The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-06-16
Affairs in South Carolina.

a
radical paper,) writing from the White Sui
Among other gentlemen who have arrived
from South Carolina is one who is telling ex-
citing things about DR.. Scott, of Ohio, who is
the Governor of the Palmetto State. The gen.
tleman says that DR.. Scott was probably an
honest man while he was peddling patent medi-
cines in Nevada, but that when he became a
politician he fell DR.. Scott, as Governor OF
South Carolina, is the chairman of an advisory
board, which approves the acts of o colored
commissioner, authorized by the Legislature to
buy decayed estates, with an appropriation OF
several hundred thousand dollars, for the pur-
pose of subdividing them to be sold to poor
people who will cultivate the soil, and, produc-
ing crops, from time to time to pay for the land
what it may be valued at. The former incum-
bent of the Office was a white politician named
Leslie, who, having had to resign and take
position as State senator, when attacked IN the
Legislature with the inquiry as to what ne had
done with the unaccounted for money IN his
possession, deliberately replied "that no lnves-
tigation of his conduct would be prudent, be-
cause it would certainly put the chairman OF
the advisory board in serious trouble;" and
when Leslie was further threatened with an in
vestigation, he stood up in the Senate of South
Carolina, and with sneer on his countenance
inquired, addressing the senators (Which OF
you will commencew And there was no in
vestigation. The present commissioner offered
one of the most prominent lawyers in South
Carolina part of the plunder of the office, ii
he would be his security for the faithful dis
charge of his duty The plundering is done by
first getting an appropriation to buy the decay
ed estates then the owners of those lands say
they are worth, for example, ten dollars an
acre; the commissioner reports favorably for the
purchase of tract of land at that rate; the ad-
v7isory board approves of the purchase; but the
owner of the land receives perhaps not more
than $5 per acre. The politicians pocket the
difference. This is one of many apparently
semi-charitable schemes which are held up by
those fraudulent politicians in South Carolina
and other Southern States, to make the people
of the North believe that they are doing Won
ders for the benefit of the negroes and poor
whites. But in reality they are burdening, the
people with taxes, and stealing as much Of
those taxes as they possibly can. They are not
developing industry among the negroes gener-
ally, but leading them astray by awakening IN
their minds false idea of social life, by iniqui-
tiously making them believe that if the whites
are sufficiently burdened with taxes, being un-
able to pay these, their fine estates will come
under the auctioneer's hammer, and, being
bought for trihe by the State, will be subdi-
vided and turned over to the negroes. The or
ganization of picked men into exclusively col
ored companies of militia in South Carolina is
measure which is evidently fraught with a
premeditated desire to produce a serious con-
flict between the whites and blacks, because
Dr. Scott, of Ohio, the Governor of South Caro-
lima, has said that a Northern white man is not
as safe unprotected by military. force in the
State, when the contrary is the fact, provided
the white traveller is not an incendiary who
tells the negroes that they must not respect
their late masters, and if these should interfere
with them to burn their houses. The Cover
nor has two companies of United States regu-
lars in Columbia, on the ground that the State
is not yet fully reconstructed. The truth is
that the Governor is a very unworthy official
and is misgoverning South Carolina.