The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-07-20
AN UNFAIR STATEMENT.

and Courier for the policy of co operation
with Gov. Chamberlain has betrayed that
journal into palpable error and gross un-
fairness more than once recently, and in
no instance has it evinced less sagacity
than in commenting upon the recent diff
fculty at Hamburg. With undue haste
and unwonted severity, upon the merest
shadow of trustworthy information, there
was unstinted condemnation of the white
men who were participants in that affair,
and not a sentence of rebuke for the out
rageous and threatening conduct of the
negroes; implied cehsure and reproba-
ton for gallant and honored citizen of
South Carolina, Gen. NJ. G. Butler, and
not a word of reproof for the official who
permitted this colored militia to retain
its arms and recruit its ranks for active
service in the pending political cam
paign. Its utterances are already quoted
in Northern newspapers, and every word
of unfriendly criticism upon the whites
is paraded for the benefit of the disciples
of the "bloody shirt" Such violent
statements against the white citizens of
South Carolina, made upon partial, in
correct and unreliable information OBJ
tanned in the confusion which followed
the afray, have been grudgingly correc-
ted from time to time in its columns,
until there is scarcely anything left of
the original account, and yet this does
not and will not counteract the unfavor-
able and false impressions created by the
infammatory denunciations at the out
set. But the News and Courier has
capped the climax in another direction,
by seeking to connect the advocates of a
"straight-out" policy with the work of
intimidation and slaughter of the colored
people in the pending campaign, and in
the following paragraph is guilty of the
most fragrant injustice and culpable un-
fairness towards the majority of Demo
Gratis in South Carolina. We quote from
an article in last Thursdays issue:
There is another point to be remem-
bered, and that is, that when Democrats
in South Carolina advise that straight
OUT ticket be nominated, and that the
State be carried on "the Mississippi
plan," the popular understanding is that
the Democracy shall elect their candi-
dates by fraud and force. To the un-
thinking masses, in such County as
Edgefeld, the Mississippi plan is the
Hamburg plan. We presume that very
few of the small number of excellent
Democrats who believe that Straight
out" ticket is the proper thing have any
thought of using other influences than
those which are common in every elec-
tion, North and South but the rank and
file, who are told, day after day, that they
can carry the State, and that it must be
done, fall naturally into the error of
thinking that the easiest way of making
a negro vote right is to knock him on the
head. And the danger is, that with the
Hamburg affray fresh in their recollec-
ton, the Northern people may be temp
ted to regard the nomination of full
''straigh-out" ticket by the South Caro-
lima Democrats as public declaration
of an intention to carry the State by in
timidation and slaughter. There is no
such intention, but it is easy to make the
Northern people believe that there is,
and if the Democrats persist in adopting
policy which, with peaceful and quiet
election, will have only the remotest pos
sible chance of success, they must count
on the North believing that we mean to
repeat the Hamburg business in every
co1ored county in the State. We do not
see that this imminent peril to the Ma
tional Democracy can be averted, save
by sending to the rear the whole band of
regulators and those who sympathize
with them.
This paragraph arraigns policy which
is advocated by many of the best citizens
of South Carolina from the mountains to
the seabQard, and attempts to connect
that policy with butchery and brutality
for political purposes. The most malig-
nant partisan of the ''bloody shirt stripe
could hardly excel this stigmatization of
the conduct and motives of Democrats.
Its language is not founded upon the
facts existing in South Carolina to-day,
and there is only one Interpretation to
be given these unwarranted declarations.
Having failed to accomplish by its elab-
crate arguments the subjugation of pub
lie opinion in favor of 'straight-out"
nomination for Governor, the Ne0s and
Courier now attempts to cast odium and
reproach upon that policy by connecting
its advocates with an intention to carry
the next election by fraud and force.
This purpose is plainly evident, although
it seeks at the same time to exonerate
"small number of excellent Democrats"
from such an imputation. Moreover, the
slander and misrepresentation does not
fall upon the leaders of the Straight
out" movement alone, but is made to
include the "unthinking masses" and
the Crank and file." Now, we venture
to assert that two-thirds of the white
voters in this State strongly favor the
nomination of a discreet and honest
Democrat for the Office of Governor, and
they are to be included among those who
will interpret such nomination as the
signal for "fraud and force, intimidation
and slaughter" Is this the true mean
ing of the Neus and Courier3 Will that
journal pretend that the mere advocacy
of certain policy endows man with
brutal instincts, and impels him to the
commission of heinous crimes against
the laws of his country? Are all men