A VOICE FROMSouth CarolinaTwelve Chapters Before Hampton and Two
Chapters after Hampton |
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A VOICE FROMSouth CarolinaTwelve Chapters Before Hampton and Two
Chapters after Hampton |
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| CHAPTER ELEVENTH - 1876 RECENT
RECONSTRUCTION The details so far recorded, are those which grew out of the political persecution in Laurens County alone. In all the other counties where the writ of habeas corpus had been so arbitrarily suspended, the same reign of terror prevailed, and the trampling in the dust of all rights, social as well as civil. In York County particularly, tales of horror are yet to be told, well calculated to mantle with shame the brow of any honest supporter of the present Administration. There the brute Merrill, holding a commission in the United States army, and backed by bayonets, was allowed unrestricted license to bully, oppress and degrade a defenceless people for months together. An inordinate greed for money, and a Nero-like delight in human torture, were, too evidently, the predominating characteristics of this " Major in the United States Infantry." None of the sanctities of Home—Anglo-Saxon in its name and institution—none of the safeguards of character—unimpeachable for honor and integrity—not even the sacredness of the pulpit, were any obstacles to his petty tyranny. Of his two " Assistant United States Marshals," it is enough to say, that one of them acted as Jack Ketch in the judicial murder of Mrs. Suratt, and the other was a congenial comrade of his. But these tales must be told by some of the sufferers themselves. They owe it to posterity to publish to the world whatbefel our down-trodden State under the infamous "Ku Klux" and " Enforcement" Acts. Four years have rolled around since the occurrences detailed in the last chapter, and time has brought about some of his revenges. The black Ku-Klux cloud has disappeared beyond our horizon, and the infamous Merrill, after following it to the other Dahomey, Louisiana, now finds himself called upon to account for some of his ill-gotten gains, before an investigating committee of Congress. Joe Crews, equally infamous in Laurens, has gone to his final account. One morning, in the summer of 1875, he started very early from Laurens, in his buggy ; was waylaid at a small creek, some four miles from the village; and was brought back, with six buckshot in different parts of his body. He lingered for a few days—died—and was buried. No political significance is given to this horrid assassination, as he had long been shorn of all power from the withdrawal of all United States garrisons from Laurens. Public opinion has settled down into the conviction, that it was merely an act of private revenge, most probably at the hands of some of his own party—some of the same dregs to which he appropriately belonged. He was only of the scum, brought to the surface, in the boiling of the political cauldron, and it is astonishing how soon his memory has rotted. But the old "State" is still "prostrate." The incubus of the ballot, in the hands of her former slaves, and manipulated by unscrupulous and thieving carpet-baggers, still holds the true citizen of the State helpless, and almost hopeless. In 1870, the first effort was made at political conciliation, by uniting upon Judge Carpenter, at that time regarded as trusworthy, in opposition to Scott, who had been nominated by the extreme Radicals, for a second term as Governor. The result was a defeat by over thirty thousand! To show what kind of material we have to contend with in these carpet-baggers, it is only necessary to cite this single case of Carpenter. He was nominated by a "bolting faction " of his party, who made pretensions of contending for " honest government." Carpenter himself was loud and vehement in denouncing the abuses under the Scott administration, and the Conservative party rallied to his support with great unanimity. Now, in this canvass of 1876, Carpenter is the acknowledged leader of the Whipper, Moses, and Elliott faction—the very worst of the band he was pledged to bring to grief. In 1872, Tomlinson, who seems really to be the least objectionable of the fraternity, was selected to oppose the notorious F. J. Moses, the younger. In this case also, Tomlinson was the nominee of a party of " Bolters," and the Conservatives put forth their whole strength in his behalf. But the defeat was equally decisive. Again, in 1874, a third attempt of the same kind was made, in the nomination of Judge Green, a native Republican, in opposition to Chamberlain, the regular nominee of the Radical party; and this time the majority was reduced to some ten thousand. In this Centennial campaign of 1876, the Conservatives seem no longer disposed to conciliate and compromise, by selecting the less of two evils, held out by