New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-09-07
SOUTHERN .OUTRAGEs.
Condition of south Carolina.
The Washington Republican of Frid

Condition of south Carolina.
The Washington Republican of Friday
says:
Senator Scott, the chairman of the joint
congressional committee, charged with the
investigation of Southern Outrages, ar
rived here yesterday morning. The Presi-
dent had been visiting the several depart
ments, and it was not generally known that
he held a lengthy interview with Senator
Scott
The object of the Presidents and Sena-
tors visit here is the same, Mr. Scott hav-
ing notified the President Of his intention
to see him at Long Branch on Southern af-
fairs. On learning the nature OF the S6na-
tors communication, the President advised
him that he would see him at Washington,
and summoned his cabinet to assemble at
once.
1t win be remembered that Senator Scott
recently went to South Carolina as chair
man of a subcommittee to investigate the
condition of affairs in the counties of York,
Chester, Spartanburg, Fairfield. and those
adjacent thereto. The character and re-
suits of the investigation is known, and
need not now be recapitulated. The ter
rorism existing in the region referred to
was so great that Senator Scott felt COM
PEELED to publicly announce that if any wit
nesses before the committee were molested
after they had returned, or if the outrages
continued he Senator Scott would fell
himself obliged in honor to inform the
President aud urge the enforcement at
once of the most extreme powers given the
executive by the Ku-Klux law.
In various places and ways this determin-
alton was made known, and it is owing to
that fact that the subcommittee were able
I'd obtain attendance of any witnesses at
all. And even with this pledge, publicly
and solemnly made, many of the persons
who were able to give most important tes-
timony refused to appear. The abjeet ter
ror manifested by the majority of those
who did come, whether blacks or whites,
Impressed itself strongly on the Senator's
mind, as well as of his colleagues. Senator
Scott regards his promise, repeated under
circumstances of recognized individual
peril, as one which he is bound to urge the
tulfillment of to the utmost.
Since his return home he has been in con-
slant receipt of letters from the counties of
York and Spartanburg, not only from Re-
publican witnesses, but from Democrats of
respectability, who had personally pledged
themselves to use their influence to prevent
any one being molested, and to o'all in
their power to oppose the continuance of
Ku-klux riding and outrages. The shrewd-
est and more respectable Democrats natur-
ally dread the enforcement of martial law
Its proclamation was necessarily involved
in the Senator's declarations, and they so
understood it. Ameng the leading citizens
who pledged their influence to the mainte-
nance of order was a prominent lawyer of
Spartanburg, formerly Lieutenant Governor
Of the State who asked the Senator to with
hold his threatened communication to the
President for some weeks, rpledging to hold
meetings throughout the congressional dis
rrict, giving the people fair notice of what
was involved in their failure to obev the
laws and preserve the peace.
1t now appears that only few meetings
were so held; that the outrages continue to
as great an extent as formerly: that the
witnesses before the subcommittee are an
especial object of the Ku-Klux hostilities,
as they feared would be the case: that sew
eral OF them have been abused, and others
are refugees in Spartanburg and towns
where there are United States garr;sons.
For two or three weeks past the Ku-Klux
have ridden extensively throughout the dis
been whipped AT Greenville, for some
weeks or more past, the trial of eight sup
posed KuKlux has been progressing. One
of them is said to be colored The Jury
have failed to convict all but one The
colored prisoner has yet to be tried. The
first jury stood eight for acquittal and four
for conviction. Singularly enough the first
eight were all Democrats of an extreme
stripe.
1t is very evident from this experience
that this condition of public sentiment there
is so bad, that juries will not or are afraid
to convict. In these cases the evidence
was ample to convict most of the accused
In his interview with the President yester-
day, the Senator laid the facts above given,
and many others, before him, urging that
tho utmost rigors of the law be put in force
TO protect the unfortunate Unionists of
western South Carolina. He gave the de-
tails from his correspondence of several of
the worst cases. One of the witnesses, a
white man named Quinn, who is Repuh
hcan, and was one of a grand jury charged
with the investigation of ku-kluxism, has
been been taken out of his house and most
brItally whipped. Another important wit
ness, eolored, barely escaped with his life, |
and is now refugee at Spartanburg. The |
apprehension prevailing.is something which |
decent people living in the North must |
utterly fail to realize.
Senator Scott laid before the President |
letters received from Colonel Lewis Merrill. |
United States army, commanding post at |
opartanourg, an officer in whose prudence |
ana sagaclty the Senator SAYS he has the |
utlnost coincidence. In these letters Colonel
Merrill gives details of the occurrences
herein referred to- The receipt of these
lay them before the President as he did
yesterday, and to advise and urge that the
powers given by the Ku-Kluy Low ho
exercised to their fullest extent, in at least
the counties OF York and Spartanburg.
South Carolina. 81
The President requested Senator Scott 10
ay the facts, as narrated, before him in a
ornlal letter, which should also suggest the
'emedies he proposed to be taken.
The letter has been written, and is now in
he Presidents hands, the substance of
Which is given above. In this letter Senator
colt, after reciting the grounds of his ap-
cal, urges the executive to at once cause
reclamation to be issued demanding the