of onr .)-callEd Constitu tional Convention, for 'o man can pretend that this enactment is based either on right or juStice. Ois the contrary, it is the very essence 01 injustice a'nd wrong, being nothing less than an att-n:pt to perpetuate cheating and fraud in electi ons by en acting it into the- fundamental law of the State, as was fully admitted in the discussion by its author and chiet advoc.'te, B. R. Tillman. This, in deed, was the openly avowed purpose for calling the convention, an%d_ that purpose, it can hardly be deie., has been faithfully carried cut, and that too in cietr and 1palp'le violation of the Constitr.tion and lrs of the Lnit ed States. In announcing our purpose as Re puxiicans to resist the enforce:ent of this nefarious enactment in every pro per and legitimate nay, a brie-frctro spect of our very asumaloes political situation here in South Carolina may not be amiss. A little over a year ago a fierce and bitter contest was forced upon the peo pie of the State by the dominant Till man faction. That contest was not simply for governor and other Sie oficers and a legislatz:re f<z another term. but what was of vaftlv more im patance, it was teeeide as~to the call of a (o;G ituti;al coaveintion. gain: t such convention were, of course, al Republie:s, chiefly iegroes, the very purpose of its call being their perma nent disfranchisemen . Besides these nearly all the. "Conserv ative-Demo crats"--so-called--and a large portion of the ''Reformers," or Tiianites, even were opposed to it as inoppor tune, unnecessary and dangerous un der the circums:tances. But the Re publicans nad, we may siiy, no organ ization at all, and a vast majority of them were already disfranchised by exi.ting registra.tion and election laws. Nor were the Conservatives at all or * ganized for action, or united as to the proper course to pursue, though, as the result provedi, they had a large majority of the white vote, as well as ti negroes, on their side. The Till manites, on the contrary, followed b9ndly the dictgtes of a bold and de tei-mined leader, had possession of the entire machinery of elections, and had' no scruples whatever about using it for the accomplishment of their purposes -fo -counting iu" irens andi "counting out" opponents. But, not withstanding all these advantages, they were able to count for the head of their ticket for governor only 39,507 votes out of a white voting populhtion L of over-102,000, and an entire voting iopulfation, including negroes, of over 235,000. . hat is to say, the head of their ticket, on their own count, re ceived less than two-fifths of the white vote of the State. ad only about one sixth of the entire vote. The vote in * favor of callhng the convention was Still less by several thousands, being only 31,402. But of course, Evans was "counted in" as gover cor, an d the convention was "counted in" as car ried. And this is the "majority rule" of which the Tilimauites never tire of pnratin g. As stated above, the Republicans had no organization worthy of the 'name. The mere shadow of such an organiza tion bad long since fallen into "inno cuous desuetude," and was never beard of except just prior to Presidential nominations, when it would venture to make a feeble display with a viewv to controlling Federal p.atronage incase of a national Ren)ublican administra tion. But it never had a word of vro test against the grossest cutrares on the rights of Reputblican citizenship petpetrated by the Democratic State governmients. Hence, ita tLhat our notorious and scaudiuludy fraudulent registrati,on and election laws have not been iong since tested in und set aside by the kederal courts. Such lbeing our disorganized situation, we could~ not, of course, do anything as a' prty to hinder the culmination of the Till manite plans at the elections a year . Sonme of us did what we could throughI the press and on the stump; as individ nals to encourage the Cor.servatives, or anti-Tillmaen Demoramts. to organ ;ze and make the Bght, es-pecially against the convention, plein';them., as far as we could, Repubican support. But after sundry e:Worts the'y ile:d to combine, and thus left the Tiliunanites a c;ear road to comiplete success, ex cept in a very few counties. The result of the election as given above shows how easily the Conservatives could have whipped out not only the conven tion, but also the entire Tillman State ticket, had they only organized and made a deteirmined fipht. So~me of the Republicans seei mmg the absolute n ce's sitv of a live and energetic organiza after the election fur a Re;ut;ca cn vention to meet in Culuria. That convention mt last February. _e'.rl all the counties in the State were _ep resente., and