The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-10-25
49, fr---t - 49, ss =
The DImculty In Laurcns.

tlcularAtCI Inc Observation-Disclosures which
occurgsd in thas Couhbty on the aOth:
5ThSg day before. Y(the 10Th. at the
general election, and for months previ:
ous, the white people had been subjected
to IN organized system of disparagement,
abuse, and threats of violence to person
and property, which had produced that
feverish state of feeling incident to a
deep sense of outrage and injustice.
For weeks, whole families had not un-
dressed for bed, SO great was the appre-
hension Of midnight negro risings,
burnings and butcheries. While the
United States troops were here, the
sound of their reveille and tattoo was
considered MS the proclamation of pro-
lection to unarmed whites and their de-
fenceless women and children. The
chief actor and agent in all this was one
notorious Joe Crews, native citizen of
the County, who has always been man
of doubtful character, but who, after the
emancipation OF the slaves, attached
himself, Us renegade, to the negroes,
and by deceivipg and misleading them,
and abusing his own race, had himself
elected to the convention and then to
the Legislature Of 1868, and was q can
didate again for reelection. Knowing
that he was entitled to no consideration
without Office, he resolved to have him
self elected at all hazards; and knowing
that by fair election in Laurens, he
would be beaten by the Conservatives,
who are clearly in the majority, the said
Crews, with two or three subordinate
under-strappers, assisted by the consta-
bulary force, degraded here from officers
to keep the peace to legdlized instigators
Of HIan0r6 riot onl Sc;f oe T..
was candidate for Probate Judge, had
worked the poor negroes into q frenzy of
excitement about the election and in
tense hatred to the white man. It can
be proved by hundreds of good men,
that in his speeches to them, in every
hole and corner of the County, he made
the most incendiary appeals, marching
from one point to another, by night and
day, with armed companies of negroes,
insulting, outraging and putting in ter
Tor the peaceable white citizens of the
country. He told them, in his speeches,
that they had the State Government,
aad they must keep it or die; that it was
necessary for their liberty and safety
that he should be elected; that he had
put arms in their hands, and they must
use them; that they had The torch, and
matches wero cheap" and they must
burn and destroy; that nll over fifteen
years of age could vote. for he passed
the law himself, &c. At Laurens, he
occupied on old, dilapidated building,
opposite tho court house, familiarly
known as "Tin Pot Alley" Here,
fianked by negro stores in the building,
he had his Office of Trial Justice, also of
Census Taker. also of Deputy United
States Marshal, without any commits
sion,) and also of Commissioner of Eec-
ton, and here he had perfect armory
OF guns, believed to be thousand
stand, with accoutrements and ammuni-
ton of the most improved pattern.
These were the arms of the State, left
under his absolute control Besides this
armory III "rin Pot" he had quite q
number of guns at his house, which was
some distance up tho street, and his
barn, within the curtilage of his house,
and commanding the main street, was
regularly fortified and loopholed, and
also stored with arms. Thus this man
set himself up with arms and fortitica
tions in the very heart of the town of
Laurens. He constantly had armed
bands OF negroes, at the expense of the
County, to guard these Headquarters
This guard, or drunken negro militia,
were often turbulent, and, with the con.
stabulary, broke the peace of the town,
and made night hideous by the discharge
OF firearms and their savage yells.
= The said Crews. Notwithstanding he
WAS candidate himself, was, among his
many other Offices, Commissioner of
Election, and had the control not only
of tho arrangements for the election,
but of the boxes. He did not omen
boxes ut the different precincts of the
County, rs had been dono in former
times, but established fom. Mt the Court
House under the guns of his fortitica-
tions, and one of them actually in his
lower arsenal of 'Tin-Pot." He ex.
prcssly and indignantly refused, although
applied to by n mixed committee of
whites and blacks, to allow two men Of
the Reform party to be present at the
polls to prevent frauds, rs agreed upon
by the leaders OF the two parties. Thus
equipped and prepared for all sorts of
frauds, the poor deluded negroes were
summoned peremptorily by him from the
remotest corners Of the County to vote
ut Laurens. They did como in great
numbers, and such glaring, bare faced
frauds were enacted in the fnce of lay