The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-10-07
The Last Dodge of tho Ring.

The Scott Ring are developing new idea
which is expected to atone for host OF
broken promises, and to encourage the
negroes to support ''the party" with the
blind unanimity which governed their politi-
cal conduct two years ago. Although the
Ring make q great pretence of desiring to
prove, to the satisfaction of an intelligent
public, that their administration has been
wise and honest, they do not, in reality, care
fig for the opinion OF any white citizen
outside of their own ranks. They hash up
dish OF arithmetical scraps, and declare,
with unblushiug ef1rontery, that the State
debt is not what it is, and that taxes, all
things considered, are lower than ever be-
fore. But when their most ingeniously con-
trived statements are found to be wholly
false, they are not disappointed in the least
they expect nothing better. Why, indeed,
should the Ring care for the plaudits OF the
whites? Why should they desire to prove
to the ta1-payng classes that every dollar
of the public money is honestly spent and
properly accounted for! They dread in-
vestigation; they do not court it. And, as
long as the colored people are largely in the
majority, the efforts OF the Ring will be
directed to deluding the freedmen, rather
than to satisfying the Judgment and reason
of the whites. The credulity of the colored
people, when approached by the Ring, is
surprising, if not altogether incomprehensi-
BILE, aud 1t is to play upon their imagination
that the Scott overseers have worked out the
most ingenious Of all their election tricks
and scheming. 1t is useless to talk to Sclpio
Peters and Pompey Bones OF comparative
expenditures and comparative taxation.
The chain OF cause and effect, connecting
their progress with the financial condition OF
the State, is too delicately fine for their OBJ
scured vision. They require the concrete
argument of bread and meat, clothes and
homesteads, money and tobacco; and when
they are told that, If they vote for Scott,
they shall be paid for their scork during the
tro gears and a quarter Intervening be-
t,reen the declaration of emancipation and
the termination ofthe Confederate acar, they
have before them flattering something
which all may understand. The land and
mules and homesteads, promised them four
years ago, are still afar of. But the blame
OF all this is cast upon the whites. The
pledge that they shall receive tro hundred
and treNty:foe dollars for each working
man, if they all vote for Scott, is more tempt
ing, with the masses, than the certainty OF
steady work and regular pay. This is the
line of thought which leads the Scott Ring
to palm off the last trick upon the colored
voters Of The Stale. 1t is described in these
words in u late issue of the Scott-Eadical
paper published in this city:
s.For TWO years and third the shareholders
kept the colOred people at work after they
we're virtually tree, and then drove them from
their plantations without paying them a penny
for their labor.
'Why is not the property of these men good
for the labor thus performed and yet unpaid
We hope that question will be tested in the
courts. The laborer Is worthy Of his hire,
and is entitled TO his pay whether he works
voluntarily Or by compIlson.
"We understand that some of the best legal
minds in The country have this question under
consideration, and we are assured that steps
will be taken TO compel these men to pay for
the two years and more Of labor from the
negro alter he became free man.
"Juslice demands that some restitution be
made this race for its long yeas OF suffering
and toll; aud as mans property is always
lien for his worklnen, it will only be neces-
sary 10 prove the labor in order TO yet the
pay.
'.SoHe people are insane enough to believe
the United States Government will some day
pay for the property once held in slaves, but
our opinion is that the first payment required
,eiH be from, The old Siare-o,unerS 10 their former
slures for t,ro years and up,oardS Of labor not
get reQ'ntsd."
To the white people OF the State it is hard
ly necessary to point out the fact that the
ratili alton OF the Thirteenth Constitutional
amendment was the true accomplishment of
the work of emancipation. The emancipa-
ton proclamation was declared by Mr.. Lin
coin himself to be war measure, and in
the Hampton Roads conference he expressed
the opinion that, Gus the proclamation was
"a war measure, and would haze effect only
':t''om its being an exercise Of the ao0r
'.poUer, as soon us the war ceased it would
''be imperative for the future; it would be
''held to apply only to such slaves as had
come undsr its operation while it was in
''active exercise" This view of the opera
ton OF the proclamation was, also, taken by
Mr. Seward, and it is evident upon the face