National Republican., 1874-05-20
REFORA IN SOUTH CAROLLNA.

The telegraph reports that Governor
Moses, of South Carolina, has been indicted
by the grand jury of one of the counties in
in the chief judicial circuit of the State for
fraudulent collusion with one of his subor-
dinate officers, man who holds his posi-
ton by virtue of appointment by the Gov
ernor himself the county treasurer of
Orangeburg county. We hesitate to in
dorsc this initiatory step toward needed
reform for fear that it may not be carried
out; for fear that, with his accustomed luck,
the Governor may escape deserved punish
ment and that the movement may fail. We
believe that Judge Graham, before whose
court the case will be tried if it is tried at ALL
will not hesitate to do his full duty in the
premises; but when his satanic majesty
chooses to exert an influence, as he always
does, in behalf ofslippcry South Carolina Re-
publicans, the truth ofthe old adage about the
cup and the lip becomes apparent, and we
fear that the matter may be disposed of be-
fore ii is formally placed in the hands of
the court. Nevertheless, we hope for the
best
1t is step in the right direction; blow
at the very root of the great evils which
exist in South Carolina, and which serves
to blacken the name of Republicanism as it
finds exponents in the party leaders of that
State 1t is intended to expose the corrupt
practices by which Moses and men of his ilk
have heretofore maintained themselves in
luxurious rioting. The fact that the ap-
pointment of county treasurers is vested in
the hands of the Governor explains the
whole matter. An honest man might WELD
this patronage with advantage to the Com
monwealth and the party; but it is not to be
presumed for an instant that Moses would
do it. All of the county tressurers of the
State have no doubt been assessed by him in
different ways for the purpose of paying
his private debts, and he must have known
that in many instances they have
been unable to meet the assessments with
out using the public funds entrusted to their
care. But this knowledge has not pre-
vented him from pursuing a career of pub
lie plunder, which only finds parallel in
the record of his issue of untold thousands
of ''pay certificates" during the time he
occupied the position of speaker of the
lower house of the Legislature. OF all the
men who have misled the party In the State
he is the most vulnerable, has been the
most persistent in a career of wickedness,
and is, consequently, the most conspicuous.
1t is, therefore, eminently proper that he
should be chosen as the first to fall before
the shafts of just Veng ;ance and to become
the victim of the honest demands of the
party for reform.
But the movement must not stop here.
It must go on until the reform is so COM
plete that the laws under which such un-
limited, arbitrary patronage is exercised are
repealed or so guarded as TO render it i'm
possible that weak subordinate may be
victimized by designing superior. The
persons and officials who have this matter
in charge must remember that their action
will be noted not only by their immediate
friends and constituents, but that every
honest Republican in the country is watch
ing then with prayerful hope of their sue
cess.