The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-07-12
..THE ELECTORAL CONSPIRACY"
Judge Black Excoriates the Eight to
51s. Seven Commission.

Judge BLACK EAcOTlates the CASht "
Seven Commission.
Judge Jeremiah S. Black, in the July
number of the North American Review,
contributes an article entitled "The Elec-
toral Conspiracy" which is the most
complete and scathing exposure that has
vet been made of the fraud which placed
Mr. Hayes in the Presidential chair.
Our space will only permit the reproduc-
tion Of the most striking passages. After
briefly adverting to the indignation telt
by honest men throughout the country at
the great outrage upon the rights of the
people, Judge Black proceeds to depict
the condition of affairs in the State OF
Louisiana previous to the Presidential!
election. First, he describes che carpet
bagger:
WHAT THE CARPET.BAGGER is.
The people would not have been wholly
crushed, either by the soldier or the ne
gro, if both had not been used to fasten
upon the domination of another class of
persons whose rule was altogether unen-
durable. These we call et.baggers,
not because the word is descriptive or
euphonious, but because they have no
other name whereby they are known
among the children of men. They were
unprincipled adventures, who sought
their fortunes in the South by plunder-
ing the disarmed and defenseless people; !;
some of them were dregs of the Federal
army-the meanest of the camp follow
ers many were fugitives from Northern
Justice the best of them were those who
went down after the peace, ready for any
deed of shame that was safe and profta-
ble These, combining with few treach-
erous "scalawags" and some leading ne
groes to serve as decoys for the rest, and
backed by the power Of the general gov.
ernment, became the strongest body of
thieves that ever pillaged.~a people.
Their moral grade was far lower, and yet
they were much more powerful, than the
robber bands that infested Germany after
the ''Thirty Years" war. They swarmed
over all the States from the Potomac to
the Gulf, and settled in hordes, not with
intent to remain there, but merely to feed
on the substances of prostrate and de-
fenseless people. They took whatever
came within their reach, intruded them
selves into all private corporations, as
sumed the functions of all Offices, inclu-
ding the courts of justice, and in many
places they even "run the churches"
By force and fraud they either controlled
all elections or else prevented elections
from being held. They returned sixty
of themselves to one Congress, and ten
or twelve of the most ignorant and venal
among them were at the same time
thrust into the Senate. This false repre-
sentation of a people by strangers and
enemies who had not even a bona
fde residence among them was the bit
terest of all mockeries. There was no
show of truth or honor about it. The
pretended representative was always
ready to oppress and enslave his called
constituents his hostility was uncon-
cealed, and he lost no opportunity to do
them injury.
HIS DESCENT UPON LOUISIANA.
The agricultural and commercial
wealth of Louisiana made her strong
temptation to the carpet-baggers. Those
vultures snufed the prey from afar; and,
as soon as the war was over, they swooped
down upon her in focks that darkened
the air. The State was delivered into
their hands by the military authorities
but the officers imposed some restraints
upon their lawless cupidity. They hailed
with delight the advent of negro suffrage,
because to them it was merely legalized
method of stufing the ballot-box, and
they stuffed it. Thenceforth, and down
to a very recent period, they gorged
themselves without let or hindrance.
The depredations they committed were
frightful. They appropriated, on one
pretense and another, whatever they
could lay their hands on, and then
pledged to themselves the credit of the
State for uncounted millions more. The
public securities ran down to half price
and still they put their fraudulent bonds
on the market and sold them for what
they would fetch. The owners of the
best real estate in town or country were
utterly impoverished, because the bur-
dens upon it we're heavier than the rents
would discharge. During the last ten
years the city of New Orleans paid in
| the form of direct taxes more than the
estimated value of all the property with.
| in her limits, and still has debt of equal
amount unpaid. 1t is not likely that
other parts of the State suffered less
The extent of their spoliations can hard.
ly be calculated, but the testimony of the
carpet-baggers themselves against one
another, the reports of committees Sent
by Congress to investigate the subject
and other information from sources ell.
tirely authentic, make it safe to say thai
general conAagration, sweeping over
all the State from one end to the other
and destroying every building and every
article of personal property, would have
been visitation of mercy in compare
son to the curse of such govern
| ment.
THE E1NvENTIvENEss OF sCoUNDRELIsM
This may seem at first blush like gros;
exaggeration, because it is worse thar
ANYTHING that misrule ever did before
The greediest of Roman proconsuls lef
something of the country they wasted
the Norman did not strip the Saxon quite
to the skin; the Puritans under Crom
we'll did not utterly desolate Ireland
Their rapacity was confined to the visi
BILE things which they could presently
handle and use. They could not take
what did not exist. But the American
carpet-bagger has an invention unknown
to those old-fashioned robbers, which
increases his stealing power as much a:
the steam engine adds to the mechanica
force of mere natural muscles. He makes
negotiable bonds of the State, signs ane
seals them according to the forms Q
law" sells them, converts the proceed
to his own use, and then defies justice
"to 90 behind the returns" BY this de
vice his felonious fingers are made long
enough to reach into the pockets of pos
terity; he lays his lien on property ye
uncreated; he anticipates the labor o
coming ages and appropriates the fruit
of it in advance; he coins the industr!
of future generations into cash, ant
snatches the inheritance from children