Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina — John Shaqi
Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South CarolinaAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
African Americans -- Fiction; Biographical fiction; Pereira, Manuel -- Fiction; South Carolina -- Fiction
“It's not a button I'd care for the office,” said Dunn. “Sure it's
yerself be's makin' all the fees, and ourselves getting the paltry
dollar; and yerself gives us as much trouble to get that as we'd be
earning two dollars at magistrate Jiles' beyant. Sure! himself's
liberal and doesn't be afraid to give us a division of the fees when the
business is good. And sure ye make yer ten times the fees on an English
nigger, and never gives us beyant the dollar,” continued he, moving off
in high dudgeon, and swearing a stream of oaths that made the very blood
chill. There was a covert meaning about Mr. Grimshaw's language that was
not at all satisfactory to Mr. Dunn's Irish; especially when he knew Mr.
Grimshaw's insincerity so well, and that, instead of being liberal, he
pocketed a large amount of the fees, to the very conscientious benefit
of his own dear self. The reader must remember that in Charleston, South
Carolina, there is a large majority of men who care little for law,
less for justice, and nothing for Christianity. Without compunction
of conscience, and with an inherited passion to set forward the
all-absorbing greatness of South Carolina, these men act as a check upon
the better-disposed citizens. The more lamentable part is, that forming
a large portion of that species of beings known as bar-room politicians,
they actually control the elections in the city; and thus we may account
for the character of the incumbents of office, and for the tenacity with
which those oppressive laws are adhered to.
This almost incompatible conversation between a high sheriff and two
menial constables, may to many seem inconsistent with the dignity
that should be observed between such functionaries. Nevertheless, all
restraint is not only annihilated by consent, but so prominently is
this carried out, and so well understood by that respectable class of
citizens whose interests and feelings are for maintaining a good
name for the city and promoting its moral integrity, that in all
our conversation with them, we never heard one speak well of those
functionaries or the manner in which the police regulations of the city
were carried out.
CHAPTER VI. THE JANSON IN THE OFFING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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