made suci a showing that even that very hostile paper, the Charleston News and Courier, i a shriek of .larm, e haracterized it as the first live Republicen convention held in SouthCarolina since the downfallof Radicalism in 1876. At that conven tion. ammo,.. other things, we adopted a piatfor,r-n ;fi1 accord with that of the national epub:iican party-on all national issues of the day-the tarirT sound money, eivil service reform, ete. lhese princioles we insist are in no way hostile or- detrimental to the best interests of the South, and we deny that the Republican - party is in any sense a sectional party any more tuan is the Democratic party. But on local affairs we were broadly liberal. While insisting on a Consti intion that would make no discrimina-I tion against any class of citizens. that i it should not be put in force until rati id by a popular vote, and that it -houid provide against fraud in blee - tions by the participation of the leud ing political parties in their mnrige ment. We declared our readiuers to co onerate with and under the lea(Ter shi_ of the conservative De mocrats. i? the~y would organize and take the lead. We hoped in this way to en courage thei~ to come out boldly and assume leadership. This seemed the only means under the circumstances of preventing the convention from falling completely under the control of the Tiliman :aetion. But the Conserva tives again dilly-dallied, were divided in counsel and finally did nothing. T he result was the Tilininnites were in full control and wehave cheating aad fraud engrafted in the fundamental law of our State. Besides, it is to be pitt in opeiation without ratification by a popular vote and the minority is to be ?llowed no part in the management of elections. The Ctuesti')nwe are now called upon as Republicans to decide upon it as to whether we shall tamely submit to this gross outrage and injustice, and, as we believe, clear and pal pable violation of the Conststution of the United States, or shall we res:st it by every means in our power. On this anestion, the following =es lations, unanimously adopted, ex press.our views and decision as to.the State Repdblican executiTe coiimittee; as to what should te our course in the emergency forced upon us. F'or the execcttire committee. L. D. Melton, Chairman. C. F. Holmes, Secretary. Rlesolvedi, first, That on national issues we reairm our adherence to the national Republiean paity asexpresspd n our platform adopted in convention Feb. 6, the last past. that is to say: We are in favor of moderate and reazonable nrotection for American labor and American calital against the cheaper labor and cheaper capital of other countries. We are in favor of sound, full value money, whether. of gold, silver or paper currency, for all classes and conidtions of people, for the bread winner as well as for the capitlist; for the poor laborer in his ut, as well as for the millionaire in his palace. We are in favor of a govern ment service based on merit and char ater and capacity, instead of on the corrupt and debasing Democratic Jackson system of "cto the victor be long the spoils."I Resolved, second, That on State is sues we decline to accept as final andi definite the Coustitution-so-called just completed by the Constitutional convention-so-called-here in Colam bi, and this for the following reasons: We regard it as fraudulent in its ori gin, in that it was frauduh~ntly "~oun-. ted in" with only 31,402 votes out of a voting population in the State of over 235,000 according to the United States census of 1800; fraudulent in character, in that it proposes to per petuate in the fundamental law of the State the system of cheating and fraud and discrimination against certain classes in elections; and fraudulent in its finale in that it proposes to put this so-called Constitution in operation as the fundamental law of the State with out first submitting it to a popular vote for ratification. This latter alone, as has been well said by high authority, "is contrary to the spirit of American institutions and hostile to the true theory of republican govern ment." We therefore propose to re sist in every proper and legitimate way this so-called Constitution, and to use our utmost efforts before congress and before the Federal courts, as well as before returning sense of justice and fair dealing of cur people, to have it declared nnll and void. We do not proose, however, to carry on this struggle for right and justie~ aloag at:v narrow or factional lines; on the contrary, we cordially invite and in voke the co-operation and hearty par ticipation of aul patriotic and justice loving citizens of our State, without regard to party or faction. It is a