June 23, 1869

To Messrs. Jordan Batson
Jos. Brookshire
J.F. Bramlett
Lefus Vaughn
Ervine Batson
of Greenville, S.C.

Gentlemen:

Your letter addressed to me at Blackville reached me, after considerable delay at Charleston.

You say you fought bravely as Confederate soldiers, and you thought you were in the path of duty. I doubt not that you acted honestly, as I certainly did in contending against you, and I respect you for your courage and frankness. You say: "Consequently, we are now without an arm, or leg, or otherwise maimed for life, have our own wives, little ones and widowed mothers to support in our feeble way and are a Democratic, moneyless, landless, set of men."

I sincerely regret this, and I must express surprise that at the close of the war the Confederate owners in your county of large tracts of land, the half of which they never cultivate, did not personally provide land for each of their soldiers. You were urged by them with glowing promises of lasting honor and large reward; a cause in which you periled life in place of them or their sons. The least that honor or gratitude suggests to me would be a free gift of a small tract of land to every poor, of at least to every disabled Confederate soldier. But perhaps it is useless to ask or hope for even this easy, proper, and cheap, recognition of "valor in the lost cause."

And then you say you are "Democratic, landless men." Do you remember that when the bill to provide for the distribution of lands was before the Legislature, every Democrat seemed to scout the idea of helping the common people to lands and homes, voted squarely against the bill at every stage? Surely, as Democrats, neither they, nor you, can claim anything.

But in general legislation, the Republican Party considers not Confederate soldiers, not Democrats, not Republicans, but citizens. In elections we contend for our men and our principles; -the election over, we act in public measures according to our principles - for all the people. The homestead law, the law relating to mechanics liens, and the law relating to lands were passed for the benefit of all, and particularly the working men.

Meeting you in this broad Republican spirit, I am ready to consider you not as Democrats, nor as Confederate soldiers, but as "landless, moneyless men" sincerely deserving to avail yourselves of the opportunities now for the first time presented in this State. I am ready to do the best I can for you and for all anxious to go up on a little farm, make it their home, and to labor and economize to pay for it.

In seeking for such men I shall not be restricted by "race, color, nativity or previous conditions." This year I hope to put a considerable number of families on lands of the State. But this is simply a beginning. Next year I hope to put a larger number, and the year succeeding a number still larger, and so on until by this means, and by other means, every frugal and industrious man, white or colored, in the State, who wants a home enough to work diligently and faithfully for it, has one; until the Palmetto State is dotted with small productive farms, her waste places built up, and her cites and villages teem with a busy and thriving population.

"In this hope and with this earnest purpose, I am gentlemen, very respectfully and truly yours,

C.P. Leslie
Land Commissioner