Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1871-06-03
Our Southern Correspondence.

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Progr.ss of Euenfs in South Carolina
-Granis Paper BuH-We Tar
pauers Conventiom-A uisit 10 Co.
iumbia-Yank.e Barbarism-Genf
SAerman's ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
and Fruits-Cora and Cotton, &C.,
&r.
Affairs are rapidly growing worse In
South Carolina and the good people are
waiting for ''somethingto turn up, that
will improve their condition, while the
most ignorant and unwilling can now
see that Radical Reconstruction is
failure in the very State where they
had the fairest and most favorable OPP
portunity for carrying it out. They
tinkered at the orr ginal bill, amended
its provisions and increased its virulence
and hostility to the Southern whites,
! until it has become a stencil IN their
nostlils and a milestone to drag them
down from place and power, which they
, here abused to the almost total ruin OF
the land
Gen. Grants Paper Bull has fallen
harmless at the foot of his throne and
the terrible Ku Klux still haunt the evil
disposed, while the blue coated soldiers
travel through the State unframed and
regard with supreme contempt the car
pet-bagger and others
That bend the pregnant hinges the knee
Tha rif NAV fnlioY IA ming ~
and are robbing and running the State.
A Convention, composed of the best
and most intelligent citizens ofthe State,
the property holders and taxpayers, re-
Gently held in Columbia to devise some
way in which the affairs of the State
might be improved. Good things are
hoped to result from it. The following
extract from a series of resolutions will
show what the financial condition OF
the State promises
| lst. Resolved, That this Convention,
representing the tax payers ofthe State,
deem it our duty to declare the so-called
Sterling Loan, or any other bonds here
after issued, purporting to be issued by
virtue of the authority of this State, as
now constituted, will not be held bind
ing on us and we recommend that the
people resist the payment thereof by all
lawful means.
End. We warn all persons against re-
ceiving or purchasing any bond of this
State, hereafter issued by the present
State Government, or any other, in
which the property holders and tax
payers are not represented. Such bonds
will be held null and void and in dero-
CATION of the rights Of those people up
on whom the public burden mostly
falls.
The committee appointed to confer
with the Governor and ask his views
and cooperation reported in substance
as follows
1st That he will sign no other bonds
than those set forth in the debt state
ment of the Comptroller General.
2nd. That the State and County Off
GERS, both elective and appointed, are
unnecessarily large and should be redu-
ced in number and in pay,
3rd. That many officials, charged
with administration of justice, are in
competent and inaccessible to the peo-
pie, and that many disorders complained
of, have been created by this cause
4th. lie favors minority representa-
ton and cumulative voting.
4th. That the election laws need ma
terial mending.
9th. That he would have the collec
ton of taxes for 1872, postponed until
March next.
Your Correspondent, few days ago,
paid flying visit to Columbia, which
sits, like beautiful queen, upon high
eminence, near the junction of the Salu-
da and Broad rivers, overlooking the
Congaree. The situation is high and
commanding, but the country around is
poor indeed. The business portion of
the city is on the apex of the hill and
then around it are private residences,
magnificent in appearance, vieing in
beauty the tabled palaces of the East,
and having around them ample grounds
adorned with flowers. shrubbery and
shade trees, giving it the appearance of
a tropical city. The greater portion of
the place was burned by General Sher
man in 1865, after having promised the
Mayor, who surrendered the city, that
he would not Many handsome resi-
dences were thus destroyed and thous-
ands of helpless women and children
were turned out the night, and their
very sutferings made sport of. The
pen cannot describe the horrors of that
night, and the heart of man cannot con
ceive of the brutality and inbumanity of
Sherman, who with lying tongue prom
Used one thing and did another. His
soldiers after enjoying the hospitality of
families, arose from the table and tax
ing the candles in their hands went up
stairs and set fire to the very beds in
which ladies were confined and not able
to help themselves. This act of his
will be remembered wherever cruelty is
known. but the following instance of
revenge is worthy to be mentioned
Sometime ago physician of Memphis,
Tennessee, whose wife and little chill
dren were put by Gen. Sherman across
the Mississippi river on a cold winter
night with nothing but their night
o1o,Loe on1 fnrb;5den N ret,,rn or any