Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-08


 most o.zkoe counties were the changes as compared with the census or past elec4 tions. Every democrat with whom I have talked since election day has something of this sort to say: "Why, the negroes at my precinct repeated and voted their mi. nors on a tremendous scale; for their total vote was almost as high as ever before. although we kept away fifty or sixty from voting and got about dozen to vote with us. Why, I earned one neg, o to the polls myself. and saw him put in his ballot all right, and his two brothers stayed at home all day, for told, them if they voted against us l would turn them off"
 70 The ballots were undoubtedly counted fairly at the polls. Through Governor Chamberlain's influence, one democrat and tWU republicans had been appointed man agers at every precinct. The board of county canvassers, appointed to aggregate the returns of each county, was similarly composed. But in compiling the vote they made some changes of the precinct returns; for instance, the names of some candidates of each party had been mis. spelt on the tickets by country printers, and in several cases candidates running for certain offices had by mistake received votes for other offices. The precinct man. agers returned the votes as cast, but the county boards credited the candidates really intended to be voted for with the erroneous votes. The returns were await ed amidst the most intense excitement. They were exceedingly close, but ut last it became apparent that, according to the precinct returns (excluding the Barnwell box where the voting was interrupted) the democratic ticket was ahead But present ly it was ascertained that the returns of the board of county canvassers would put the result in doubt, and that if the Barnwell box were received the republican ticket would prevail. This caused wild excite ment, for the board of state canvassers, composed of the secretary of state, attor. ney-general, state treasurer, etc., has pow. CT to decide when there are variations in the returns, as we'll as to determine con- tested elections; and, of course, the re- publlcans contested Edgefeld and Barn. well-.he latter, because the democrats had carried the county through the ex- clusion of the votes at the poll, 80 often referred to by the county canvassers-as well as Laurens County, where foul play was alleged. The whites had had great distrust of the state board from the start, for it had been a Corrupt body always. and at present Is not above suspicion, besides the fact of all it's members being republi- cans and half of them candidates for re- election
 When the board met, democratic coun- sel appeared before it, and, though the above-named powers were undoubtedly conferred on it by law, and had been ex- ercised without question for eight years, the boards authority under the law to hear contests was objected to, the consti nationality of the laws constituting it were objected to, the right of the members to sit was objected to, and, in short, everything was objected to on contempt. ble quibbles (though it must be owned that the man who drew up our election laws might have made them clearer) Fi- nally the board was dragged before the notorious supreme court. The chief-ius- tRI66efld tRI66ef l{df 1SuuMs 1hS Moses Sen. father of the ceded Governor Chamberlain, and who was one of the corrupt pair whom Cham berlain refused to commission as judges. Father and son are alike inlmical to Chamberlain.
 I can safely predict one thing: if the ultimate decision be in favor of the re- publicans, we shall have in South Carroll na- all the transactions so common in Louisiana-rival governors and legisla- lures, Penn insurrections and Wiltz coup d6tatS; the democrats are arouse& to the last degree, and with difficulty can be ',eld in by their leaders, who are, of course, diplomatic. In the mean while, there is almost reign of anarchy: the negroes are burning and stealing, the papers are filled with reports of crimes and affrays. The races here are so worked up that anything may cause a bloody con- f1ict; the whites could probably defeat the negroes easily, and slaughter them like dogs. but-the torch! The negroes would fire Charleston in a thousand places if driven to bay; the whites know this and restrain the young men; the negroes know it too, and are accordingly insolent and malevolent.
 If Chamberlain be installed, he will un- doubtedly try to do right; and as the leg isIature will have it's lower. house demo- cratic or republican by few votes only eff the democrats in the latter case will sit), with his aid good government is pos sible; but it is improbable. for the demo- crats are now in the mood to rule or ruin, and are likely to refuse to have anything to do with government of republicans.
 The popular terms, ''the North" and .'the South" the "Confederaey' and the "Union," are, as usual, descriptive of an underlying truth. There is and always has been difference in national charac- teristics between the inhabitants of the old free, and those of the old slave States. The Southerners used to look on the Northerners as coarse, money getting peo pie, given to fanaticism on certain social, political, and religious questions. Their contempt for the commercial character of the North originated, of course, in the aristocratic training of the plantations, and their hatred for the liberty and equal lty doctrines of Northern philanthropists arose from the intolerance natural to all aristocracies, and from the dread of a servile insurrection or of losing their slave property. There was, undeniably, much antipathy felt by the people of the South towards the Northerners before the war. Now the war has not diminished, it has intensified this antipathy: the chivalr1c South, which had borne itself so haughti- ly and boisterously at Washington. was conquered by the commercial North; the doctrines of the fanatics were triumphant; cherished institutions were revolutionized. The master was made slave, and the slave made mastar. The hatred of the humil- lated Southern people was absolutely un- fataomable; and it yet continues. The talk about the healing of the recent wounds, the filling up of the bloody chasm, the reconciliation of the sections, etc, is opposed to common sense, reason, the experience of ages, and the facts in the case. The South is conquered land, and the Southerners. still retaining their disgust for the commercial and equalizing spirit of the North, have had national hatred added to national antipathy by their defeat. They have been qulet and submissive since the war, through pure exhaustion and animal fear, but ostracism of Northerners has been universal, and intermarriage is forbidden on the pain of social death. Sometimes, it is true, North ern settlers of unimpeachable antecedents, men of tact, who would keep out of pol itics and set themselves to the task of consolidating and sympathizing, have made some progress towards affiliation; but the main fact is as have stated it. It is also true that pacific utterances have been heard, that conrtesies have been inter- cha n o.,i with Nm thern military comma