the opposite party, but to make li straight-out" Democratic nominations. They have faithfully tried the compromise policy for three successive administrations, and have signally failed in accomplishing any good. Now, they propose to reverse the experiment, and to invite all friends of good government, of whatever party, "race, or previous condition, "to come over to their platform, and join in one earnest effort to redeem the State. The experiment has already been carried out to a successful issue in Mississippi and Arkansas, and why may not these happy results be also felt in South Carolina? To any one with the wish and capacity to appreciate her present condition, no blacker picture could be drawn of any government in Christendom. Scott left the Treasury unbarred, but there was some pretension to honesty and decency, in all the glaring rascality of his administration. But the spend-thrift thief, Moses, threw the Treasury doors wide open, and bribery and corruption were organized into a fixed department of the government, under his rule. The remnants of the Treasury were plundered in the broad light of day, and the votes of the Legislature had their fixed market value, according to the importance of the measure to be passed, and the offices to be filled. Even the seat in the United States Senate, once filled by our Calhoun, was notoriously put' up to the highest bidder, and one Patterson, a refugee from Pennsylvania, won it through his henchman, Warthington, a stranger in a strange land. Such was the infamous record of the Moses administration, that his own party, bad as it was, had to repudiate him. To keep up even the semblance of decency, they were forced to adopt pledges of future reform, in the last canvass—mere bnitum fulmen—to be entirely ignored as soon as their lease of power should be renewed. But the standard bearer, D. H. Chamberlain, had sagacity enough to see that their party had well nigh run its course. The very small majority, comparatively, by which he had been elected, and the case of Mississippi so suddenly and completely redeemed, opened his eyes fully to the feeble tenure by which he himself held his office. He, therefore, deliberately adopted the role of Reformer. The sham platform erected by his party gave him a plausible pretext, and his insidious use of the English language in all his public documents, gave strong hopes of sincerity and wise statesmanship. In view of these, and some demonstrations of decision and firmness in carrying out his " reform-measures," the Conservatives of the State were disposed to rally most earnestly to his support. In doing so they had to ignore the greater part of this man's political career. A mere adventurer from Massachusetts, he had turned up, soon after the war, on one of the Sea Islands, near Charleston, where his violent counsels to the Freedmen, as to the vindictive course towards their former masters, had exasperated the native citizens against him, and thus made him one of the shining lights of Radicalism. His legal attainments, unquestionably great, soon brought him prominently before the Freedman's Bureau, and at the Reconstruction Constitutional Convention, he was selected as Attorney-General, under the first, or Scott administration. The State Treasury was then virgin soil for the Radical spoiler, and the havoc they made of the time-honored name and credit of the State, has already been fully delineated in these pages. Chamberlain, as Attorney-General, was, ex-officio, a member of the Financial Board, and, whether he participated or not, he must, evidently, have been cognizant of all these enormous frauds by which the Treasury was so soon and so completely depleted. So far from any official denunciation of the course of his associates, we find him really upholding them. In Scott's canvass for re-election, Chamberlain took the stump, and, by an array of figures, attempted to prove that what are now known as the " Kimpton frauds," were the highest strokes of financial diplomacy. Although all these antecedents were fresh in the memories of our tortured people, yet, the fact that a Radical Governor should talk kindly of the whites, and actually condescend to promise them some " Reforms," touched their hearts, and led them to try, most earnestly, to forget the past. Our newspapers were filled with eulogiums on his wise statesmanship and Roman firmness. Our most distinguished citizens were open in their official calls and conferences at the Executive office, and our Literary Institutions were vying with one another in calling on him for addresses at their scholastic anniversaries. What stronger proofs are needed of the hopeless condition of a once proud people, than such acts as these—thus taking to their bosoms, and cheering to the echo, a Governor from Massachusetts who had only promised not to steal himself, and to use every effort to put a stop to