The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-03-12

DAY MORNING., MARCd
or recreation, comes among them as friend,
and with the heart of friend, he will be re-
ceived as such but when he comes among
them otherwise he will not be received as such,
and all the laws you may pass from now until
doomsday will never be worth one farthing for
the purpose of preventing it.
But, as T said in regard to this individual
case having no personal knowledge of Major
Merrill, having never seen him, and all that L
can learn of him in this transaction not max
ing me desirous of making his, acquaintance,
ali 7 can say is that his course in this matter
NAV in the eyes of the Senator from Pennsyl-
yannia be perfectly honorable and proper; but
I cannot believe it will be so considered by his
brother officers or by the American people,
whose paid servant he was and still is. 1t is
the first time in the history of our country, to
nv knowledge that any officer of the United
States army has pursued for his private gain
the trade of lobbying in State legislature to
obtain pecuniary rewards for the execution OF
the duties for which he was intrusted with
large powers and high discretion, and espe-
cially assigned to execute, and paid exorbi-
tantly, ten times the amount of his official
salary And all this for the performance of
functions which are justly regarded as igno-
minious.
The name of informer is odious to the Amer
ican people, The name of detective is not
respected by the American people. If such
things are sometimes necessary, they are un-
happily necessary but they are not to be per-
formed for the sake of pecuniary gain by otti-
GERS of the United States army, especially
when, as we all know, martial law had been
proclaimed in that State. Martial law is no
law, but simply the will of the commander-ln-
chief. All other law fades away before his
glance and part of the time that this officer
was in Carolina, in large part of that State
he was the military commandant and his will
was the supreme law, for the President of the
United States had suspended the writ of ha6eas
corpus. What was the power of such a man
over that country? What was his influence
over the body of ignorant and degraded people
collected under the name of Legislature IN
that State to plunder those who had no power
to control their selection? 1t was omnip9tent.
How could they resist his demands? They
could not; and therefore, as matter of course,
when his influence was thrown in the scale, his
demands took the shape of law, and this large
sum of money. thirty-ive thousand dollars,
was taken out of that treasury for the purpose
of paying these rewards in the criminal cases.
passed through the State of South Caroli-
ma. I passed through those counties in which
martial law had been proclaimed, and where
Mai. Merrill's will was the sole law of the
land Iremember we'll casting my eyes to the
right and to the left from the time we entered
the borders of those counties until we emerged
from them, and it was scene OF desolatlon..
| No white man could be seen: He dep.opulated
the country. The people fled from his rule.
IL Of in
were abandoned. No man was safe. re-
member meeting at railway station two young
men who sat down at the table with me, and l
asked them in regard to the condition of the
country. They told me it was because of the
declaration of martial law; that no man, how
ever aged, however respectable, was safe if the
basest negro simply pointed his finger at him
and asked for his military arrest 1t was
reign of terror. It continued so. Men were
arrested by hundreds, dragged from their fam,
lilies, incarcerated without writ, discharged
sometimes without question and without any
explanation, and without any charge being
brought against them. Such was the condl-
ton of things there so long as there was no
writ of habeas corpus with Major Merrill IN
command, and no court open for their relief.
That was martial law in America-the suspen-
sion of the writ of habeas corpus by the Presi-
QeUL III LilG0 W PAoio"Ho pew, "A'
courts all open, where every judge was OF his
own party, every juror of his own party, every
prosecuting officer of his own party, the whole
machinery for the arrest, trial and conviction
| of men confined to men of his own choice,
because by the test oaths, which still prevail
| in the South, men are disabled from serving on
Jury whoever performed the most natural die
tates of humanity, the slightest act of friend,
ship. of assistance, toward their own kindred
and friends during the entire period Of the
! war. The Senator may sneer at the affected
soicitude of the people of South Carolina for
the honor of the Federal army 1t is for him
to consider whether it is just to them and
whether it is Just to himself to do so. But the
| people of South Carolina did not cause this
resolution. 1 make no especial profession OF
solicitude for the honor of the American
army. 1 only say that I have, in every way
that man can obtain it, right to be so soilc-
itous it is my right to be solicltousj and II
there were no other moving cause than my
sympathy and friendship for distressed and
| down-trodden people of my own race, desire
to save the poor remnant of their property
from further robbery; if there were no other
reason than my feeling of respect for the army
of the United States, that is sufficient to justify
me, as it has prompted me, in offering this
resolution.
Pulling FoDDER.-Prof. Pendleton, of the
State University, in his recent report, says an
acre of corn from which the fodder had not been
pulled produced nearly one bushel more corn
| than an adjoining acre, the difference being