Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-08-02

negroes in pursuit abandoned his cart and
sought refuge in neighboring cabin. He was
followed, and, against the efforts of a negro
woman whose shelter he had sought, and his
own, he was taken out. After drawing lots,
five of the gang took him into the woods and
riddled his body with balls. The perpetrators
of this outrage were arrested aud put in Chester
jail; but, before being secured, they killed
Deputy Sheriff Smith, who served the process,
Suddenly negro came from Columbia with
what puTported to be a writ of habeas corpus
from the radical Judge Thomas, at Columbia,
but which was attested in no proper form. The
sheriff called into council the leading lawyers,
in order to determine what course he should
pursue in regard to this informal and irregular
requisition, which bore no evidence of genuine
ness, and came in an envelope of the Adams
express company.
Meantime, the news spread, and vigilance
committee, knowing how Gov. Scott had par
doned the worst criminals by hundreds, and be-
lieying it to be trick to carry off the murder
ers, determined to administer justice themselves
by making an example to check outlawry.
They took the prisoners out Of Jail by force and
executed them summarily. One of the number
was released on the declaration Of a white man
that he was believed to be Innocent of the afro
cions crime of which the Others were guilty.
While this act of vengeance is deprecated, the
extraordinary provocatiOn and the alarm
created by armed blacks, as well as their Ylo-
lence, must be considered in connection with
it. Other statements might be exposed with
equal effect but this illustration is sufficient for
the present purpose. One of the principal wit
nesses, named Owen, on cross examination, adj
mitted himself TO be a thief
Congressman Wallace, who was elected first
by the house of representatives and then by
stuffed ballots in a district with five thousand
democratic majority, followed the committee
everywhere, and was one of the active managers
in getting up testimony. The affair in which
he figured at Spartansburg, which was tele-
graphed all over the country as a gross out
rage, exhibits the purpose to magnify and cx-
aggeratc the most insignificant incidents for pO-
litcal effect. He was seated next to
MIR. Stevenson, of the committee, at the
hotel table, when man named Ber-
ry, who formerly had a ieud with Wallace,
entered in state of intoXication. Discovering
his old enemy, he seized a pitcher of milk and
threw it at him; whereupon Wallace drew
revolver and would have fired but for the inter
vention of those present. This was the extent
OF that outrage, and Berry, when sobered,
sought TO make every atOnement, as the citizens
did who were injured by his reckless conduct
There is no political feeling of any kind in the
disturbances which have occurred in these few
counties of South Carolina. They result from
administration, corruption, robbery, carpet
bagism, and, especially among the poor labor
ing white men, from wicked purpose on the
part of the authorities and the Legislature to as
Sert black supremacy and degrade them with
negro rule That is with them, perhaps, the
real and most serious difficulty.
1t is question of race, which, as South Caro-
lima is now administered and sustained by the
federal power, threatens the gravest conse-
quenCes.