The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-31
THE SUMS EXPOSURE.
HOW TWO SCOUNDRELS CoNTRIHED
TO GET INTO CONGRESS.

| The Chaplain who Disgraced n Disre-
putabIe Massachusetts, ReSiment-The
Wholesale Robbery Of South Caroline
ans General Buffers Hatred of
Southern White Men.
A correspondent of that lively and indepen-
dent Radical paper, the New York Sun, writ
ing from Darlington Courthouse, under. date
of May 81, says:
. About June, 1865, the first Union troops en-
tered Darlington-a Massachusetts regiment,
! part of the B. +. Butler Brigade, under Gene
raj Beale. The chaplain OF the regiment was
Whlttemore, who was recently expelled from
| Congress, yet who is candidate for re-elec
ton to that body When Butler labored to
save Whttemore from expulsion he perfectly
well knew that Whittemore bore very bad
| character; but such was Buffers hatred OF the
white people Of South Carolina that he wanted
Whittemore in Congress nominally to repre-
sent them, but really to annoy them.
General Beale made this town his headquar-
tiers, and commanded the detached posts which
were established In different parts Of the Pee
| dec region. The officers commanding the
POSTS discovered large quantities of cotton on
the plantations. Already Whittemore had be-
baHed disreputably, and was no longer regard
sachusetts regiment. But this regiment was
largely composed of oafers who had been
PURCHASED IN NEW YORK
The owners Of cotton on the plantations ex-
pected to sell it and use the capital to cultivate
their lands, employing the negroes by contract
| to do the labor. The whites acknowledged
that they were conquered, and there was O
strong desire to secure good government for
the State, social harmony, and business pros
| p,,f tho ofE of ho 70
regiment so wantonly mlsbehaved themselves
toward the persons and property Of the white
| natives, that renewed ill-feeling was engen-
dered against the Northern men generally.
Mmy OF those military officers took and sold,
principally
FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT,
large quantities of cotton. They persuaded ne
| groes to say that their late masters had sold
the cotton to the Confederate Government,
and then they made pretence OF selling Con-
| federate property. But as in time 500 much
was published in Northern newspapers In con-
| demnation Of those acts, that the officers had
to adopt new plea under which to perpetrate
their thefts. That was, to seize planters
cotton, and when he was greatly alarmed, and
rightly believed 1t would be taken away from
him anyway, and once away he would
| NEVER GET ANYTHING
for 1t, a runner, white man, would go to him
| anu Ouer W uuy INC muole iot aI VeH eCutS
pound. When the planter had accepted, the
cotton was shipped, and sold North for from 40
to so cents pound.
ANOTHER CoNTEAPTIBLE FRAUD.
The trial of criminal causes was also reduced
to fraud. The negroes who unfortunately got
into conflicts with the whites were Invariably
reprimanded or punished, provided the white
| opponents paid from $40 TO S25 each. This
practice became so notorious that the lawyers
| in Darlington never took case until they
knew how much the white man could afford to
pay, and then they would Systematically pro
| ceed at once to have the case "trled,' and the
money secretly paid. All this time White
more was in such bad repute with the Massa-
! chusetts regiment that the members Of 1t
would not tolerate his preaching to them, and
when they had a 'comrade 10 bury they called
upon the Rev. A CARMEL, Methodist, recently
| deceased, to perform the burial ceremony, or
upon the Rev. Mr. Bealer, Baptist. or the Rev.
Mr.. Brearly, Presbyterian, all Of whom re-
mained South during the war. Wh,ttemore
was very careful at first not openly to exhibit
any
| PARTIALITY FOR THE NEGRO,
and frequently said that as he was the agent Of
| several benevolent societies, he simply dis
charged the duties which he had agreed to
perform. He was evidently anxious to keep
on as good terms as he possibly could with the
the Massachusetts regiment led the native
whites ever to mlstrust him. He established
schools among the negroes and made them
pay for the school books and Testaments that
they should have received gratuitously.
Sometimes the payments were made in money,
and at other times In eggs and chickens, which
the negroes delivered either to himself or to
his wife. He even collected money from the
negroes on clothing which had been sent to
him from the North to distribute. For teach
ing the colored children, he made their parents
pay rs cents month. About the beginning
of 1867 he launched out fully panderlng to the
negroes. He was candidate in the same dis
trict and at the same time, for
CONGRESS AND TIE STATE SENATE.
His plan was to get into the State Senate
and endeavor to get elected United States
senator; bu, falling in that, to so to the House
of Representatives.
Whittemore was elected to fiji both of the
Offices for which he was a candidate; but when
he took his ssat in the State Senate, opposi-
ton was raised to his remaining there, and he
had to leave. Then he went t. Congress as a
representative, and was suddenly ousted on
grounds with which the public are already
familiar.
Among those who commanded here was
Captain Hawkins, q graduate OF West Point.
He had remarkably loquaclous, jolly and
obliging lieutenant named Hoge, who did
| QOL Ike NhllculOlt, duu llSquSuIy SHoi 1Ctcl-
lied him as
AN ARRANT SCouNDREL.
Hoge was always telling the white people
that he was Democrat, much to their disgust.
That they concealed, however. He capped the
climax one day by saying, in the presence Of
Colonel Waring, Southerner, that his father
was stumping the State Of Ohio for the Demo-
cratic party, and that he, too, would be doing
the same thing If he was not here. Subse-
quently Colonel Waring met Hoge at table in
the dining hall OF the Charleston Hotel, in
Charleston, and said to him: "Hoge, now that
Whittemore is candidate for Congress in the
First Congressional District, we ought to have
you to make Democratic speeches" Hoge In
stantly drew his face away, as, at the same
time, he touched Waring on the leg as silent
intimation to him to keep quiet. Soon after
ward fine looking man got up from the table
and went out Then Hoge said TO Waring:
"You came near
GETTING NE INTO A BAD FIX.
That fellow who just got up is leading Re-
publican, and am grinding an axe with the
Republicans; but assure you l am as good q
Democrat as ever was" The character Of
the axe came out publicly not long afterwards.
Hoge was appointed an associate Justice to the
Supreme Court of South Carolina. He sat
with associate justice Willard, an eminent law
yer, and Chief Justice Moses, who was Judge
under the old State Government But as Hoge
was not competent to fill the position, and saw
that he had got himself into