The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-02-01
Correspondence ofthe London Times.
COLUMBIA, S. c., December 2.


chair for their own Speaker. The Re.
publicans soon gathered, and attempted
to dispossess him by commands and
threats; but no force was resorted to on
either side. The attempt proved fail
ure, and he is still there, the Republican
Speaker being driven to the not very dig
nifed expedient of occupying chair
alongside of him. The comical part of
the situation is that neither party dare
leave the House ungarrisoned, lest they
should be surprised by coup de main,
and some of the garrison have now been
there over sixty hours continuously.
They have their food brought in, and at
night lie on the floor, wrapped in blan.
kets, or sit doing in arm chairs round
the stoves. The negro legislators while
away the time by singing political songs
to religious airs, such as "Hold the fort
for Hayes and Wheeler" and by other
grotesque buffoonery of kind never, |
suspect, witnessed in hall of Legislature
before. Their usual chairman, white
man, can keep them in something like
proper order, and so can two or three of
the abler men of their own color. But
as the chair has to be always filled, and
the chairmen, in consequence, are con-
stantly being changed, an average men,
Der occasionally gets into it for whom
they have no respect, and then scenes
ensue which, as an Anglo-Saxon with the
same blood in my veins as the white
members, Democrat or Republican, !
am almost ashame to describe. I need
not, I hope, say that / have no sort of
prejudice against the colored members
as such. There are among them some
very able and we'll educated men. Mr..
Thomas and Mr.. Miller made as good
speeches as one could expect on the aver
age to hear in any Parliament, much bet
ter speeches than some have heard in
St. Stephens. Such men are, Of course,
in their right place, for, thoug b they
have more white blood than black in
them, they take rank, according to the
custom of the couHtry, with the negro
population, and are we'll fitted $50 far as
their intellectual qualifications go-I
know nothing else about them-to watch
over its interests. Mr.. Hamilton, COM
monty known as "Tom Hamilton" is
another type of colored member to whose
presence in the House no impartial man
would object. He is not we'll educated,
in the ordinary sense, and his English
and grammar are sometimes quite his
own. But he can make himself intelli-
gible, and can speak very straight to the
point. He is, perhaps, a little too fond
Of talking about his pistol and the good
shooting he can do with it. In one
speech he told member who was rash
enough to venture upon an interruption
which would have been thought very
mild in the House of Commons, "Any
man that feels himself insulted by re-
mark from my lips has his remedy; he
has only to say how he wants it," In
another speech, turning to a group of his
colored brethren, The has, though q Re-
publican, temporarily joined the Demo
Gratis on the question which House is
legal he remarked-"I am one of those
who, if they think man = thief tell
him 80. l don't talk about my shooting.
though I now and then hit sparrow fly
ing over the rice fields just to keep my
band in. Make your threat, but when
you 60 to put it into execution make
your will" 1took down these observations
verbatim in my notebook, as l thought
l had seldom heard any more pithily ex-
pressed and to the point, and they were
all the more remarkable as coming from
man who, few minutes before, had
expressed hope that if he were killed
fighting for his dear South Carolina, his
"remainders" might be deposited by those
of his father and mother.
1t is only fair, too, to explain that this
reference to shooting and fighting does
not sound as unparliamentary here as it
would in the House of Commons. The
whole atmosphere is charged with talk
about pistols and fighting. I believe
that l, being the only neutral, am the
only person who goes to the House with
out pistol some strangers" take two
and even three, so as to have spare one
for a friend. The reporters gallery is
armed, and some of its occupants quite
eager for the fray. When one of them
found out in the course of conversation
that had no weapon, he stared at me
much as in England man might have
stared if I had said did not own tooth
brush. I do not, of course, wish to imply
that this is the ordinary state of things in
Columbia, at least as regards the House.
1t is due to the threat uttered by the Re.
publican party that they will have the
Laurens and Edgefeld members forcibly
expelled from the House by the State
constabulary, and the Democrats solemn
ly declare that they will offer armed re-
sistance to the State constabulary unless
it is supported by Federal troops. With
the latter, whose authority they recognize
and respect, they have no wish to come
into collision. Hence every Democrat
in the House, whether a member or
stranger" would assuredly join in a
fight with the constabulary (who are COL
ored,) and, therefore, Democrat now
wants something more than the one con-
ventional pistol, de rigueur, which he car
ries about everywhere. The Republi-
cans, l need not say, are equally we'll
armed, and each side keeps very close
watch upon the other, and the leaders do
their best to see that by the withdrawal
of members or the introduction of volun-
teers and free fighters they are not out
numbered. The Democrats have one
volunteer who is said to have killed his
two Or four men-the accounts given me
varied-and lie is 80 afraid of missing
fight that he has not once put his foot
outside the House lest the Republican
doorkeepers should not let him in again,
and means to stick there until the dis
pute is somehow settled. The Laurens
and Edgefeld members are specially
watched, since if they ventured out of the
House, and could be kept from returning,
the Republicans would have gained their
point. Only one of them has, l believe,
so far ventured out, and he has such d
we'll established reputation for fearless
ness and unanching readiness to risk his
life, that the doorkeeper has probably to
be found who would care to stop him.
This morning, seeing his entrance create
| oorno l;tt)o oommotion ronnd the door.