the stealings of his friends ! Whether these promises and protestations were sincere or not, it became evident that he could not control his party, and that the course of the State was steadily downward. The Legislature, still lavish in expenditure, prolonged its two sessions to an average of four months each, instead of the four weeks promised. The tax bill and the appropriation bill, those vital subjects of legislation, were characterized by that wastefulness and extravagance which would have shocked our fathers in the palmiest days of prosperity. But, above all, this party made an exhibition of their utter disregard to anything like decency, in attempting to elevate to the Bench, by the votes of a large majority, two of the most corrupt scoundrels from the lowest of their own ranks—Ex-Governor Frank Moses and General Bill Whipper! Frank Moses had gone into bankruptcy, immediately after leaving the gubernatorial chair, which he had so notoriously disgraced, even as Scott's successor. He had become the veriest social outcast, and had no money to purchase votes, unless his more prudent father had hoarded for him some of his ill-gotten gains. The negro, Whipper, had long since gambled away all his stealings; and Attorney-General Melton had published, over his official signature, that he had not brought action against him for some large embezzlement because he was notoriously insolvent. The Radical majority in the Legislature, therefore, did not even have the excuse of bribery, in making these creatures "Judges of the Circuit Court." The only solution of their course must be, that they intended this action as an open defiance to Governor Chamberlain, and to the moral sense of the whole State. They had the power, and they were determined to show that they could and would use this power as they pleased. Probably no single act of the party in power has ever so thoroughly aroused our people to a more full appreciation of their degradation, and to the imminent danger which threatened even their civilization. Indignation meetings were, simultaneously, called all over the State, and the unanimous sentiment of these meetings has been, that this crowning outrage shall never be consummated. Bill Whipper's circuit was to have embraced the Commercial Emporium of the State, and the staid old city was electrified in every fibre. She knew that upon the proper interpretation and enforcement of thelaw, depended, not only her commercial prosperity, but the lives and property of her citizens. She knew that this ignorant negro was scarcely fit to be admitted to a gentleman's kitchen, and her resolve was at once taken. Her utterances were not loud, but deep, and portended a storm. It requires no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, to announce, that this creature will never take his seat on the Bench in Charleston. The time, fixed by law, for a new judge to take his seat is in August, and the matter must be postponed till then. Governor Chamberlain has done all in his power to stay the evil by refusing to sign the commissions of both of them, but they do not regard this as any final action. Moses Circuit was to have included Sumter, where he has been fully known from his earliest infancy. The full length portrait drawn of him by his own neighbors would entitle him to a conspicuous place in any future illustrated edition of Dante's Inferno. This spontaneous uprising of a whole people, goaded almost to desperation by this outrage on all law, order, and civilization itself, deliberately perpetrated by the Radical party, " met and sitting in General Assembly, "for a time seemed to have inspired some awe in their reckless ranks. But no serious effort has been made to undo the mischief. They have "thrown one tub to the whale" in the impeachment and conviction of one of their imbecile judges, whose term was about to expire, and whose successor had already been elected. Montgomery Moses, uncle of Frank, and brother of Chief Justice Franklin J. Moses, was the unfortunate victim selected. He belonged to that class of the judiciary familiarly called " old grannies," and was equally worthless and harmless. His chief trouble seemed to have been impe-cuniosity, and when he attempted to imitate the modern South Carolina office-holder in "pickings and stealings," he bungled so much that his tracks could be distinctly traced. He kept up some semblance to honesty by borrowing from funds in charge of the court, without any intention of returning the same; and this so disgusted his brigand associates, that the whole pack turned upon kirn, when they found they were expected to do something. It was a clear illustration of Judge Butler's story of the bully, who, when kicked and cuffed about by men whom he had insulted, declared that he could whip somebody, and went home and whipped his wife. |
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