The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-02-29

statute only authorized him to purchase 1000
stands of arms" he purchased 10000 stands of
breech. loading and Winchester rifles, and L.
100000 of centre-coppered cartridges, at cost,
besides commissions and stealings, of S202, ,6O2-
66, to be paid for almost exclusively out of the
pockets of that class of the citizens of South
Carolina against whose bosoms these very guns
were to be pointed, in the hands of an Ignorant
and brutal race, excited against them by the
scoundrels and demagogues who were the au-
thors of the infamy. We take this sum OF
S202 2602.66, as paid for arms and ammunition,
from the account rendered by b. ID. Klmpton,
financial agent of South Carolina, in New
York. Whittemores Republican committee OF
investigation assert that this is not full state
ment of the cost to the people OF the negro
militia, and charge that the true amount Is
S42l 1871. When the white people of the
State became aware of this secret arming of the
negroes. alarm and CONSERVATION spread through
the land. 1t will be readily understood what
reason they had for this alarm, when it ls known
that the census tables for 1870 shows an excess
of black population over the whites of l33, ,l23.
Feeling and knowing that they were as much
entitled, under the general militia law, to be
enrolled and organized as were the negroes,
thew commenced to enroll and organize them
selves into companies in the more threatened
counties of the State. They respectfully and
in due forms of law rendered their enrollments
to the Governor, who had the supreme audaci-
ty. in every instance, to refuse to receive them,
and they were rejected !! We have not the
room to accumulate the testimony. No mem
Der of the majority of the committee will as
sumo that this arming of the negro militia, to
the very marked and insulting exclusion Of the
white people, was not one of the main causes
of all the disturbances which occurred in the
State afterwards. The weight of the evidence
shows that cotemporaneous with this armlng
of the blacks the Ku Klux outrages began
AS disturbers of the public peace, the two Or
CARNATIONS stand together. Par mobile tratruna.
We shall now proceed to show, as briefly as
possible, that the riots at Union Court House,
Chester. and Laurens, about which the Repub-
lican press everywhere have been 80 loud IN
their denunciations, were the direct and imme-
diate consequence of placing arms in the hands
of such reckless, lawless, and turbulent beings
as are the negroes of South Carolina. There
is not the slightest evidence that political feel
ing had anything to do with these two riots at
Union Court House. 1t was just one of those
spontaneous outbreaks of human passion and
yepgeance which occasionally occur in any
community. It is evident that these lawless
avengers of the murder of Stevens and Smith
apprehended that these negroes would escape
punishment through the pardoning power OF
the Governor, or that by some other mode,
through the action of the Legislature, composed
of O. large majority of infuriated negroes, the
course of Justice would be impeded. Had
thew any reasonable grounds to think so? The
State records will show. Of the 2O5 pardoned
by the Governor for that year 100 were negroes.
a yerv earnest effort was made by majority
of the subcommittee sent to South Carolina to
establish the fact that in the election of 1870
force and intimidation were resorted to IN or
der to carry the election in favor of the Reform
party. and that in some of the counties the ne
rroes we're in fact intimidated and staid away
from the polls.
The official election returns of their own
there is, or was in 1870,
scarcely conservative or Democratic election
commissioner in all South Carolina-d -dissipate
into smoke and vapor all these oft-repeated
charges of intimidating the negroes, or interfer-
ing with full and decorous expression OF their
political opinions, either on the hustings or
throuph the press 1t is painful duty to ar
raign The Chief Justice of the Republic before
the great tribunal of the people. 1t would
have been much more pleasant task, in cri
sis which should hush into silence all mere
party criticism, to represent him to that court
of last resort as having performed his high
trust in relation to these Southern troubles,
with moderation, justice, wisdom, and the
strictest impartiality; and that, under broad
and large-hearted administration of the govern
ment. peace and harmony had been restored
between the people of the two sections; and
that all the bitterness and ranking animosities
of a great civil war had been lost and absorbed
in the proud recollections of joint struggle
for independence and liberty, and the common
glory of the earlier and better days of the Re-
pubiic. What we complain OF, and what the
great body of The American people should visit
with their censure and condemnation, is the
indifference and the positive inattention of the
Federal Executive to the terrible results which
NAV follow the maladministration of affairs in
the Southern States and that he seems to be
SO far forgetful of his duties to all the people
as to submit himself, perhaps unconsciouslyy,
to the dictates of party vengeance or the ac-
complishment of party ends in the future
rather than 80 do equal and exact justice to all
classes of citizens.
The foregoing is hurried, but, as we believe,
q truthful statement of the political, moral,
and financial condition of the State of South
Carolina, under the joint rule of the negro and
the "reconstructive" policy of Congress. We
feel conscious that we have honestly endeav-
ored ore TO discharge our duty in the premises,
having "noth;ng extenuated or aught set down
in malice" and respectfully submit the whole
matter to the consideration of Congress and
the people.
FRANK r. BLAIR.
T. F. BAYARD.
S. S. Cox.
JAMES B. BECK.
P. VAN TRUMP.
A. M. WADDELL.
J. G. ROBINSON.
J. NJ. HANKS