struggle forced upon us against our will by the dominant, arbitrary ar.d deotic Tillmnan faction, and no choice is left us but resistance or cow ardiy submission to wrong and the grossest kind of injustice. Resolved, third, That immediate or ganization of all friends of our course is imperatively demanded to en'ective meet the condi:tion confronting us, a~nd in order that organization may be systematic and thorough. a set of rules have been adopted aind printedi; copies can be i ~d up)on application to these heaaqiuart.. Prsier.t Clevelan d'Amoonthe Untcle. President Cl3veland, autompa1'nNje S C retary Lamont, Captain~ Wjij an-i D:. B:s arivd~ at Norfolk. Vi.. an the li:zthouse tender Maple. At tir bIIJ ye thwr tr~nsferreA t' th.. Vint. whie'h started at $ne for the diucki-a z-out..ls of North Care RAILROAS OF THE STATE. ANAL REPORT OF THE STATE lRAlLROAD CO'I3!SSION. Their 3!iicage, General Finacial Ccn: dition and so Forth Very Con p:.ctiy Stated #i a R ead ab!e Report. The following extract from the an n'l report of the South Carolina railro dlconiission will be read with its by the people of this and other ltates: The total- mileage in the State on the 1it of N ovember, 1895, was 2,621. SI lile s. ra.era:er c iari ;s ..............2.393.67'.24 'r-"ht . . aiS........ ....... ,5S5.52.77 0:hrr carnings from crerations 10,,5 5.S5 ITrnC from ot'er source=.. .. 539.244.52 (T: inleL tC 3G3S.185:.123i e:;aneaus ineme of (ieorz:i, Caroi.:a and Northern 1ail S7.G25,557.63 Tota expense. maintenance of wav and stru ta:2. :nlte naanee of equijp:ent. co duet ing transCrtation, general ex penCses and taxes........ 1t incoe e..............1,299,39S.O0 :et in:ome per mile........ .. 451.59 A net income of 4 1-3 per cent. on f? valuation of 810,000 per mile of road. This shows a decrease of $112,229.43 between 1 8)4 and 189 . The increase in new mileage during the year has been the completion of the Glenn Snrings Railroad, 14.65 miles, nine m es of which was built in 1834, but not reported in its mileage able for that year; the Latta Brarch, three milts; the Elioree Branoh, 6.50 miles, built by the Atlantic Coast Line liiroad,making the total new mileage reported for the year 24.15 miles. oEx n.L CO:DITION o ROADS. There have been some material changes in the conditions of the rail road systems in the State since the last report of th railroad commission. The Southern'tilway has completed its-re-orgauization. This corporation owns the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad and the Columbia and Greenville Railroed. which they now call theSouthernRailway in South Carolina. They are operating the Asheville and Spartanburg P.ailroad, the Spartanburg, Union and Columbia Railroad and the Atlanta and Char lotte Air Line Railroad under lease. Nearly all of these roads are in first class operating condition, but many of the pr.ssenger depots of thic system aro indct:te to the needs of the travel ing public; otherwise the service ren dered is eoual to the best in the South. The Blue Ridge Railroad is now operated by H. C. Beattie, as receiver, who also has charge of the Carolina, ?noxvilie and Western Carolina Rail way. The Lanirens Railwny is in charge of Judge A. C. Haskeli, os receiver. The Chester atuc Lenoir and Cheraw an d Chester railroads arc narrow gutage roads and are therefore restricted mainly to local business, having no means of transfer except by hand. Their nhysical condition is good, the trestles a'nd bridges are in safe condi tion and acceptable service is given the people. The Seaboard Air Line has continued~ to improvc its condition until it need no longer be termed a new road; its service is now equal to the best in the Country. The Florida Central and Peninsular railroad operates its South Bound division in this State between Colum bia and Savannah. The roadbed, tres ties, bridges and depots are in good condition. This road is doing a large share of the Florida business and is giving satisfactory service to the people. The iohysical condition of the South Carolina and Georgia railroad is first cas and the people are well served. All culverts, trestles, bridges and depots are in good repiair. There have been 100,000 crossties put in the main line the pant year. The stations have been reaired and whitewashed or repainted and arc nea t and clean. All the agents on this line have been neatly uniform ed and flower gardens are established at all depots. This line is the first in the State toi make the stations and its anpointments attractive to the travel iii public. At Charleston this road has extended its track down to the wharves, has dredged out the docks and can now accommodate vessels of 23 feet draught at low water. Con uetmgr