Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-06-22

Inc way they do things IN Williamsburg DIS
trict, South Carolina says the Bait. Gazette,
offers charming illustration of the practical
effects Of reconstruction. At the present term
| Of the Court Of General Sessions, which COM
menced on Monday of last week, out OF thirty
one petit jurors summoned, twenty-three were
negroes and only eight were white men. OF the
Grand Jury, twelve were negroes and seven
white. As but eighteen of the petit jurors an
swered to the summons, thirteen extra .iurymen
all of them negroes, were drawn from the by
SANDERS Out Of these, two sets of sjurymen
were empanneled The first jury was made up
of ten negroes and two whites the second had
not a white man on it. OF the last mentioned
jury only one negro was found who could write
his name, and he, by order of the Judge, was
appointed foreman.
Williamsburg District being adjacent to the
district in which the city of Charleston is stu
| ated, was at one time covered by large planta
tons worked exclusively by negroes. The re
suit Of the war has been to liberate the latter
| and to turn over the impoverished planters tc
the tender mercies Of those who were formerly
| their slaves. As the negro vote in the district
compared with that Of the white is as two te
one, juries impartially drawn-leaving capacity
and intelligence out of the question entirely
would consist of one-third white men. Such
however, is the delightful way in which justice
is manipulated in the Williamsburg District
that, out of the twenty four jurors ultimately
selected at the present term of the Court, only
two white men were CHOSEN.
With a Radical Judge on the Bench and 4;
negro jury before whom cases are to be tried
what chance is there that white man will sue
ceed in his suit. however manifestly just it may
be, if the prejudices Of the Court and the jury
are against him?
Moreover, a majority Of the cases coming be
fore this particular Cortland indeed before
all the Courts of South Carolina-are negro
cases-chiefy offences arising out of the lawlesi
habits they have contracted in state of free
dom. Does any one suppose that conviction
of the offenders is possible with a Judge wht
owes to negro votes his elevation to the Bench
and with negro jurors addicted to the same
predatory propensities as those whom they are
called upon TO try?
Prescribed, insulted, oppressed, and negro
ridden as the Southern people are, their pa
tiert endurance Of the manifold wrongs t.
which they are subjected, is at once a marve
and mystery. If the Radicals really believe
that their despotic measures will ultimately leac
to more perfect union between the n orth anc
the South, they are blind to the consequence.
of their own acts. The negro jury sitting il
Kngstree Court House, the Radical Judge or
the Bench, the Federal soldiers scattered
throughout the State. the negroes, and seal
lawags, and rpet-baggers, who are in posses
sion Of the States offices-all these serve to re
call to the disfranchised Southerner the condi
ton in which he once was, and the liberty h,
once enjoyed He may endure his Subsection
| for season but the remembrance of what hs
has suffered and is still suffering, will remain
! vivid to the last, and the white generation nov
| growing up around him will inherit legacy O
hatred to the North that will only require tn
opportunity to make itself felt The Union
which was once Union of consent, exists n
longer. What it might have become, if, afte
the war, the Radicals had pursued generou
policy; had sought to bind up the wounds the.
had inflicted. and had honestly endeavored L
conciliate those whom they had finally overcom
| In battle may never now be known. But whel
they trampled upon the yanquished when the.
/ let loose their unscrupulous agents to prey upol
them; when they stripped them of their poll
teal rights. and turned over the control of tn
carpet-baggers, they set the seal upon their OWL
infamy by repudiating their own solemn de
claration, and put almost insurmountable oh
stacles in the way of a hearty reconciliation be
| tween the sections