SOUTH CAROLINA. 



705 



public roads'in said county to compound for their 

 work b\ paying two dollars each PIT annum. 



Appropriating (800, if M> mucli be ncces-ary. to 

 complete the Confederate roll--. 



Vc-tini: all the right and title of tin- Slate in or to 

 n:il in tin- owners (if lands adjacent 



thereto se\ erallv. 



Amcnd'nii: an' Act entitled "An Act to prohibit 

 nmi residents from hunting, ducking, li.-him; and 

 iruiherim: oysters and terra|>in within the limits of 

 untie- of tieor^etown, Charleston. Beaufort, 

 < '..li. 'ton and Berkeley, except upon certain condi- 

 tion^" so as to embrace other shell ti-h than oysters, 

 and MI a- to include the county of I lorry in the pro- 

 vi-ions of said Act and its amendments. 



Re-chartering the South Carolina Medical Associa- 

 tion and establishing a State board of health. 



An Act to prevent cruelty to children. 



Political. The quarrel between the two fac- 

 tions of the Democratic party was very bitter 

 during the first part of the year. The opponents 

 of t lie State administration that is, the Cleveland 

 Democrats or Conservative Democracy held a 

 convention at Columbia on March 24, with 272 

 delegates. A State ticket was nominated, headed 

 hv c\-(Jov. John C. Sheppard as candidate for 

 Governor. A platform was adopted of which the 

 following are the more significant declarations : 



\\'c submit that the course of the head of our 

 present Stale Administration, both before and since 

 his election, has been in many respects unwise and 

 unjii-t. We believe the tendency of his methods 

 anil policy is to destroy the credit of the State, to the 

 injury of the people, by making it impossible to re- 

 fund our State debt at a reasonable rate of interest, 

 Mich as is uiven our sister States of the South ; to 

 involve us in long and expensive lawsuits, without 

 proper cause, eating up the substance of the tax- 

 payers for the enrichment of attorneys and court 

 ollicials ; to keep alive discord and strife, which 

 endanger the party, on which the safety of the State, 

 her men, women and children depend, by constantly 

 add in i: to the number of the disaffected ; to make a 

 servile Legislature and an intimidated judiciary and 

 thereby to pervert what should be the responsible 

 and proti'ctinir (ioverument of a free people into an 

 absolute dictatorship, with all power in the hands of 

 one man : to make the Governor the master and king 

 of the people instead of their servant. 



\Vc demand of the next General Assembly such 

 legislation as will <_ r ive us a reasonable and equitable 

 -\ Mem of assessment for taxation. We will demand 

 also the continuation of the work of completing and 

 opening of Clemson College. 



We denounce the proposition to increase the poll 

 ta\ to .<; a year, because it would unjustly put a 

 burden on people not able to bear it. 



We oppose and will labor to change the present 

 -ystrin of management of the Penitentiary, by which 

 convict labor is used to make cotton in competition 

 with honest farmers and agricultural laborers. 



We eharire that the present constitution of the 

 State Democratic party is unfair and undemocratic 

 and constructed in the interest of machine politics 

 and bossisin. 



Speeches were made in various parts of the 

 State during the summer by the opposing can- 

 didates, calling out large audiences and arousing 

 .great enthusiasm and strong factional feeling. 



A State convention was held on May 19 for the 

 purpose of electing delegates to the National 

 Convention at Chicago. This convention was 

 entirely in control of the administration party. 

 The resolutions declared in favor of the Ocala 

 platform, which calls for the abolition of national 



VOL. xxxn. 45 A 



banks, the establishment of sub-treasuries for 

 lending money at 2 per cent, interest on farm 

 products and real estate, the increase of the < ir 

 culatiiii,' medium to not less than $50 per r]>it<i. 

 laws against dealing in futures, free and un- 

 limited coinage of silver, laws prohibiting alien 

 ownership of land, and government control of 

 railroads. The resolutions gave the following 

 utterance on the coining nomination at Chicago : 



We see with displeasure and apprehension that the 

 money changers of Wall street ha\e invaded the 

 sacred temple of Democracy and that they will try 

 and force upon our party a candidate representing 

 not the wishes and well-beingof our people, but their 

 o\\n selfish interest. We assert that (irover Cleve- 

 land does not represent the principles of Democracy 

 as taught our forefathers and as we understand 

 them. 



We therefore enter our solemn protest against the 

 nomination of Grover Cleveland or any other candi- 

 date known or believed to be selected in the interest 

 of and at the dictation of Wall street ; but we de- 

 mand as our standard-bearer a man for the people 

 and with the people, and who will serve the people 

 and not any class or faction. 



We shall look upon the nomination of Ex-Presi- 

 dent Cleveland if forced upon the party at the 

 Chicago Convention as a prostitution of the prin- 

 ciples of Democracy, as a repudiation of the demands 

 of the Farmers' Alliance, which embody the true 

 principles of Democracy, and a surrender of the 

 rights of the people to the financial kings of the 

 country. 



After these declarations it was further re- 

 solved : 



That we pledge the Democracy of South Carolina 

 to abide by and actively support the nomination of 

 the National Democratic party at the. Chicago Con- 

 vention, and the platform upon which such nomina- 

 tions shall be made. 



The primaries held on Aug. 30 were over- 

 whelmingly in favor of the administration 

 party, and made the renomination of the' 

 Governor secure. 



The convention for nominating State officers 

 and presidential electors met in Columbia, Sept. 

 21. The existing State officers were all renom- 

 inated, with the exception of the Attorney- 

 General, for whose office D. A. Townsend was 

 the candidate. 



The Republican convention met at Columbia, 

 Sept. 28. The platform affirmed allegiance to 

 the party principles as expressed at Minneapolis, 



Sledged support to the national candidates, and 

 eclared that " with a free ballot and a fair 

 count the State of South Carolina would IK? placed 

 in the column of Republican States by a majority 

 of forty thousand votes," and further, 



That the registration and election laws of South 

 Carolina, by means of which the Democratic party of 

 the State is" enabled to give to the nominees of that 

 party the electoral vote of the State, deprive us of 

 the benefits of a republican form of government, as 

 declared by the Constitution of the United S 

 and call for the iiiterpositi.ni of the National Gov- 

 ernment to protect us in the rights and liberties 

 guaranteed to us by the fundamental laws of the 

 land. 



That the meager and inadequate educational 

 facilities afforded by the State is a just cause for 

 serious and anxious consideration In view of the 

 large percentage of illiteracy within our borders, and 

 the outlook for the future of the youth who are to 



