The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-09-14
Martial Law.

Martial Law.
AS will be seen in our columns to-day, Sena-
tor Scott chairman of the Ku Klux committee,
has had an interview with President Grant, and
as the result of the communication which the
Chairman submitted to the President, martial
law may be declared at an early day in several
of the upper Counties of South Carolina-es-
pecially the Counties of York and Spartanburg.
At our present advices, this letter OF Senator
SCOTS has been referred to the Attorney Cen
eral, who is to take action concerning the ap-
plication of the Ku Klux law upon the state
ments contained therein, and as soon as that
official has made a report the proclamation will
be issued.
While fully conscious Of the futility of any
thing we might say upon the subject, we can
not on behalf of the good people of York
County, refrain from entering protest agitst
such action by the executive, feeling fully con-
scious, as we do, that it is entirely unwarranted
by the Circumstances, and that the condition OF
affairs in our midst has been grossly exaggera-
ted. 1t is not uncharitable to say that the wit
nesses, in many instances, who were examined
by the committee in this place, overstated facts,
| and that in their zeal to make good case, the
majority of the committee, when they made
their report, and Senator Scott, in his recent
letter to the President, gave full play to their
imaginative faculties, with the view to bolster
up the tottering temple of Radicalism and
strengthen the chances Of Republican success
in many of the approaching State elections
which are considered doubtful.
Senator Scott insists that from information
recently received from this County, he learns
that since the committee were here, 1.-THE Ku
Klux have renewed their deeds of violence and
crime, whipping influential men for no other
| cause than their political opinions and the col
house." The source OF Senator Scott's infor-
nation is, doubtless, better than that enjoyed
by others and no doubt his informants possess
facilities deuied the less favored for obtaining
the news, as is apparent from the feet that af-
ter the most diligent inquiry, we have been un-
able to procure any authentic facts to warrant
the Senator in his assertion that deeds OF vio-
lence and crime have been renewed.
The statement that school-h0use was recent
ly burned in this County is erroneous. 1t is
true that school house was torn down-the
result of feud between two rival factions,
each one tending for the possession of the house
in which to conduct school for colored chill
dren. As the facts are related to us, it was q
matter in which the white citizens of the neigh
borhood had no concern, and certainly IN which
according to the common usage of the mean
ing Ku Kluxism had nothing whatever to do.
We make no attempts to conceal acts OF vlo-
lence that may transpire in this section, and
invariably publish all authenticated reports
that reach us and, in another place, we publish
an account Of two "outrages" perpetrated in
this County within the past week. We sup
pose these occurrences will, in due time, be re-
ported to the astute Senator, who is 80 extreme
" solicitous for the maintenance of order in York
County, as the most ghostly Ku Klux TRACE
dies vet enacted Blu. are such acts confined to
York County? to the State of South Carolina
to any Southern State? or, (excuse the compar-
ison, to any State of the Union? Bad men
are in all communities. Robberies and MUIR
ders are planned and executed almost daily in
every State; and we submit that only the most
tyrannical spirit would prompt the convenience
and hardship to which whole community
would be subjected by the enforcement OF mil
itary rule or martial law, simply on account OF
the conduct Of few, who would transgress the
laws and eyade punishment just as readily were
martial law declared as they now do.
| We have read somewhere that it is we'll for
man to cast the beam from his own eye be-
fore he attemps to pluck the mote from the eye
of his neighbor. This injunction, doubtless,
ESCAPED the attention of Congress at the time
| the Ku Klux law was enacted, and it has GER
tainly passed away from the memory of Sena-
tor Scott altogether. We would, therefore
most respectfully suggest to the honorable
Senator that, so soon as his arduous labor OF
hunting up and collating cases of crime in
South Carolina is concluded, he turn his atten-
tion to other sections nearer his own proper
bailiwick. His native State, Pennsylvania
will furnish ample material for the exercise Of
his peculiar talent, and should he exhaust the
fertile resources there at his command, let him
turn his attention to the more enlightened New
England, and, our word for it, he will find a
task to which the cleansing of the Augean sta
bles was mere circumstance.-YorkuiAe En-
guirer.