Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-03-17
THE KUKLUX HUNTER.
The Story Of the Notorious Major Mer-
rill, the Boutwell, Of South
Carolina.

WASHINGTON, March 10.-Senator
Bayard's resolution of inquiry as to
whether any officer of the army sta
toned in South Carolina has received
payment from the State legislature for
services performed in the line of his
duty, or has been admitted tOpractice at
the bar of the State for mis- own emolu-
ment while receiving pay as an army
officer, is understood to be aimed at
Major Lewis Merrill, who for some time
past has commanded the post of York
vile, in South Carolina, and who for the
last two years has been conspicuous for
his zeal as q hunter of ku-klux.- When
the administration and the then attor-
ney-general, Akerman, determined
upon the invasion of South Carolina,
under color of the ku-klux law,
they selected Major Merrill as a
proper man to manage the military
force of the programme. They desired
man who would look upon the whites
of South Carolina as enemies deserving
punishment; not alone the punishment
Of arbitrary arrest and illegal imprison-
ment, but also the punishment of an
noyance, insult, and the exercise of a
petty tyrrany. Such an instrument they
thought would be found in Major Mer-
rill, nor did the result disappOint their
expectations. The work intrusted to
his hands was with him labor of love.
At the head of rough-riders fully as fe-
rocious and unfeeiing as the dragons
of Claverhouse, he rode over the State
like a veritable Sergeant Boutwell,,
carrying devastation and destruction
wherever his column went. A reign of
terror was inaugurated, whole counties
were harried and the people driven to
Businesses of the forests and the swamps
for protection. Major Merrill increased
the alarm by making his expeditions
under cover of darkness. Citizens were
dragged from their beds at midnight by
armed men, and their wives and chill
dren terrified by domiciliary visits. A
gentleman conversant with the facts
says: "Nothing like this kuklux cam
paign was ever known in this country.
not even in times of war, and nothing
like it, we hope, for the honor of the
government, will ever be known
again. The name of Merrill and his
band of reckless marauders will
ever be held in just execration by the
people, not of South Carolina alone, but
by all fair-minded, honorable men,
north and SOUTH" Besides his hatred
and his malice, his love of persecution
and his fondness for playing the tyrant,
Major Merrill seems to have been infiu-
enced by still another incentive. The
Columbia Ph0nir states that when the
legislature met he came forward as a
lobbyist, to urge payment for the "serv-
ieesp which he had rendered He was
equally successful in his new vocation,
hill xuQs faoGunH n ~
thirty-five thousand dollars as cOmpen-
sation for himself and Others, While
hunting kuklux he was an officer in the
United States army, and regularly re-
ceived his pay, yet he is to be given in
addition an enormous bonus from an i'm
poverished State whose people he harass-
ed and ruined. While an officer of the
army he sought and was granted ad-
mission to the bar, thus bringing re-
proach upon two honorable professions.
The PhCgntr says his exertiOns did not
stop with the arrest and imprisonment
of accused citizens. He assisted the
attorney-genersl in the court room, and
his labors never ceased until his victims
were convicted by packed jury and
condemned by the American Jeffies.
1t is to be hoped that Senator BayArd's
TeDOAutlOu VIII Nc dCbcO upOu oo 6uOu 10
the next congress assemblies, and that
even justice will be dealt out to the
hunter of kuklux.
A correspondent of Nature suggests
that the white, telescope appearance of
the moons surface, resembling snow in
many parts, may be explained by the
fact that the extinct vOlancoes Of our
satellite are covered with crystals of
salt. The late eruption Of Vesuvius,
where q light crust of salt covered the
surface of the emitted lava, seems 10
furnish some plausibility to the theory.
The doom Of bronze, as q material for
rified guns, hai;, says the London Ddiig
Netrs. been sealed. The manufacture OF
eeven-poIlnders in that metal for noun
tain and boat service has been now
qiven up. and orders have been issued
for the construction Of steel seven
poupders Instead. The allure Of bronze
has been q great disappointment to its
advocates, who only q few years ago
were full Of confidence In the perfection
of their favorite RIetal.