The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-25
Audi AIteran pnrtem.

pose to direct your attention to GER
tain facts which are omitted in that
paper, and which may serve to re-
move, if not from your mind, per-
haps from the minds of persons liv-
ing abroad, the erroneous impressions
it is calculated to produce. shall
not attempt to comment upon the
various grounds upon which this
document has been issued. They
resolve themselves into one or two
leading propositions, viz: The white
people of South Carolina are com
mitting oil sorts of violence and
crime against innocent and unoffend-
ing negroes and prominent members
OF the radical party, and openly de-
ride and deny the authority of the
State government; that to overawe
the negroes, and prevent them from
voting at the ensuing election, they
have introduced into the State large
quantities of arms, and secretly dis
tributed them. These grave charges
against the whites, who are called by
you Democrats, are founded, you
state, upon reports daily received"
at the Executive Department. You
state, also, that these reports pro-
ceed particularly from certain Coun-
ties which you name, and, amongst
them, Newberry, the County in
which the writer lives. You then
enjoin it upon the authorities to be
active and faithful in the discharge
OF their duties, aud to report all
cases of violation of law. And you
also appeal to the law-abiding people
OF the State to aid you in your
'efforts to maintain the supremacy
of the law and the rights of the peo-
pie by discountenancing and de-
outrage"
You finally conclude with the de-
claration, ''that if your efforts to ac-
complish this, by peaceable means,
are frustrated, you will be compelled,
however reluctantly, to arm and
organize sufficient force of loyal
citizens to overcome resistance, and
that the responsibility of the consc-
quences, however disastrous and de-
plorable, must rest upon the heads of
those who provoke Them"
To suppose that you have prepared
and set forth this document as politi-
cal capital for your party at the
North, to effect the result of the ap
proaching elections, would be attri-
buting to you q motive unbecoming
the dignity of the Office you fill. [
take your own declaration as true
that the statements contained in your
proclamation are founded on reports
daily received" at the Executive De-
partmept. But, Notwithstanding the
authority of "reports daily received"
by you, L join issue with you in the
statements your proclamation con-
tain-so far rs this community is
concerned-and, in that respect, [
presume that it differs very little
from other communities in the State.
Your statement that acts of violence
have been committed is not denied;
but that the white people arc wholly
responsible for these acts, rs you
wish to be understood, is denied out
and out. 1 would not be under
stood as justifying, or rs countenanc-
ing them, except where they have
been committed in self-defence.
What mean to say is, that whether
they can or cannot be justified or
excused in @ legal sense, it is,
nevertheless, true, that in almost
every instance they have been pro-
voked by the parties who have suf-
fered, either by word or act. The
Dlstrlct-or, as now known, the
County which the writer lives,
has had the misfortune to have been
put under the ban both by military
commanders and, as now appears, by
the civil authorities which have sue
ceeded. Ipropose to offer a word in
her behalf. I propose to recall some
facts which may have escaped your
memory, If they were ever brought
to your notice.
| The bloodiest tragedies that have
been enacted in this County since
the war, were that in which negroes
were the actors. Let me bring to
your mind the cold -blooded, diaboIi-
cal murder of Lemuel Lane, perpe-
trated of the hour of midnight, while
he was asleep in his bed, when his
SCH and Jouug man sleeping with
him were seized, hurried off and tied
to h tree when his wife was stricken