The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-04-25
Gen. Grants Attack on South Carolina.

Gen. Grants Attack on South Carolina.
The Washington correspondent of the New
York World gives in f1ii the message of Presi-
dent Grant, touching his conduct towards South
Carolina and the reasons alleged therefor, to-
gethcr with appropriate comments on this SLAM
derous document, as follows:
WASHINGTON, April 19.
President Grant to-day stultiGed the position
he holds by sending to the House message
giving the reasons which induced the suspcn-
sion Of civil liberty in portion of the State
of South Carolina, which amounts to nothing
less than vindictive and outrageous attack
upon portion of the country he is sworn to
defend. The document bears more of the i'm
press of the reckless assertions of stump
orator than the magnanmous policy of just
ruler, and from the extravaganza of the charges
it is quite evident that this State paper is pre-
pared with the view of engendering bitter
passions to affect the result of political CAM
pagn. The broad and shameful charges made
against the people which ne has, in the opinion
of many prominent men of his own party,
oppressed unnecessarily, is only another proof
of the desperate efforts that are to be made to
secure a reelection by arousing hostiities.
The vindctiveness of this document caused
universal feeling of disgust to pervade the
House, and led some of the Democratic mem
bers to stgmatize its assertions as untrue and
the failure of any of the Republican side to
attempt its vindication is undoubted evidence
of the want of belief in the charges and their
utter destitution of defence. No attempt was
made made to debate, but the Democrats gave notice
that they would at the proper time entirely re-
fute each statement made, and would by
production of the proof show the degrading
position in which the President had placed
himself The slander-for the message is moth
ing else but sanderous charges upon the peo-
pie of South Cardinals as follows:
| To the House of Representatives
In answer to the resolution of the House of
Representatives of January Is, have the hon
or to submit the following, accompanied by the
report of the Attorney General, to whom the
resolution was referred:
Representations having been made to me
that in certain portions of South Carolina
condition of lawlessness and terror existed,
requested the then Attorney General lAker-
man to visit the State, and after personal ex-
animation to report to me the facts in relation
to the subject On the 10th of October last he
addressed communication from South Caro-
lina il which he stated that in the counties of
Spartanburg, York, Chester, Union, Laurens,
Newberry, Fairfield, Lancaster and Chester
field there were combinations for the purpose
of preventing the free political actions of citi-
zens who were friendly to the Constitution and
the government of the United States, and OF
depriving the emancipated class of the equal
protection of the laws. These combinations
embrace at least two-thrds of the active white
men of those counties, and have the sympathy
and countenance of the majority of the other
third They are connected with similar COM
binations in other counties and States, and no
doubt are part of grand system of criminal
associations pervading most of the Southern
States. The members are bound to obedience
and secrecy by oaths which they are taught to
regard as of higher obligation than the lawful
oaths taken before civil magistrates; they are
organized and armed; they effect their objects
by personal violence, often extending to muir
der; they terrify witnesses; they control Jurles
in the State courts and sometimes in the courts
of the United States systematic spying is one
of the means by which prosecution of the
members is defeated From information given
by officers of the State and of the United
States, and by credible private citizens, am
justified in affirming that the instances OF Grim
inal violence perpetrated by these combinations
within the last twelve months in the above
named counties could be reckoned by thou
sands.
I received information of similar import
from various sources, among which were the
Joint committee of Congress upon Southern
outrages, the officers of the State, the military
officers of the United States on duty in South
Carolina, the United States Attorney and Mar
shall, and other officers of the government, re-
pentent and abjuring members of these unlaw-
full organizations, persons specially employed
by the department of justice to detect crimes
against the United States, and from other cred
IDLE sources Most, if not all, of this informa-
ton, except that derived from the Attorney
General, came to me orally, and was to the
effect that said counties were under the sway OF
the powerful combinations popularity known as
the "Ku Klux Klan," the objects of which
we're by force and terror to prevent all political
action not in accord with the views of the mem
bers, to deprive colored citizens of the right to
bear arms and of the right to free ballot, to
suppress schools in which colored children were
taught, and to reduce the colored people to a
condition closely akin to that of slaves that
these combinations were organized and armed,
and had rendered the local law Intellectual to
protect the classes whom they desired to op-
press; that they had perpetrated many MUIR
ders and hundreds of crimes of minor degree,
all of which were unpunished, and that wit
nesses could not safely testify in courts there
unless the more active members were placed
under restraint.
(Signed) U. S. GRANT.
It will thus be seen that President of the
United States has descended to appear before
the country as the vindctive enemy of help
less people, and who, to achieve certain ends of
his own, is willing to destroy the social as well
as public standing of the citizens of portion
of the country. The intention of this "mes-
sage" is two-fold: first, to infame the public
mind, and by the aid of his reckless supporters
attempt to create anew the old feeling of Sec
tional hatred; and second, to force through the
exhibition of this distorted picture the passage
of the extension of bayonet rule over the South.
1t has been developed during the last few weeks
that many prominent Radicals have repented
of placing so great power in the hands of such
an indiscreet Chief Magistrate, and are also