The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-03-17
selves cheaply. Three or four hundred dol
lars was generally all that was required to Sc
cure the votes of the "Forty Thieves"

cure the votes OF the Forty ThieVes."
s'HAvE YOU SEEN LIGHT ~
was an expression in common use among the
members, meaning thereby if the person so
addressed had been bribed. Another word,
meaning the same as shave you seen light, "
was recognized" and thereby hangs tale.
A colorcd member of the House, on one occa-
sion, expressed his determination to use every
effort to defeat bill then under consideration.
Upon being asked by an interested party his
reason for his opposition, he asserted that he
had not been srecognized." "Why," said the
interested party, 81 have recognized you, ana
all of the colored members. 1 bow to all OF
you whenever meet YOU" "But," said the
member, 81 don't mean that. Some OF these
members have been recognized so often that
they are able to cut splurge around town
here with their fast teams and good
clothes' The interested party at once un-
derstood the meaning of the word "recog-
nized," acted accordingly. and the oppo-
nent became supporter of the bill.
Once Cain, the colored senator from Charles
ton, stated, while discussing q bill, that it was
generally believed, and he was afraid there
was good ground for the belief, that before q
measure could get through the Legislature it
had to go through hrc-lneaning, Of course,
that money had to be used by those interested
in the measure. Any number of inst' 1ces
could be cited 10 show that there was corrnp-
ton; but we have neither space nor lnclna-
ton to give them, and will conclude by stating
that money was not always used, but bonds OF
the company, which the bill proposed to lncor-
porate were frequently given. During the
last session two or more railroad measures
were passed-the next day members were OBJ
served running around desiring to know the
market price for the bonds of the company
which was incorporated, or whose charter was
amended the day before-stating that they had
q few bonds and desired to sell them.
VICTIM.
A resident Of county, who visited
Columbia last session to secure the passage OF
a measure in which he was interested, but
failed because the parties who had agreed ITO
put 1t through" for certain price afterward
raised /. to figure which he could not stand,
has written US, under date Of February 10th,
1870 letter giving some facts connected with
his visit, and as portions Of 1t arc In connec-
tion with our subject of bribery and corrup-
ton, we publish them. He mentions the
names of the four men in the House, whom he
designates as ''vultures,' but for the present
we withhold them. The letter Is as follows:
"Editors or the Ne,us-An editorial in THE
NEWS OF recent dater entitled The Reign OF Cor
ruption,' contains some facts which Will cause
sorrow TO ever, South CarOiniau, ana he a mat.
ter Of surprise to strangers who may como Into
our midst. Things have already reached such
pass that no measure, however unobectionable
aud eXpeOient, stands the reInotcst chance Of
passage unless the members are well paid to do
so.' Mr.. Editor. this is true. No one can go up
to Columbia and undertake, with any hope OF
SUCCESS secure the passage ofa bill OF any Kind
unless he sees -, -four proml.
uent men in the House.) These yultures are upon
all OF the committees, to which bills having
money in them are referred, and will not report
upon them until they are paid to do so. When
tell your readers that theses vulturc5 have re :.
ceived since the commencement Of this session
sixty thousand dollars In brlbes, 1t will bc seen
how difficult it is for any small measure TO get
through the lower house Of the General Assembly.
They have in their committees now over two hun
drcd bills, upon which they will not report unless
paid. = If these vutures would stand ut
the first price they agree upon, parties would
not complain out no, up go the ngures,
until they get the price, and the other members
are compelled to take from ten 10 one hundred
dollars to help pass tile measure these vul-
lures have agreed to put through. On the Gold
bill, for instance, the vulturcs got thou
sand dollars hpiece; on the Consolidated
Railroad bill the yultures got twenty-five hun
dred apiece, and the other members one hundred
dollars. r bill TO resto-e 10 several parties
the honds destroyed by Sherman passed the Sen
ate last session, and was real in tile House and
referred to committee, where It has remained
because the parties will not pay to bring !; out
They only lost three thousand dollars and do not
feel like paying three thousand ,.ol!ars more TO
get them. 1t would save much annoyance and
be little more honorable the Legislature would
pass bill liking the fees to he paid the members
for passing BILL and furnishing them for re-
ccving more than thus ail0wud.n
In speaking of the bribery and corruption,
representatives have been spoken OF nearly
altogether. We do not wish to leave the i'm
preston on the minds of our readers that some
oflhc senator's were not charged with rccely-
ing bribe money. Numbers of them were
But they did not, if they received it, make any
show of 1t, as did the members. There was
not in the Senate any such thieving organza-
ton similar to the ''Forty Thieves"
TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY.
The conduct Of many of the colored lcgisla-
tors has disgusted, not only their constituents,
but the State officials, and others in 'power
behind the throne," and efforts will be made
to prevent their reelection. 1t has been free
ly asserted that the shortcomings of each
legislator were noticed last session and duly
chroniclcd. Further, that these, at the proper
time, will be printed and used as campaign
documents to defeat the men who are under
the ban, and elect white men to I'll their places.
There may or may not be truth in these asser
tions, but the colorcd members believe that
there is, aud will use all efforts to defeat the
movement against them. Nash and Wimbush
stated on the floor of the Senate that they
were aware Of movement on the part of the
white State officials to drive the colored men
out Of office and out Of politics. 1t is to bc
hoped that better class Of men will be sent
a.. IL "a