The Lincoln County herald., 1871-08-03
THE II Err AID.
TROY, no. AUGUST 3, ls7I.
The Sub.COm mlttec.

itioeraut 6esrueyiug through South Car
olins. 1t rcports . truly shocking state
Of affairs down there, but how much the
witnesses examined by it exaggerated their
injuries, or how much their statement.
were magnifcd by the committee, wo arc
DOT able to say.
At Columbia tho committee sepori
moro than ono hundred refugees, who
had fed from violence IN various
counties.
At Ssartansborg "whites and negroes,
victims of violence, came 10 by scores" us
soon IS they heard the committee was
<here. and reported that murders and
whippisss by Ku-klux bands had so ter
eifed them tAstin many neighborhoods
nearly every negro and whisc Republican
had slept in the woods for months. They
showed scarT6ed backs, gun shot wounds,
manned ears, aud other proofs Of violence
they Asd ssffered."
At Limestone ono hundred and sish.
!ceu cases Of whipping were testified to.
The last election there was carried by
aiepubIicau majority. but the officers re.
ceived ks.kiux notices, and all resigned
OF he'd. A prominent lawyer Of the
place startled tho committee by stating
that he believed almost every respectable
unmarried man ia the community be.
longed 10 the organlsatioW, aud ho be-
lieved . thousand ku- klux we're in
days march Of the place. But they
didn't molest the committee.
In York county, A. s. Wallace, United
States Senator from South Carolina,
while at supper at the hotel With tho
committee on the evening Of theie arri.
val, had = pitcher Of milk thrown over
him by a Major Berry, who claimed that
he meant no offence to the committe. A
negro band sercnaded the itinerant Ku.
tlux hunters while there; . crowd Of
young men were on the hotel porch ours.
ing the negroes aud the Yankees, aud at
the breaking up q melee occurred, which
resulted ia ono negro being seriously
wounded.
Where there is 50 much smoke there
must be some FIRE. aud while wo believe
the reports Of outrages thus banded
about by the Radicals for political effect
are exaggerated in the extreme, we do
not doubt their existence in q measure.
But what is tho causeY 1. is simply
this: The respectable portion of the
people have been deprived Of elf.govern.
msnt. while an irresponsible cot cF -
q ..u s~..uuv uuIters have elected
men Of their own ilk to the Offices of
trust and great responsibility. Following
this, the public money has been stolen,
the state bankrup,ed, theft and corrup.
tiou gone unpublished, and tho worst
class of criminals, wherever q jury of
responsibility could be obtained to con
vict them, have been pardoned whenever
they CHANGED to b. Radicals. which they
almost invariable did chance to be. BY
such government tho state has bee u
Hooded with thieves, and to protect them.
selves the people have been forced to
take the matter into their own hands, the
ku.klux organizations being merely vigi
lance committees.
In the State of South Carolina the
vigilance system has probably been car.
fiod on more extensively than in any
other portion Of the South, as shown BY
the examination Of witnesses. The wis.
dom of 1t is doubtful, inasmuch as the
worst classes Of crime which The system is
mining to check, arc committed in the
name Of "loyalty," and hence have the
sympathy and support Of Graut and his
bayonots. We do not approve of Ku.
tlu1, vigilance, or other mob systems, but
they are not more to DO denounced than
is the government that takes under its
caro- and protection . party of thieves,
sr'bs pander', forgers, bigamists, corrup.
tionists and carpet baggers, such as the
the ruling Radical element Of the South
is known to be, aud is acknowledged BY
ssch Republicans as Greelev. Dana
ochurs, Trumbull, and others we might
same, 10 be.
The Ku'klux committee, on the 2Sth
at examined II. W. Guion, . leading
lawyer Of Charlotte, N. c., who testified
10 the past as we'll as present condition
Of things, that the people Of that state
had taken the Law into their own nauds