The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1871-11-02
Is It a Mistake?

The following very suggestive az
ticlc is from the Washington Patrio.
of Wednesday. -..
Declaring martial law has hereto
fore boon considered rather seriou.
thing. The plcasure-loving peopl,
hereabouts, however, who, in flmiliaI
Iphrase-
Deal thus damnation around the lant
On each they judge their foe
seem to think it a matter of no very
great moment. and if q few thousant
lpeople, especially white ones, more o.
less, are by mistake put in the dreary
category of having no rights that any
body is bound to respect, it 8 lightly
termed an innocent "cIerfcal error,
which it is not worth while to correct
Such, it now seems, is the ease iI
South Gerolina. The counties which
the President meant to outlaw were :
cluster in the North of the State, con
aiming, by the way, those for!orn
obsolete classicalties, "Cowpens" and
"King's Mountain" They ore Spar
tanburg, York, Lancaster, Chester
field, Chester, Fairfield, Newbcrry
and Laurcns> Directly in the centre
of. them is the county of "Union,
which is not included in the proc|a.
nation, but in its place is put "Ma'
rion," q county far away in the Eas'
tern part of the State having no con-
nection whatever with the "infected
district" of the Northwest, and con
fesscd to be perfectly orderly and
quiet. This is said to be the "clerical
mistake" and if it be, in simplicity we
ask, what is the process by which it
is to be corrected /? Is o procla ma
ton of martial law to be taken, like a
commercial account, 'errors exccp-
ted" or is this legacy of woe TO be
corrected in a codicil? The poor folk
of Marion, inheuitors of revolutionary
peanuts, ought to be extricated!
But we are by no means sure tbatit
is mistake. A little scrutiny shows
pretty plainly that the selection of
these counties was made with refer
ence less to social disturbance, actual
or imputed, than to party considera-
tions. At the last Presidential cleo
rion the nine outlawcd counties gave
q Democratic majority of more than
3,I00. At the State election. of 1870
Union" which is exempt, gave n
Radical majority, and marion"
which is dragged in, gave ConserVa-
tive majority. There arc six other
counties with anti administration ten
denotes, which VIC could mention, that
will doubtless be IN tho next procla-
nation, and then Georgia will be dis
ciplincd. Tie object Of all this is not
for, speaking of tho latter
State, the Presidents organ says:
Appointment Republicans from Geor.
gia give hopeful account Of the par
ty organization in that State under it
and with the Presidents aid they have
full confidence to get rid Of objection:
able elements and carry the State" O..
-. ~.. ANOTHER VERSION. 3D.
The Marion Crescent explains the
matter as follows:
- Our explanation of the matter is,
that Union County owes its exemp
,ion to lis name and that the stupid
Grant supposed the people of U"ion
must, of course, a!l be "loyal," that il,
Rod;cul. lie had probably heard
that "Marion" was the
name Of "rebcl" General; therefore
he included Murion county in the proc
and if he had known. that
his county was also named after
''rcbef' General, no doabt Sumter
County would also have been included.
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