The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-07-26
THE HAMBURG RIOT.

On Monday morning we mehIioneu
thst Gov. CHAMBERLAIN, Of South Car
olina, was reported to have said that
"there is nothing to show that the distur-
banceS at Hamburg originated in politi-
cal causes" And we added: Senator
MORTON and his followers probably knew
this; hence their haste to misrepresent
the transaction for party effect, before the
truth could be established"
The Mteliigencsr copies the first para.
graph quoted above, and adds: awe
have looked over the Governor s account
of tho affair, as published in our columns
last Thursday, and we do not observe
that he makes any remark sustaining this
expression" Perhaps not; and yet we
have found in our reading that Governor
CHAMBERLAIN is reported to have told
the Secretary of War, when in Wash
ington, substantially what we have noted
above. The MteLiigegcer quotes at length
from the Governors account Of the Ham,
burg riot, and we have re-.ead that quo
tation with care, without finding any in
t,mation that that gentleman thought
the disturbances at Hamburg originated
In political causes. The Lntettsgencer
quotes, also, from Mr.. LAMAR's speech in
Congress in condemnation OF this riot,
but we fail to find anything in that quo.
tation to Justify the Inference sought to
be conveyed.
The REGISTER sincerely deplores the
Hamburg affair just as it deplores riots,
and lynchings, and other unlawful dis
turbances, when they take place in West
Virginia, or in the coal regions of Penn
sylvania, or in Newark, New Jersey, or
IN any other part of the country. We
believe it is not the part of good citizen
to magnify these troubles, nor do we
believe that any other than demagogue
will try to peryert them to political uses
Having made our own position upon
the Hamburg riot clear; and having
given IN our columns one side of the
affair, we now attach the other side of the
story, as given to the public by Gen.
NJ. Z. BUTLER, brother of the one that
was mixed up in the broil. Mr.. BUTLER
invites 1. judicial investigation
of the affair, and announ ces the readiness
of all the white men in any degree con-
nected with the affair To submit TO the
arbitration of the law:
The town had negro intendent, negro
aldermen, negro marshals. 1t was almost
a terror to every white man whose busi.
ness required him to pass through 1t.
They had harbored thieves and criminals
from every direction. They had arrested
and fined some of the best and most
peaceable citizens for the most trivial Of
fences against their ordinances-some
for drinking out of Il spring adjacent to
the highway. One young man was fired
upon, the ball passing through his hat,
arrested, dragged to prison and
heavily fined, because his horse SHE'D
on the edge of a sidewalk. An old man
was arrested, insulted and fined, because
his horse turned on the sidewalk as he
was in the act of mounting. Market
wagons, camping within five or six miles
of the town have been robbed night after
night, cattle had been stolen and run INTO
this place and sold. Stolen goods have
been systematically received here, the
parties knowing them to have been
stolen. For nights previous to the colli-
sion unoffeRding white citizens were
halted by the pickets of these militiamen,
armed with state guns and stationed on
the highways. In one instance five or
six of them had scraped their bayonets
on the pailings Of gentleman, and upon
his remonstrance cursed and abused him
in the hearing of his wife and some visit
ing ladies. The names of all these per-
sons can be gwen.
Why did this Attorney General and
these "swift denouncing" newspapers not
but themselves 10 some trouble to ascer.
tain the provocations on both sides?
That this WAS not company OF State
militia, but a band of negroes organized
contrary to law, or without the authority
Of law, who had taken the state property
without authority, that Company A,
Ninth Regiment, National Guard OF the
state of South Carolina" had been dis
banded for several years, and that this
band had usurped their organization
without authority, that they had no!
only unlawtully and r.otously obstructed
the public highway, but had broken up
civil court, ,detied its processes and resisted
Its mandates, and insulted its officers
and riotously threatened the lives of
citizens.
/ invite a judicial investigation, and
am prepared to submit to the srbitra.
ment of the law; and such is the feeling,
us far as l have been able to learn, of
every white man who is in any degree
connected with the affair. The white
men of this county have some rights
which the negroes are bound to respect.
They have no other feeling for them
than kindness and pity. Kindness for
their loyalty to our families during the
war, and pity that they will permit
themselves to DO made the tools of bad,
designing white men and
mulattocs. So long as they obey the
laws every honorable man of the COM
try will feel bound to protect and en-
courage them in happiness and prosper
lty.
Business Depression IN PittsburSh.
From the Pittsburgh Dispatch.
Whatever may be the cause, There Is no
doubt that the depression of business in
the psst two years has ms-
,erlslly reduced the eity's capital, and if