The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-06-09
QUE "DoCTOR" SCOTT
A Little Sunshine on His EccentrIei
ties.

correspondent of the New York Sun,
(Radlcal paper,) writing from the White Sui
phur Springs, Virginia, says:
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 med
icines in Nevada, but that when he became
politician he fell. DR.. Scott, as Governor OF
South Carolina, Is the chairman OF an advisory
board. which. approves the acts OF col0red
commissioner. authorized by the Legislature
to buy decayed estates, with an appropriation
of several hundred thousand dollars, for the
purpose of subdlviding them TO be sold to poor
people who will cultivate the soil, and, produc-
Ing crops. from time to time pay for the land
what it may be valued at. The former inculn-
bent of the office was white politician NAM
ed Leslie, who, having had to resign and take
position as State senator, when attacked
in the Legislature with the Inquiry as to what
he had done with the unaccounted for money
in his possession, deliberately replied THAT no
investigation of his conduct would be prudent.
because 1t would certainly put the chairman OF
the advisory board In serious trouble;;" and
when Leslie was further threatened with an
investigation, he stood up in the Senate OF
South Carolina, and with sneer on his coun-
LenanCe lnqulTeu, auuresSlIlS lHc sSha.oiS'
(which of you will commence?' And there
was no investigation. The present commits
sloner offered one of The most prominent law
yers in South Carolina part OF the plunder OF
the office If he would be his security for the
faithful discharge of his duty. The plundering
is done by first getting an appropriation to
buy the decayed estates; then the owners OF
those lands say they are worth, for example,
ten dollars an acre; the commissioner re-
ports fayorably for the purchase Of o tract OF
land at that rate; the advisory board ap.
proves of the purchase; but the owner Of
the land receives perhaps not more than So
per acre. The politicians pocket the difference.
This Is one of many apparently sem'.charitaoie
schemes which are held up by those fraudulent
ern States, to make the people OF the North be-
lieve that they are doing wonders for the 6ene-
fl of the negroes and poor whites. But In re-
ality they are burdening the people with taxes,
and stealing as much Of those taxes as they
possibly can. They are not developing indus
try among the negroes generally, but leading
them astray by awakening In their minds false
ideas of social lite. by 1niquitously making
them believe that If the whites are sufficiently
burdened with taxes, being unable to pay
these, their fine estates will come under the
auctioneer's hammer, and, being bought
for trifie by the State, will be subdivided
and turned over to the negroes. The organi-
zation of picked men into exclusively colored
companies of militia in South Carolina Is
measure which is evidently fraught with pre-
medtated desire to produce serious conflict
between the whites and blacks, because DR..
Scott, of Ohio, the Governor OF South Carolina,
has said that 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 Gov
ernor has Two companies Of United States reg
ulars in Columbia, on the ground that the
State is not yet fully reconstructed. The truth
is that the Governor Is a very unworthy Of
fetal, and is misgorerning South Carolina.