The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-07-29
Gov. Chamberlain'S Cause.

Gov. Chamberlain'S Cause.
One would suppose, on reading the
fulsome laudations of Gov. Chamberlain
which have lately appeared in number
of our State exchanges, that certain Con-
servative journals are opposing the ac-
tion of the Governor in his efforts to give
the people of South Carolina taoo gears of
fair government. So far as we have read
our exchanges we have not found a line
or word in any one of them that warrants
such conclusion. On the contrary, all
without any exception-have cordially
endorsed his course, 80 far as that course
affected the State at large; but some OF
US have not fallen down and worshipped!
him; we have not filled the columns of
our papers every week with fulsome adu-
lations of the Governor and those Con-
servative journals that assume the cham
pionship of his administration. We have
dared to speak and write of Attorney
General Chamberlain calmly and accord
ing to our convictions of what is due
to the people and MIR. Chamberlain
himself.
Some of our exchanges tell us "Gov-
ernor Chamberlain is a necessity" We
do not endorse that, in full. Gov. Cham
berlain's course we grant, was necessity,
not merely for the good of the taxpayers
of this State, but more especially for the
perpetuation of the Republican party in
the country. The wires were worked in
Washington, and he responded. The
condition of South Carolina began to
open the eyes of the people all over the
country to the corruption of the Republi-
can party, and well founded fears were
entertained that unless a change was
made-even a temporary one-in this
State, that party would surely lose the
next Presidential election, and perhaps
South Carolina also. We have no idea
it was any love for the people of this
State that prompted the leaders of the
Republican party to demand the reform,
although we acknowledge that we are
greatly benefited by it, and are pleased
with it-even if it should prove to but a
respite from the former Infamous rule.
We would not place a straw in Gov.
Chamberlain's path so long as he contin-
ues in the course he has marked out.
Other journals say the time selected for
speaking of Attorney General Chamber
lain's errors was inopportunate. There
we differ widely. We thought then, and
still think, the time was most propitious
for reminding him and his friends that
the odium of his former associations was
still cIinging to him; and as arrests of
some of those associates were about to
commence, an opportunity would be Of
fered him to prove his assertion that he
was innocent of any of the fraud and cor
ruption imputed to him while he was
Attorney-General. For our part, we
we're sincerely desirous that he should
prove himself guiltless of actual partici-
patton in those frauds, and his cham
pions said he could do so. But how
stands the case now. Parker, one of his
associates, has been in Jail for some weeks,
awaiting trial. His trial commenced
last week; the evidence against him has
been closed; in that evidence it is found
that in the division of the result of what
is very evidently a fraudulent speculation
in bond coupons, $4,000 was "set aside"
for Attorney General Chamberlain. 1t
is true that the same witness says, she
was not aware that Mr.. Chamberlain
knew anything about the transaction, or
whether he received the $50, 0,00O;" but
where was the Governor of the State
when the trial was going on, and this
imputation was sworn to? He knew of
it, and must have expected that his name
would be mixed up with it. BY the fol-
lowing, which we take from the Charles
ston Mews and Courier of the 18th, we are
Uniformed that Mr.. Chamberlain was, and
is still absent from the State; and we are
led to infer that he cares but little about
the trial and the effect it will have upon
his official character, or the interests Of
the State:
Governor Chamberlain is not here to
speak for himself, and we feel warranted,
therefore, i'm printing an extract from a
private letter, dated May II, 1875, when
the charge that Governor Chamberlain
was mixed up with the coupon frauds
had not been made. In the letter in
question, Governor Chamberlain said :
"The whole coupon business, for which
Parker is now held, was new to me till
last February. I never heard of such q
transaction till then. Who were in it,
I cannot tell, but I do know who is MOI" )"
Now, we would like to take Gov
Chamberlain's statement as truth but it
does seem strange that he should absent
himself from the State, just at the time
when he knew his name would be "mixed
up with the coupon frauds" under the
solemnity of an oath,
When we consider the utter indiffer-
ence displayed by the whole Radical gang
when charges of fraud and corruption are
made against them, Mr.. Chamberlain's
indifference to the case now on trial and
his apparent don't-care style of treating
all notices of his connexion with those
who we must believe did commit frauds,
naturally compels us to place him in the
same schedule of crime with them.
Like Leslie, Whittemore, Crews, Hur-
ley, ct i'd 0 n'se genus, he appears not to
care whit for the accusations made
against him, and while he may not, like
them, smile with childlike blandness at
the frauds they have been accessory to,
and claim praise for their sharp practices,
he certainly does not seem the least dis
turbed at his name being placed in the
same category. he evidently aims to
have two years of good record, as Gov
ernor, in the belief that it will wipe out
all traces of the many previous years OF
bad record, and we don't object to
that.