with steamships is a vast im oeent over the connection with rv,as heretofore. and will be of in ca !alaie benefit to the company in hanj:uc t through2 business, as well a beit to the city of Charleston. Te company~1 has added 250 new box cars to its equipment, fitted with aato mnatic couplers and air brakes, an I is well prepared to give the people e'cry accommodation for handling their fr.ints. The Ohio Riv-er and Charleston rail rod is wori:ed at great disadvantage on accont of the competion it meets. It is 167 miles long and is crossed by trngl compjeting lines at fiVe different ponsa.out 20 miles apart. There ae six mleCs of trestles and briieges, vayn in~ height from 20 to 90 feet. Th tastls anui the depots along the line a:-e in poor condition. Every t of money earned by the road .b vi 5xd charges is expended on re pairs. The "ages of all the employes, from su1;erintendtc down, are low. The superintendient dese'rves especial mvention for his conduct of the road. WTar no complaints as to the ser vice he is giving the people. When Receiver Chamoelainl operated it, the road fell behito pay:ing its operating m xpnse $45')0 per annum for sever al years. The present -manageient has paid orerating expenses and de serves our congratulations. The Chari;stun and Savannah rail . has been improving its terminals in Charleston and its eleient superin tendiet is -eep,:g its service :p to its iual first clasS standard. This road oeratS the Green Pond. Walterbor? end Dranchiile railway. The Port Royal and Augusta rail way is still in the hands of Receiver Averill, who has mnaaged it with his usuai ability, and notwithstanding the strong Competition of the Savannah river, he has been able to improve the pnyceal condition of the road and gradually inerease its revenue. Receiver Cleveland still has charge of the Pcrt Royal and Western Caro lina railroad and the recent inspection of tis propcrty shows n,ro substan tial "mrovent in the way of illing u; trestles, putting in steel viaduets, b:ilding new depots, etc., than obtains elscwhere in ti. Stat;. .All the money made br tis road is pmut on the phyicalI beitt,rnent of the property; not onc cent has been par out in in terest. The property is advertised for sale by the courts; if it is left in the hands of its present management a few years longer the owners will have a desirable property f* sale and the State will have another first class rail road for the bnefit of the people. The Atlantic Coast Linehas purchas ed during the year the Charleston, Sumter and Northern railroad. Its mileage has been divided amongst its system as follows: The Cheraw and Darlingtotn ra:lroad ocerating that portion of the road from Darlington northon ard. and the Manchester and Augasta operating from Darlington southward. The absorption of this rail road by a competing road, with the changes of management, has brought some friction and inconvenience to the public by changes of schedules and connections, but the assurance has been made that ihe system can render I a better and cheaper service than can I be rendered by two systems occupying the same territory, and the commission nl::sist on the _tlantic Coast Line givicg the public along the line of th olJ Charleston, Stunter and Northern railroad as efileient service as they have enjoyed heretofore. All the roads that go to make up the Atlantic Coast Line system in thisState are in fine conditi.on and the entire serv:ce is one of the best in the coun try. Considerable work has been done by this system to their terminal facili ties in the city of Charleston; 300 feet have been added to their already large depot, making it one of the most com modicur id the South. The short roads in the State, like the Branchville and Bow-ian Railroad, Caroli:a Midland Uacwy,.. George town and Western Railroad, Hampton and Branchville Railroad, are in fair operating condition. Dating the year there have been various complaints to the commission as to interstate rates; among these the most important one being the com plaint of the farmers shipping water melons to the Northern markets. The commission are of the opinion that these rates are too high. Recently Mr. Haviland Stevenson, a represc:tative of the intermtate ecmi mission, visited the South Carolina commission for the parpose of discus ing these maitrrs and the papers filed with the board from tbe complainantL were tarned over to Mr. Stevenson to be laid before the interstate commerce commission. This commission has every assurance that the matter will be fully investigated and some material reduc tion made in the rates on watermelons. THlE NEW MCHIA.ND MILLS. Its First Shipment of Goods Made Very Early. IThe P.iehland Cotton Mills