The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-08-19
TIL. Northern Opinion OF the scott Ring.

tlaG tneE are SuStaineu ileny ueCduSe luey
are believed to- be the representatives in
South Carolina of the National Republican
party. Take this cloak of charity from
them, and they stand. before the public in all
their loathsome nakelness and hideous de-
formity. 1t is important, therefore, that the
Reformers should, upon all occasions, show
| the colored Radicals that Scott, Ransier,
/ .Whittemore and their crew, have been ''read
''outn Of the Republican party, and that the
present State Government is as generally
condemned by the Republicans Of the North
as it is by our own honest people. The
means OF proving the absolute truth OF this
statement are ready at hand.
First on the list is the New York Tribune
the head and front of American Radicalsm.
This able paper called upon the Federal Of
fcials to ':open the Penitentiary doors, and
'.let us have an end of Whittemore." And
this man Whittemore drew up, and presented,
the platform Of principles OF the Scott Ring.
| and is still one of its most trusted and hon
orel members. This gives point 10 the
manly ulterances OF SIr. Horace Greeley's
paper.
The New York Times is even more ex-
plicir than the Tribune. This paper charges
Scott and his party with Legislative profi-
'igacy," and declares that the Republican
party will be saddled with the reckless
rascality perpetrated in its name. The
Ianes says: -,
ss.Extrayagance and corruption have unfor-
tunately been characteristics of several OF the
reconstructed Legislatures. They have squan-
dered money which had been wrung BY taxa
ton from the propertied classes; and they
have incurred liabilities with o prodigality
only 20 be accounted for by the fact that the
men VINO make the laws are not the men who
pay the taxes. The States indebtedness has
been largely increased-not In furtherance OF
policy OF judicious material development but
in obedience to the demands, or in pursuance
of the intrlgues, Of railroad companies and
their agents. The State aid which has brought
tribulation upon Michigan. and will some day
bring trouble upon New York, has been Law
ishly granted at the South. The Carolinas,
Georgia, Alabama, and other States, have
adopted the system to an extent that will,
sooner or later, impair their credit, and pro-
woke the unpleasant Issues from which Michi-
gan vainly strives TO escape. This legislative
profigacy tmparts vitality to the Reforming
movement in South Carolina, and contributed
almost as much as Holden's acts to the victory
of the Conservatives in North Carolina The
Republican party is made to bear the respons:-
bility for rascanty and recklessness perpetrated
in It's name By the maiorities in Southern Leg
lslatures The States themselves suffer from
burdens which retard enterprise, and from a
policy which suoordinates the general good to
fierce and unscr,pulous partisanshlp."
1t adds:
.The Republican party must purge itself or
the taints derived from the blunders and mis-
conducts Of Southern Legislatures"
Nor is the New York SIN less emphatic
in its utterances. 1t says:
sThe fruits OF the carpet-bag reign of the last
| FIVE years are what might have been expected.
The ,corld may be searched III vain for gouern-
naents so immoral So sha,aeleSs!y corrupt, so
hopelessly rotten, as thoseno,e prevailing III the
South. Politically they may be changed; but
this cannot cure one oil the sorest Of the evils
already inflicted. These scamps have run the
| States they rule rulnously into debt The Leg
islatures controlled by them have pledged the
States to the discharge of pecuniary obligations
of crushing weight, to the future redemption
of an enormous amount of bonds, and to the
imposition Of onerous taxes through series OF
years. This has been done in furtherance OF
all sorts of schemes whereby the authors reap
present wealth and anticipate larger gains in
the immediate future These h"rdens have al.
ready seriously embarrassed all oftliese States,
and well nigh bankrupted some OF them; and
to save them from ruin, the reign Of the carpet
bag robbers must be speedily brought to an
end
An independent Philadelphia paper, the
Public Record writes in similar strain. In
IN article upon South Carolina affairs, it
says:
''Tt is time our pubic councils and iegisla-
tive bodies were purged from such verm!n. 1t
is just such political adventurers as this Whit
temore vino have damaged the casse of sound
morals and good government in most of the
reconstructed States. and caused such reac-
ton In putc sentiment in those States as has
recently been exhibited in North Carolina"
And when we turn to Tile Nation, we
know not which to choose OF the many bold
exposures OF the rogucries OF the Scott Ring.
The Nation pronounces our present State
Government "a disgrace to civilization" F" and
in its last issue, says:
THE truth, SO far as We can make it out, Is
about this. In North Carolina, as elsewhere
in the South, the majority OF the whites have
lost all confidence IN the honesty OF the doml-
nant party: the North Carolina Legislature. no
more than that of South Carolina, mas escaped
the charge Of extreme rascality and waste,
though he reputation OF the South Carollnian
is OF course iiach acorse than tia. Of the other;
] the Gcueraoa iSMotJht no: free from ccmp!icl-