The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-04-30
THE ARRESTS IN LAURENs COUNTY.

ever, Is matter of opinion merely, and must
be 80 taken. PALMETTO.
THE ARRESTS IN LAURENs COUNTY.
Some OF the Beauties OF American Ciif-
zenship In South Carolina in 1879.
The circumstances of the arrest, the So
called examination, and the subsequent incar'
ceratlon of the twelve gentlemen from a
rens County, now In confinement In theF Fed
eral prison in this city, furnish q striking
chapter In the history OF the Ku-Klux cru
SADIE now in progress In the upper portion OF
this State. These gentlemen are all from the
Township of Clinton, and are among the very
best citizens of the place. The county at the
time of their arrest was In the most profound
condition of peace; trade was proceeding
quietly in Its usual channels; the citizens were
industriously engaged In seasonable prepare.
lions for their coming crops, and there was
no possible indication of that condition of
.sarmed conspiracy and resistance to the
laws" which, by the act Of April 20, 1911, JUST.
fes the President in placing any section of
the country under martial law. The county
was, however, under martial law, with the
writ of habeas corpus suspended, and the
lives and liberties of its citizens In the hands
of the marshals and their military forces; and
on the 31st of March q company of cavalry
dashed into the quiet village streets, picketed
the roads in all directions, preventing all
egress, and began q series of almost indls-
crimInate arrests. In some cases warrants
were shown to the victims, In other and more
numerous cases no show Of authority was
made, except the display of force, which
showed the arrested parties how futile 1t
would be to attempt resistance even If such q
thought had crossed their minds; and when
thirty or more of the most respectable citizens
of the place had been arrested, they were hur-
ried off from their homes, farms, stores and
workshops and thrown into the county jail.
Thence they were taken to the Jail in Newber-
~ County, and from this point, which seemed
to be q rendezvous for the prisoners from the
two counties, they were afterwards taken to
Columbia, where they weN again thrown into
a common jail to remain until 1t pleased their
captors to give them a mockery of an examina.
ton before the United States commissioner
After a strange series of delays the twelve
gentlemen who are nov In Charleston, were
brought before the United States commission.
er, and there for the first time they learned
what the charges were against them, who
their accusers were, and what the nature OF
their testimony was. The charges proved to
be q conspiracy against the Ku.Klux act OF
May 80, 1871, and the witnesses three of the
most disreputable colored men that could be
hunted up in Laurens County. One of the wit
nesses was a man, then and now, under an In
dictment for a midnight robbery, and the other
two were miserable wretches, whose reputa-
ton sven among the colored. people was
as VIGOROUSLY bad as could well be i'm.
aglned. Their testimony was a mass OF
clumsy fabrlcations evidently put into their
mouths by parties whose malignity lar e4-
ceeded their power OF plausible Invention,
and the whole evidence was a bundle OF self
evident absurdities, which, 1t is safe to say,
in any Northern court OF justice would not
have been listened to for five minutes. The
Impression In the audience, as We are
informed, (not by the prisoners or by
any parties in any way interested In these
cases, but by a Northern gentleman, whose
lifelong Republicanism is unquestioned,) was
that the prisoners would, of course, be dis
charged, and the principal witness against
them remanded to his trial for theft; but that
was far from being the case. They were car
ried back 10 the Columbia jail, and there IN a
day or two after their so.called examination,
they were told that they were to be taken to
Charleston to be tried for conspiracy and
murder Bail was refused, and the rigors oil
their confinement Increased from that mo-
menr until on the afternoon Of last Wednesday
they were taken from the Jail. troned IN pairs
by handouts around their wrists, and marched
through the streets of Columbia to the rail-
road depot. Here they were huddled into the
cars and brought to this city with their mana
Giles still chatting aud CALLING their wrists dur
ing the whole twelve hours OF the Journey,
again paraded through the streets, where. as
has already been reported, their progress was
attended by the hootlngs OF a surging mob OF
colored men aRd women, and taken to the Fed
eral prison. where at last their irons were re-
moved. At that prison they still remain, no
indictments furnished to them and no oppor-
tunity given to them to prepare for trial, and
there they will, doubtless, stay until 1t may
suit the caprice of the powers that be to
summon them to court on trial Tor their lives,
with, perhaps, ten minutes notice.
These are the simple facts In regard 10 these
cases, which have either come under our own
observation or have been reported to US by
entirely trustworthy and unlnterested gentle
men. They are no more fragrant than are the
circumstances of a hundred other causeless
outrages committed in this plundered but
peaceful State under pretence of Furnishing
disorders said to nave occurred q year or two
ago; but they are noticeable from the fact that
these victims are gentlemen of intelligence,
refinement and virtue, aud as far removed In
the social scale from the wretched vagabonds
who we're members of the Ku-Klux Klans,
and who do not hesitate to say so and rehearse
their deeds of blood with horrid gusto, as can
we'll be imagined. They are the Intelligent,
thrifty, respectable men of their community,
and these qualities, which llft them above
their neighbors and make them targets for the
malice of meaner minds, constitute their only
crimes. Their names and occupations are as
follows: DR.. ]. T. Craig, merchant; Mr.. J. A.