have bonterecord for early shipments ogodto market. This mill has madec its 1irst shipmnent of goods from three to six months earlier than mills of its size are usualilv able to do. It iS a beginning that President Whaley has every reason to be prond of. The mill Iis no-v running right along and Presi dent Whaley says: "The prospects with the present market are all that can be desired." The Columbia State his been pre ented with a sample of the escellent product of the mil1, a beautiful speci men of fine goods, which are displayed tin the office windows, so that he who runs may read the s.gns of the times. The texture and. finish of the cloth is unuulflyv fIne. Terse>c eresa tha record of this niP is as~fozlows, av' it specks for itself: On Mondiy, Feb. 4, iS95, tha Rich land Cotton mills organized by elect ing a board of directors and other offi cers. The first cull of 20 per cent. of the amnount subscribed to the capital stock was uride on Feb. 15. The boted of corpxatrs received thcteror the :mill on the 18th of On the first of cach consecutive month a call of 10 oc-r cent. wasissued to each sharaLolder to be paid on the 15th. The ca'bs were paid up very p roimtly. On Feb. 20 work en the site was commenced. nil orders for material and machinery having been placed. Brick work begun on March Lth. From that time the work was rushed rapidly to copletion. On Oct. 5, at three mintes of 2 p. n., cotton was started through the openers, anti, although del.syed by some tardy machinery na repairs to tho looms, which were caused hy somse minlor pLrts going wrong, cloth was made :tnd work was pushed so that a shipment of nine hales of 43 twills was made on Nov. 28. 183~>. "Thanksgiv ing day," over the South Carolina and Georgia, by steamer to New York, they thus reaching New York Monday, ex atly two .iays less than 20 months romn the eraaization of the comn jany, The Aged Statesman Makes the Last SpCeeh of the Seesion. Below is given the farewell speech of "Un:le" George Tillaan, delivered to the Constitutional convention, when ho was so enthubiastically called for at the cio-e of the convent:on's proceed inss on the ia:Il night. It was the last sl,eechc made in the convention. It was listened to with the closest at tention. It deals with the Federal outlook in an interesting manner. Here is the speech in full: Mr. Pressdent and gentlemen of the convention: I had no expectation of being invited to address the convention on-notbing in particul~ar and every thing in general. But sinco I have been called on in such a complimen tary manner, I would either be more or less than a m,ln if I did not thank the convention for such a compliment. Mr. President, we can all hope a great deal from the Constitution we have adopted. It is not such an in strument as we would have made if we had been a free people. We are not a free pecple. We have not been finee the war. I fear it will be some time before we can call ourselves free. I have had that fact very painfully im pressed upon me for several years. If we were free, instead of having negro suffrage, we would have negro. slavery. Instead of having the Laited States government we would hare the Con federate States government. Instead of paying $3,000,000 pension tribute, we would be receiving it. Instead of having many things that we have, we would haLve other and better things. But to the extent that we are permitted to govern oulselves and pay pension tribute to our conquerors, we have framed as good an organic law, take it as a whole, as the wisdom and patriot ism of -he State could have desired. Perhaps, sir, if I were to speak ap proprititely on such an occasion as this. I C.ght to speak from a :.ational point of view--about our Fe:.eral relations and about our future as forecasted '0V our present sturroundings. Bt it is too vast a subiect to be taken offhand. Tie convention, though is tired out. Many of them are making preparations to go hormc, and I shall therefore not attempt it. I will cisually allude to a few mat ters in national politics which gave me hope of a better future for us. One is the fact that I am satisfied that the Republican party has adopted a new departure towards the negro. The silver question has to a great extent superceded the negro question. It was the silver question that saved us from not onvl more reconstruction hell in 1890,but that saved the govern ment of the United States from being revolulionized from top to bottom. The Lodge force bill under Reed's manipulation, passed the hous of re presentatives and came within a one vote of passing the senate. So near did we come to having our present form of government overthrown, and yet South Carolinians were wrangling over local