Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-09-19
GENERAL MOSES EXPLAINS.


In Charleston, last week, Gen. F. j. Moses,
the candidate for Governor of the Irregular"
Republicans, made speech, and thus ex-
planned sundry charges which have been pre-
ferred against him:
Mr. Moses was then received with perfect
ovation of cheers, and made spirited and ef-
fective speech. He repeated the pledges OF
the regular Republican party, and promised
their faithful fulfllment in the event of bis
election, and he then proceeded to make an
answer to the charges which had been brought
against him, He said that if he were there
as an individual he would not open his lips in
explanation or denial but as the candidate Of
the REPUBLICAN party, he believed it a duty
which he owed to the party and the people to
meet and refute those charges. He said, first,
that although he had been connected with the
State Government since 1868, he had never
been in such position as to have control OF
one dollar of its finances. Those finances
were managed by regularly constituted boards,
the financial board, the land commission
board, the sinking fund commissioners. His
name was to be found among none Of them,
and he declared, upon his responsibility and
honor as a man, that there had never during
his official life been an occasion when one dol
lar of the State money had to pass through his
hands, directly or indirectly. For many
months, however, all the little dogs of the
party-Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart-had
been barking at him, and on that day little
paper in Charleston had propounded terri
BILE string of questions for him to answer that
evening. He would not shrink from answer
ing all those questions, and he challenges that
paper to search the record for themselves and
ascertain if his answer was in the least degree
false or equivocal. He then read from the
Charleston Republican the first question,
which was as follows:
"In the first place, we desire to ask the gen.
tleman if he will make affidavit to the denial
he published in the Columbia papers a few
days ago, in refutation in general of the
charges urged against him, and which article
was copied in the Charleston press. Empty
statements will not do. What the people
want is proof, and not proof from questiona-
BILE sources"
He said he agreed with the editor of the
paper that what the people wanted was proof,
and proof from unquestionable sources, but it
was the first time he had ever heard Of a per-
son arraigned upon any charge being asked
to make an affidavit that he was not guilty.
1t was not his duty to prove negative, but
what the people wanted and what he demand
ed was the affidavits of those who brought the
charges.
The second question, which he also read to
the audience, was as follows:
"Secondly. Will the gentleman explain,
and furnish by proof, his innocence Of the fol-
lowing, in reference to the Roberts Arms Com
pany and the American Metallic Ammunition
Company" 1t is charged that, "in the case
of the Roberts Arms Company, though the
company received but S2500 the account was
made out against the State for $44,25O. The
contract, which was for the alteration of five
thousand Springfield rifles to breech-loaderss,
was made on the part of the State of South
Carolina by F. J. Moses, Jr., as Adjutant and
Inspector. General. Thousands upon thou
sands of dollars more were spirited from the
State in these arms transactions, all of which
appear clearly chargeable to T. j. Moses, and,
perhaps, R. K. Scott.
In reply to this charge he said thai when
it was first made in the report of the joint spe.
cial financial investigating committee, he lad
risen in his place in the Assembly and made
his defence. He had then demanded that the
Assembly should, if they believed him guilty,
take immediate steps to investigate his con-
duct. That defense had been at the time pub
lished in the Charleston daily papers, and
even they had done him the justice to say
that the charge, so far as he was concerned,
had been cleared away. The writer Of the
committee report had afterward admitted the
same thing in the General Assembly. He
then proceeded with repetition of the ex-
plantations which were to the effect that he
had been ordered by the Governor to make
contracts for the alteration of 10000 guns /;
that he had absolutely nothing to do with the
transaction but make the contracts, the fnan-
cial agent being directed to pay the bills; that
he contracted for the alteration Of 5000 at
1886 each, and for 5000 at nine dollars each |;
that the sum total of all the contracts which
he made for the State was $l23,OOO; that the
the amount charged on the financial agents
books on those accounts was S2O6,OOO, but
that he had no more connection with or re-
sponsibility for those payments than any pri-
vate citizen, and that the vouchers, contracts
and proofs of those assertions were on the file
both in the Treasurer's Office and the Adju-
tant Generals office, where any citizen of the
State had right to 60 and examine them,
and test the truth of his assertions.
The next question was as follows:
"Thirdly. We want to know something
about that 81 900 on the armed force ques.
ton. Will Mr.. Moses explain this? Will
he tell the people that it was draft cashed by
certain parties, 1--WE know who,) for certain