The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-08-10

SUBJ Committee has made minority
report in which he shows up the trick
cry resorted to by the majority of the
Committee in pursuing their inyesti-
cations and the untruthfulness and
perversion of facts contained in the
majority report. Every person of or
binary intelligence is aware of the
fact that the Radical howl of KuKlux-
ism against. the South is piece of
trickery resorted to by the party in
power, to divert the attention of the
people from the usurpations and out
RACES which they are perpetrating up
on the country in the name of
"loyalty."
Judge Van Trump authroizes the
statement that the recently published
report of the results of the inyestiga-
tions of the Committee in South Car
Olina are untrue in many particulars,
and perversion of the facts in others,
evidently colored for the purpose of
! producing a partiZan and false impress
sion. The testimony shows that there
are four counties-Laurens, Chester,
York and Spartan acts
of violence have been committed
The testimony given by negroes was
of the lowest kind, and utterly un-
worthy of belief. They were attracted
by the fee of two dollars per diem,
and in many cases were evidently
drilled for the OCCASION. AT Spartans-
burg. numbers of them were congre-
gated in the post Office, while waiting
to be called as witnesses, and doubtless
learned a lesson which was afterwards
rehearsed, substantially in the same
words by the various negroes, who
pretended to have been punished
But one was stripped and one white
man at Columbia, who while claiming
to be refugee on account of terror,
was holding Office there at the expense
of the State. His fict;cious wounds
had been healed with that plaster. In
the Radical statement it is broadly al
legged that ten negroes were taken
| from Jail at Chester, and murdered by
an armed band, but the facts connected
with this transaction are all suppressed
for effect. They were as follows: A
company of twenty-five armed negroes
appeared in that neighborhood and
openly announced their intention to
shoot the first white man they should
meet. Soon after, a draynlan named
Stevens, with one arm, who was uni
versally regarded as a worthy and
amiable man, was driving along the
road with barrel of whisky in his
cart. He was stopped by this band of
rufians and the whisky demanded
He told them it Was not his property,
but gave them a~dask of his own and
started again. After going short
distance the negroes fired at his cart
and struck it in several places. A
man who had joined Stevens on the
road fed for his life, and he himself,
seeing armed negroes in pursuit, aban-
doned his cart and sought refuge in a
neighboring cabin. He was followed
| by the wretches, and against the efforts
| of the negro woman whose humble
shelter he had sought, and his own,
| he was taken out. After drawing lots
woods and riddled his body with bull
lets. The perpetrators of this out
rage were arrested and put in the
| Chester county Jail, but before being
secured they killed Deputy Sheriff
/ Smith, who served the process. Sud-
denly a negro came from Columbia
with what purported to be writ of
habeas corpus from Radical Judge
Thomas, at Columbia, but was attested
in no proper form. The Sheriff called
into counsel the leading lawyers in
/ order to determine what course to
1pursue in regard to this informal and
4 irregular requisition, which bore no
evidence of genuineness and came in
an envelope of the Adams express
| company. Meantime the news spread
and the Vigilance Committee, reused
| into Indignation, and knowing how
Governor Scott had pardoned the
worst criminals by hundreds, and be-
lieving it to be trick to carry off the
murderers determined to administer
stern justice themselves by making an
example to check outlawry. They
took the prisoners out of Jail by force
and executed them summarily. q One
of them was released by the declara-
! ton of white man that he was inno-
cent of the atrocious crime of which
the others were guilty. eaz
While this act of vengeance is dep
recated, the extraordinary provocation
and alarm created by armed blacks,
as well as their violence, must be con-
sidered in connection with it. Other
statements might be exposed with
equal effect, but this illustration is
sufficient for present purposes. One
of the principal witnesses, named
Owen, on cross-examination admitted
himself to be a thief ,s Congressman
Wallace, who was elected first by the
House of Representatives and then by
stuffed ballots in his district, with five
thousand Democratic majority. fol- |
lowed the committee everywhere and
was one of the most active managers
in getting up the testimony. The af-
fair in which he figured at Spartans- |
burg, which " o. telegraphed all over
the country as a gross outrage, exhib-
its the purpose TO magnify and exag-
gerate the most Insignificant incidents
for political effect. He was seated
next to Mr.. Stephenson of the COM
mittee, at the hotel table, when man
named Barry, who formerly had a
feud with Wallace, entered in state
of intoxication. Discovering his old
enemy he seized pitcher of milk and
threw it at him, whereupon Wallace
drew a revolver and would have fired
but for the intervention of those pres
ent. This was the extent of the out
rage. Berry, when sobered sought to
make every statement, as the citizens
did, who were injured by his reckless
conduct. sti.,.,.ss
There is no political feeling of any
kind in the unfortunate disturbances
which have occurred in these few
counties of South Carolina. They re-
suit from mal-administration, cor
ruptlon, robbery, cafpet-bagism and
on the part of the poor laboring white |
men for the wicked purpose on the
authorities and Legislature to assert |
black supremacy and degrade them
with negro rule. This is with them, |
perhaps, the real and most serious |
difficulty, 1t is a question of race,
which, as South Carolina is now ad- |
ministered and sustained by federal |
power, threatens the gravest conse-
quences. The white mechanic and |
Iaborer, when he finds the worst crime |
protected and pardoned, the law an
engine of persecution and political /
power, abused in ordey to oppress
him with negro Illumination and to |