The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-08-17
Anaersua gatslligsuesr,
DEFENSE OF GEN. NJ. C. BUTLER.
Extract from a Speech by Judge T. j.
Mackey, at Chester.

Mackey, at Chester.
/ cannot, however, concur with the
speaker who has addressed you A. S.
Wallace) in denouncing General NJ. G.
Butler as the author or in any degree the
promoter of that great crime. have
considered all the evidence thus far dis
closed upon the subject; l have cou.
versed with Republicans, of both races,
who were in or near Hamburg at the
time of the massacre, and while they all
believed that Gen. Butler was one of the
guilty parties to that deed of blood, such
belief or conclusion on their part is not
supported by any testimony which would
not be instantly consumed to ashes under
the rays of q judicial test.
1t became my duty on the 18th day OF
January, 1875, to proceed to Edgefeld,
beyond the limits of my own circuit, to
interpose my authority, by request of his
Excellency the Governor to restore order,
and to avert an-armed collision between
the two races, then deemed imminent in
that long disturbed section. The imme-
diatc occasion of the disturbance then
was the burning Of the dwelling house of
Gen. NJ. c. Butler, on the night of the
10th of that month, and the subsequent
alleged shooting and wouhding By force
under his command oi several co'orc,,
persons, whom he had charged with the
crime. issued my warrant, and after :
diligent effort I arrested Ned Tennpnt.
the captain of colored militia company,
together with several members of his
company, who were charged with the
crime of arson as stated. Immediately
thereafter, upon the affidavit of Tenant,
issued n warrant for the arrest of Gen.
NJ. c. Butler, and some ten or twelve
other white citizens, charged with assault
and battery with intent to kill in mali
ciously and unlawfully firing upon and
wounding two persons (colored) named
in the said affidavit. The warrant was
executed by a one-armed deputy sheriff,
and General Butler and his co-defendants
Welded instant obedience to the process,
riding some fifteen or sixteen miles
through as heavy q rain storm as l ever
witnessed, that they might promptly an
swer the charge against them at the bar
of my court. General Butler and his CO.
defendants were discharged pursuant to
law, after full investigation in the open
court. The fact was established by over
wheIming proofs, through the testimony
of both white and colofed witnesses, that
Tennant had assembled his company
under arms to resist the arrest of himself
and others of his company, warrant
having been issued for their apprehen-
sion by the colored Trial Justice of the
vicinage, wherein they we're charged with
arson. He did resist arrest, driving back
the constable to whom had been entrus-
ted the execution of the warrant. To
overcome that resistance to the due pro-
cess of the law, the Trial Justice sum-
moned General Butler and other respon-
sible white citizens to act IS a lawful posse
in effecting the arrest of men who stood
openly in armed defiance of the laws.
The Trial Justice and his constable
again proceeded to the spot where Ten
nant had unlawfully assembled his COM
mand, and they were driven back at the
muzzles of leyeled rifles. Gen. Butler,
by the authority of the Trial Justice
there present, then advanced with the
posse to use the necessary force to over
come the resistance offered to lawful
warrant. As soon as the posse got within
range they were fred on by the militia
force, numbering about thirty men. The
posse returned the fire and wounded two
of the militia, all of whom then fled. l
have given you the facts in the premises,
ascertained by thorough and impartial
judicial investigation, and yet General
Butler was as positively and bitterly ac-
cused of crime in that affair as he is here
to-day in connection with the Hamburg
butchery. But have further purpose
in reciting the facts of the Edgefeld dis
turbance of 1875.
During that Investigation w&s in
formed of the fact that an armed force
Of whites was marching upon the county
seat for the purpose Of lynching Tenant,
then in Edgeield jail, under my commit
ment, pending an examination. BY my
request, but chiefly through the Influence
of General Butler, the Edgefeld Rife
Club, composed of white Democrats, IS
sembled under arms, and with loaded
rifles stood prepared throughout the night
to defend that most obnoxious prisoner
at all hazards against iawless violence.
I deemed the testimony against Ten
ant and others sufficient to warrant their
being held to bail to answer the charge
of arson. The proof was clear that Gen.
Buffers house was fired by an incendiary.
It was not insured, and he lost with it
the garnered savings of many years. He
had left, on brief journey, the home
which sheltered his wife and children,
and when he returned "the blackness of
ashes marked where it stood" In the
prisoner, Tenant, who looked through
the bars of the Jail, General Butler be-
lieved that he saw the man who had ap-
piled the torch to his dwelling, and had
sent his wife and little ones shrieking
from its blazing roef into the sleet and
frost of January midnight! Yet he
interposed to protect the prisoner who
had thus most ruthlessly wronged him,
and RENTED vengeance to the law, acting
through its duly constituted tribunals:
Is it probable that the man who so acted
under such provocation could have
borne part in the Hamburg butchery,
unprovoked as he was either by injury or
insult?
In view of Gen. Buffers past record, l
will not believe, until the charge is estab-
Eshed by the verdict of an,impartial jury,
rendered at the bar of court of justice,
that he has stopped his lofty crest to
draggle its hitherto stainless plume in
the blood of unarmed and unresisting
prisoners. "Strike, but hear me~ is a
demand as just to-day as when first ut
tered by a noble Greek more than 1000
years ago, and but ask that Gen. Butler
shall not be condemned before he is
heard.