The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-06-08

gether. There is an unpleasantly large class
of politicians who live only BY politics, who
know no other profession, and who look upon
the legitimate and the illegitImate emoluments
of The trade with equally favorable eyes.
When to these we add an infusion in the Legis.
lature of men chosen as the most eligible in
a community of feld-hands who never saw a
school house and never owned f1ve-dOlar
bill, it Is easily to be seen that dangers beset
the public affairs of South Carolina dangers
which will lessen as education is spread among
the people, as wealth Is difused, as amnesty
permits the voters to choose among men
whose loyalty has been sadly! stained, Ebut
whose private integrity Is above suspicion
but dangers not the less real to the pres
ent welfare of the State, and threaten
ing the creation Of chronic political
corruption which 1t will be hard to counteract
That the general virtue innate in the voters of
the State at large is proof against this peril as
yet, is abundanLly shown by the high character
of the senators chosen, and of the Governor
But there are detached localities peculiarly
liable to error, the votes of which may fasten
many cormorants upon the commonwealth
and the most conspicuous Of these Is the dis
trict in which Mr.. Whittemore was lucky
enough to encamp at the close Of the war, and
which he shrewdly made the stepping-stone to
one place after another, till he reached the
seat in Congress, from which only his own
though he may succeed in deceiving his imme-
diate constituents, Mr.. Whittemore's true char
acter Is perfectly well known to those who
have served with him in the State councils at
Columbia, and thoroughly understood by lead
ing Republicans throughout the State. so that
his apparent success is anything but encourag-
ing to those who are battling with the raids of
corruptionists In minor positions In South Car
Olina.
Yet, if the gossip which the gentleman's own
neighbors retail about him be true, it seems
strange that even the most infatuated of his
black constituents should not come soon to
know the man. have listened to nothing
from the lips of rebels OF Democrats, and get
my estimate only from true, earnest Republi-
cans who have had to work beside the man In
one capacity and another, in legislation and in
electioneering, and have come to know him
by degrees These all give him the praise Of
being tireless, constant laborer, ever ready
to answer any call, able to speak in stentorian
tones by the hour and by the day. equally ca
pabh on the stump and in the pulpit, and an
adept In all the social expedients known to
him readiness to replenish his pockets by
any method, a willingness to conflscate small
perquistes as well as large ones, an inability
to distinguish between his personal treasu-
ry and that of the party, which cannot
but bring any politician eventually to
grief. "Why, slr,n said one gentleman
to me, "when two lady schOol-teach-
ers came to darlington, and the hotel refused
to take them in, this man took them down to
the house of one of the best citizens, and got
him to keep them over night, man with the
real Southern notion of hospitality, and then
THE representative in Congress collected sew
enty-fve cents apiece from them for theirlodg-
ing, and put it In his own pocket. They went
to the same house for shelter again a few weeks
after, and offered their host In the morning
the same sum they had paid before, and he re-
sented 1t as an insult, and go the whole con-
temptible swindle came out" "Yes, and that
was hardly smaller than collecting dimes and
quarters from all the negroes In his district
for q national flag, and then getting the mo-
ney for the same flag from people in the
North on the plea Of the poverty OF his
people" 1--WE found his accounts in a
sad state in our Republican State Commit
tee, and when we inquired into some OF
the deficiencies he said he had spent GER
tain hundred dollars for printing ballots for
such and such q village; but the leading negro
from there contradicted him on the spot, and
said on the contrary he had sent down and
demanded a collection of money to pay for the
tickets. which had been duly mailed and en-
trusted TO him. So we were unable to certify
to his correctness, but made report speaking
of his great ardor and indeiatigable work In
the campaign, and regretting his carelessness
in keeping his accounts" OF course l, on q
brief soiourn in South Carolina. cannot testify
to the correctness of these stories; merely
give them as specimens of multitudes OF ale
cations freely made among his political friends,
so far as know uncontrudicted, and going to
show how natural and consistent with his en-
tire career was the lapse which occasioned his
deDarture from Congress.