matters here, simply scrambling for office without any p_in ciple at stake and didn't seem to realize how near we were to having a a political volcano exlploded under our feet. Free silver sas ed us. The free silver senators said: "We are more interested in free silver than we are in the rights or wrongs of the negro. - and as the south is almost unanimous for free silver, we would be a parcel of fools to help the eastern States op press the south o:) the negro question." Free silver then saved us in 1390, and I believe gentlemen, free si]ver vwi' save us in the presence of the over whelming Republie-.a sentiment that now dominates the north. Not only dominates the north, but all the ber der slave States. Remember Dela ware, 3Meryland, West Virgiuia, North Carolina, Tcnnessee a::d MIissouri all went Republican at the last election on account of the Fedleral election laws being repealed. The free silver question will not die soon. It is a living question. It has as much vitality as the negro question ever had. Of course, Disraeli was I ight when he said a race issue in pol itics was the most vital that ever could be started. But a financial question like free silver is almost as strong. It will te years perhaps be fore the silver question is finally set tlea, and until it is the negro question will be relegated to the rear. The Re publicans realize that the negro ques tion is a secondary question now, aind hence it was theyv consented to the repeal of the Federal election laws, wbich gave them back the southern horder states, and those horder States have gone to the Republican party to stay. They have gone where they naturally belong. Hence there is no more solid Democratic south. We are to find other alliances and economic issues are to take thae place of the once greet issue. Besides, the Republicars, when they chose to exercise it, with out passing any law, can exercise great power ever the south-admitting or excluding her representatives or senators. They will be put to the test whether they will be willing to shut the doors of congrees to the Socth Carolina representatives in the p)resent cnrs.Not feeling the necessityj for it in the house, they mnay not do it~ except in some eases where they may feel it necessary to keep the negro in heart, to retain the balance of power in the northern States, which are con trolled by' the negro votes beause they have to do something occasional-1 iv 'to warm that race up. But I am satsfed they have adopted a new de parture. They are divided themselves on the silver question. The east is not sol.d for silver. The west hasa a large majority of silver and today theI only tw'o principles left to the Demo dratic party in South Carolina aire en mity to Cleveland and friendship to free silver and the silver senators will n ~ot pemi any leeislationl on the ne gro queAti n and the courts have re to punish South Carolina. So we can reasonably hope to have some i eace and quiet for a few years at least. They are going to let us alone and if we don't pile on too much animis opi busque pariti in attempting to assert our sovereignty they will let us have considerable elbow room. But they are a queer people, especi ally under the rule of Tom Reed, who at the present stands the best chance of being the next President of the United States, and if he is, I tremble at what may happen. I was laughiug the other day with some gentlemen at the idea of anybody quoting the Con stitution of the United States to Tom Reed, if he were President. He is a very ambitious man, but there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip and a better fate may be in store for this coantry than to have such a dangerous man for President. I could go on and enlarge on this theme if I had drea.red that it was the pleasure of the convention to listen to m?. If I ha- had a!y idea that it was the pleasure of the gentlemen to call on me I would have presented other silver linings to the cloud that hovers over us. I do not despair for the re public. I cannot believe that the great God above us is going to desert this people and turn it over to anarchy or civil war. I believe in the sober sec ond thought of the great Anglo-Saxon race, who will decide their differences at the ballot boxes rather than with the cartridge. I believe that we are going to have a new alignment of po litical parties. There is no telling what parties or factions we will have in the fnture. None of us need make any rash promises or assume any ex treme positions as to where we will be one year hence in politics. I believe new political parties will be organized. Democracy is not dead. Its principles are eternal, and the principles an nounced by Jefferson, the great