Greenville S.C

May 16^th 1871

Lysander Spooner Esq.

Dear Sir.

I thank you for a copy of your admirable letter to the Hon. Charles Frances Rooney. I was surprised to see such a __ merit people’s hid in the city of Boston. It is full of truths expressed in glowing eloquent & powerful terms. Would to God we had such honest enough & bold enough to express such sentiments all over the Republic so called.

To such a Union those for thirty years us South Carolina as I stood almost alone. But when I ___ the Southern people under the secession & _____, however unwisely, I thought they had a right according to the principles of the America Declaration of Independence to govern themselves according to their own notions. It is nonsense to call any other form of Government republican. I concur with you most heartily in saying that we more at this time a military desperation, a concept & creed desperation which places the wealth & intelligence of South Carolina, by theories of the bayonet, under the government of ignorant & corrupt freed men who fill with with unprincipled corpses bagging all the offices of the State. The tax payers of South Carolina have no voice in laying taxes or dis___ the same & more corrupt & degraded government never existed on the face of the earth– and yet it is called a republic.

___ with a great respect.

Yours truly,

B.F. Perry