Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1873-08-07
Grants Mercy.

The loval papers of course blow Justify
over the Presidents clemency to the ku-
Klux prisoners of South Carolina as evil
denccd bv his recent interview with Gen
eral Kershaw and his associates and the
letter of the Attorney General. Even
some Southern papers find much cause for
gratitude in the Presidents determination
to open the gates of the Albany peniten
tarv. For ourselves, We can discover in
it nothing which the world has not here
tofore suspected, viz: that General Grant
knows full we'll that these prisoners were
wrongfully and Illegally convicted and
punished, and that he now wishes to make
tardy and imperfect reRaration for the in
Jury which he has done and the outrage
which he has sanctioned If these men
IRE really guilty of the horrible crimes
with which they were charged, men like
General Kershaw and his associates would
never have asked for their release, and
no faithful and honest Executive would
have granted them pardon If these men
are the murderers and marauders which
Judge Bonds Court declared them to De,
in what way are they more deserving OF
executive clemency now than they were
at the time of their convection. 1t cannot
be urged thatstheir crimes are political
offenses, which come within the discretion
of the Chief Magistrate, for this state
ment is not true These pardons can not
be compared to the pardons granted State
prisoners by the monarchs of the ola
world, for the cases are not at all analo,
gous Assassination and robbery are not
State offenses in any sense of the term.
Nor after commission, do they deserve
pardon except under certain peculiar cir
cumstances. Why then should these
terrible criminals experience the Presl-
dents mercy? The Attorney General says
because the Ku Klux Klan has been dis
banded and there is nothing now to fear
frorn its treasonable designs. When did
this disbandment occur? Wesay that ii
there ever was any such organization. in
the South it ceased to exist some time
prior to the last Presidential election,
nd this fact was as well known to the
Attorney General then as it is now. We
SAY that this whole persecution OF social
ed Ku-Klux was political trick-cruel
as it was base-used for the purpose OF
strengthening the Radical party and Sc
curing the second election of Gen. Grant.
We say that the Administration declared
martial law in South Carolina without
good cause; that the State, or portions oil
it, was harried by United States dragons
as if in time of war; that men were drag
ged from their beds at dead of night with
out lawful warrant orauthority; that wo-
men and childrenewere maltreated and in
suited; that ,so-called judicial tribunals
were established and innocent parties
brought to trial before packed jurles and
courts organized to convict; that men
who had committed no ofense, whose sole
crime was their political belief, were sent
by scores to rot in Northern dungeons. or
else forced to seek safety in exile. We
say that these things were done in accor-
dance with preconceivedand pre- arrang-
ID plan of the leaders Of the Republican
party that they were done in order to
divert the fight last Fall from real to false
issues to mislead the masses of the
North; to cause them to believe our peo-
pie On the eve of new Rebellion to
inhame them against theSouthern whites
to rally them to the support of the Re
publican nominees as the only means d
averting another civil war; to secure the
reelection of General Grant to the Presl-
dency. The Presidents "mercy" is :
virtual acknowledgment Of his guilt He
seizes a flimsy pretext for releasing the
victims of his party's peridy, and does al
this late day what he should have done
year or more ago.-Chronicle & Sentinel.