father of it, in his first message in 1801, have been the political bible of freemen thrc ugi:out the world; it is their bible to-day, and all that we have to do is to teach our boys and young men those principles and let them always refer to them as the test of every public man and public measure. We may join the Republican party down here for mo tives of policy. I sometimes think that if we had joined the Republican party just after the war it might have been better for us, but we could not do it. We were too honest and too proud. We had to come down sorter by degrees. Now our party has been almost dis banded by the treachery of Cleveland, and the policy of the Republican party. There is no change of heart in.:them. They never went back on theTnegro from principle; it was policy,..Their gold bugs would insist that 5rlver should be destroyed as- money, and their own people revolted at it because they were not willing to have white slavery established by those who wish ed to regulate wages by controlling the amount of money in circulation. That is what saved us once; it is what saves us now. It is what will save us for many years in the future, which shows that God in his mysterious way works out things to the right end in the long rn. There are general causes which, under the same circumstances, with the same men, will work out the same results. Those causes have been at work for our good as well as for our harm in some respects. Mr. President, this is perhaps the lst time I shall ever talk in a delibera tive assembly of my countrymen. I am done with public life. As I re marked on a previous occasion, I have enjoyed far more than the average. share of public honor. 7\Iy ambitions have been gratified. I have nothing to regret except that 1 could not do more for my country. In our debates here I perhaps may, in the heat of the moment, hs.ve said things in a tone of irritation or made remarks that had better' not been rtered. There was no personal feel ing if I did so. It was but the impulse of an honest heart trying to speak the truth as it was understood by me. If I have hurt any member's feelings in any way, either in debate or in free personal intercourse, I beg his pardon. For the few years that are left me, sir, I shall always cherish the remem brances of this convention with pleas ure. I believe I speak what every member on this floor feels in his heart when I say from the first day when we met here to the present hour, the can vention has become more and more consolidated as one man, and inspired by one purpose, stimulated by one efort, to do0 the best we could for our old mother State, showing that we never have been divided on principle daring the last six years of strife, and that our polities have been based upon men and not 'neasures. personalities and not principles, and true Democ racy as deli ned by Jefferson demands measures not meu. It must be a source of great gratifi cation to every member here and to their constituents at home to see with what unanimity, with what courteons ness and yet with what independence of action their representatives in this body have made the Constitution which we have just ratified. It is a rainbow of hopc that the State may hereafter he united as in the past, as one man. 'or, remember, my countrymen, it took all the efforts we could lay forth in '76, and for many years thereafter, to control this State; and if we bec'ome divided, as I fear we may be, and as I hope we will not for some time to come, we may iind it still more difi elt-I wo' say impossible. I have u abiding faith in the Anglo-Saxon race, as there never has been a con siderable number of them together anywhere that they did not dominate an race with which they came in con t'c~t; and whatever may happen I have faith that they will rule. But as I said, let us never forget that it took the combined forces of all the men, wo.en and r-hildren in South Cro lina to get and keep contro, and tat we ought to try in a spirit of self sacrifice to come together here as we were in '76. Gentlemen, I will not detain you. longer. I thank you for the high com pliment you have paid me. Would to God I could have done more in my feeble way to help on the labors of this body. I have done my best, and so have you all. I hope that as South Carolinians, as white men and Demo crats we will go on as prosperously. in the future as we ever have in the past. And no matter what shall betide us in the future I believe we can meet any fate, and nothing can go amiss.witb us unless we forget thatwe are white I men, Carolinias and Demacrats. (rw lunged applause.) - - FINER FERTILIZERS. F : er Samples Found Deficient This year Than in Any Year Previous. - Below