The news and herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1876-1881, 1877-01-11
Governor Hampton's Record Without O.
Stain.
From tho Now York World.

From tho Now York World.
In it's issue of Wednesday the
Now York Times published letter
from correspondent in South
Carolina, substantially, and at great
length, charging Con. Wade Hamp.
ton with dishonesty in settling with
his creditors after the war. That
General Hampton like very many
Southern planters was forced into
bankruptcy by the total loss of all
his slaves, the terrible depreciation
OF property and the damages Incl
dent to war, is undoubtedly true
otherwise the statements in the
Times letter are mere tissue of
falsehoods. Gen. Hampton's largest
creditor, who appears as such in the
schedule of his liabilities as printed
in the Times, happens to be now in
this city, and yesterday denounced
the letter as atrociously false and
libollous. "Gen. Hampton's settle
mont with U.s., said he, 'swas strictly
and IN every respect honorable. The
Times statement that tho creditors
have nevor received q cont in satis-
faction of their claims is no less
untrue than tho whole tenor of tho
lettor. He gave up every dollar Of
his property to his creditors, and I
received a considerable proportion
OF my claim. it does not need"
he added, "that Gen. Hampton's
creditors should oppose their de-
malls to these ibellous assertions in
the Times, for no man who knows
his singularly scrupulous and high
minded sense of honor but would
pronounce any assertion to the con-
trary as false; but, in the face of
such publication as this, I cannot
refrain from protesting against it as
utterly base and unfounded. Had
Gen. Hampton OCCASION now to call
upon me for assistance, most cer-
tainly I should not hesitate to give
it,"
In contradiction of the entire sub
stance of the Times charges, it may
be well to statc-a fact we'll known
to all his frionds--that, having sur
rendered all his onco large fortune
to his creditors, he lived for some
time after tho war in circumstances
of actual poverty. being forced to
sell even the furniture from his
rooms and the carpets from his
floors to support his family. In
this he shared the common lot of
very many neighbors and of planters
generally throughout the South who
were utterly impoverished by the
War.
In the Times publication Gen.
Hamptons schedule of liabilities
foots up over @ million of dollars,
while his assets, rs returned, fall
very greatly short Of that amount.
This discrepancy is easily explained.
The larger part of his debts was for
money borrowed upon cotton and
for the working of his plantation.
During the war he had over five
thousand bales of cotton destroyed
by fire, which at low estimate were
certainly worth over $1,000,000. In
slave property Gen. Hampton be-
fore the war was worth fully $780,
200, while his landed estate was very
large and worry valuable. It was
upon this property, which the war
reduced to comparatively insignif-
cant value, that the moneys were
loaned. His case is the same as
though q New York merchant had
borrowed large amount of money
upon property which was considered
by both borrower and lender as
worth far moro than tho amount of
the loans, and as if that property
had afterward boon destroyed by
causes Of which ncithor borrower
nor lender had any thought md for
which neither had considered pro-
vision necessary.
The charge in tho Times that
Gen Hampton, in making q settle
ment with his creditors, so arranged
it that dobt to his wife had prece-
denco of all claims is pronounced by
a gentleman i'll this city, who is
thoroughly conversant with Gen.
Hampton's affairs, rs both false and
Mrs. Hampton's prop
orty, which sho had inherited in her
own right, had been turned over to
her husband, and was swallowed up
in his own losses by the war. That
she did not have precedence over
other creditors is sufficiently proved
by the circumstances, already
alluded to, in which her husband,
herself and their children woro
forced to live after tho war.
One other statement-that Gen.
Hampton is not u citizen of South
Carolina, but of Mississippi-is also
denounced as utterly false. Con.
Hampton has never been q citizen
of Mississippi, and has never ceased
to bo citizen of South Carolina.
A newspaper in England, speaking
of American affairs, makes a very
ridiculous blunder. It says, GAS an
H. L II