The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-08-30
COLUMBIA, s. c., Aug. 20, 1877.

Gen. j. n. Harrison, anderson, S. c.:
SIR-Your letter of 18th inst. is received,
and am much obliged for the interest taken
about the State guns.
| have written Lieut.. Col. Jas. L. Orr,
who, as an aide, is authorized to receive
all such property. requesting him to COM
municate with you on the subject. The
trouble with this Office is want of funds, the
Legislature having made no provision for
this purpose; even the small sum of $3.50
for armorers salary cannot be drawn, as
there is no appropriation.
Not knowing whether you reside in the
neighborhood of Col. Orr, or at some dis
tance, have not sent you any authority to
receive arms, but if you would take the
trouble of supervising the collection in your
neighborhood, will be glad to secure your
cooperation. There ought to be II 900 rifles
in the State, and I don't think at present we
can account for 5000, and many of those
broken.
If you have little time you could devote
to the State In this unpleasant business, l
am sure the Governor and Adjutant and In
spector General would be pleased if you
would use your influence in securing some
of the State arms from destruction.
Your obedient servant,
JOHN ScorF1N,
For A. and I. Gen.
The remarks of Gen. Harrison show him
to have been responsible for any trouble
that occurred about the delivery of the
guns to Capt. Tribble, for he admits the
colored people were willing to give up their
arms, and he could have ended the whole
matter by simply telling them to turn them
over to Capt Tribble. Now, the letter from
Mr.. Scoffin does not confer any authority
upon Gen. Harrison except to assist. in re-
ceiving the guns in the absence of Col. Orr,
or some other person authorized to take
them. In order to show how much malice
we had in the article we published, we ap-
pend letter from Capt. Tribble, written
for publication at our request, and also the
official report of the matter as transmitted
by Col. Orr to the Adjutant Generals Office
With these letters we leave the question as
to whether we maliciously misrepresented
the General or not for our readers to de-
eide:
BEIToN, s. c., Aug. 9th, 1877.
Mr. E. B. Murray, anderson, S. c.:
DEAR SIR have seen Gen. Harrison's
card in the Journal. When we were in An
derson on the 22nd, Gen. Harrison came to
me and p1 resented letter that he had re-
ceived from the A. and I. General, saying:
"Read this, and think you will proceed no
further in the collection of these arms" and
also said that had no authority to collect
them, but that he had and no doubt told
the colored people not to deliver the arms
to us, &c. The Captain and Orderly Ser
geant of the colored company told me that
the men would all have come forward and
handed up the arms willingly had it not
have been for Gen. Harrison, who told the
colored men that we had no right to take
the arms away from them.
I am satisfied, in my own mind, that
Gen. Harrison did all he could to keep us
from collecting the arms. What his object
was, I do not know, if it was not for politi-
cal effect or natural desire to meddle with
things that did not concern him.
Very truly yours,
NJ. P. TRIBBLE,
Captain Belton Rifles.