is given the annual report of Secretary J. P. Smith of the. State board of fertilizer control, contained-in the eighth annual report of the South Carolina experimental station, whieh shows very fully the improvements made in the grades of fert:lizers fur nished during the pastyear, and shows the income derived by the State from the fertilizer tax: 15SPTCTIOa ER FE'IIIZES. Owing to the great depression in the fertilizer trade the past year the ship ping season did not open as early as usual, consequently our inspectors were not started to work till about Feb. 1, and therefore had only about two months in which to work. However, - they made a thorough canvass .of the State and visited most of the shipping points several times during the season. Three hundred and forty samples of fertilizers, representing 206 brands of goods, were collected. All of these, except the duplicate samples, were ana lyzed and reported in.bulletin No. 20 of the South Carolina experimental station, 10,000 copies of which were distributed throughout the State. Com paratively few cases of irregularities were discovered. Thegreatestdlifdculty we have to contend with in carrying out the law of the State is the collee tion of the privilege tax on cotton seed meaL This contiines to.. give us trouble. Under the law, as_construed by this department, we tat the meal when it is.sold as a fertilizer, and we regard it all as a fertilizer unless it is branded as stock food, but in many cases it is bought by farmers and deal ers in carload lots, frequently from. mills in other States, without stating, and perhaps not knowingfor,whatpu pose it is to be used, and is shipped and distributed free of the tax, when - doubtless a large portion of it is used as a fertilizer. As the law now stands, persons who are disposed to' disregard t can easily do so and have a loophole of escape from its penalties. In "miew of the difficulty of onforcing the pres ent law, and since cotton seed mealh.e$ come into such general use as a co'n pmercial fertilizer, I would recommefd that the legislature be asked to place.it on the same footing as other commer cial fertilizers and make it liable. to the privilege tax in all cases. .The State of Georgia has had such a law in operation for several years, and I feel conident that it would be to the inter est of the farmers to have the law' so amended and that the manufactufers themselves would not object to it. I think it but just to state in this conu nection that I believe most mills in the State try to comply wit.h the law as it is, and sonle of them e,*en pay the tar on all meal they sell now rather than - run the risk of violating theState laws. GUaRASrEES. It is gratifying to report that fewer samples have been found below th~e manufacturers' guarantees, than in any year since the organizacion of this de partment. Under the act~ of 1894, which allows a limit of 3 .per cent. below commercial values, only. two brands of goods were fonnd deficient. niBMEXs' sanIYEs. A greater number of farmers' samples Ihare been received tais year than last, and all of those collected according to the prescribed rules o'f the de1partmenlt have been analyzed and reported to the rersons sending them. ~Instructions for collecting. and fowarding these samples are always frnished on application .to the fer tilizer department and it is important. that farmers comply striutly with these Irules, as they have been adopled solely for their benefit. The following table sh'ows the work of the department this season, also for, e omparison the corresponding figures of 1894 are given: Privileg'e tax collected, 1893, 830, I077.93; 1894, $1.3,499.06. Amount of Ifertilizers sold in the State, (tons) 1895SO, 120,311; 1894, 173,996. Nuin her of s.tmples collected 'by inspectors, 1S95, 340; 1894, 500. Nnimber of sam pies analyzed, 1895, 206; 1894,- 234. Number of samples below guarantee, 195. -23; 1894, 41. Per cent. -of Isamples below guarantee, 1895, 11; 194, 18. *Under the present law, which re quires that the commercial valus based npon the actual analysis shall not fall 8 er cent. below the commercial value based upon guarantees, only two brands were found denicient. The following statement shows the total expense of the department . for Ithe past year: Saaries of chemists and secr4tary. .$2,12407 C1'emical4 supnlies and fuel. ..4%6 Po;stae, stationary. eteca........... 63.72; Freigt andi expenses.....-....... 52.51. IPriting tax tags...... ..... .. 900.00 Sresof veterinarp surgeon... 34.70 sairi's ad railroad fare of inspec- - Total...... .......... $4,379.40 The Pradential Committee. of the Amerl can .oard of Foreign Missions asked theRed Cros Society to- -take charge of the relib! -