The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-05-29
NEW ORLEANS, TUESDAY, MAY 20,
PRICE. FIVE CENTS.
Letter from the Editor of the Charleston
News and Courier.
CHARLESTON, 8. G., May 20. 1877.

Letter from tile Editor of The Charleston
News and Courier.
CHARLESTON, s. G., May 20, 1877.
Editor Democrat attention has been
called to an article In your paper in which, on
the faith Of some letters alleged to have been
written by me in 1871 to the clerk of the SEN
ate, am accused Of having been " in with the
Radicals who were robbing the State" am
at O loss. to account for the violence OF your
attack; but whatever your motives, / have
the right to ask, and now ask, that you pub
lish this note, and with it my reply to Whitte-
more and Woodruff, whsse rascalities have
exposed, and whose arrest and prosecution 1
have demanded for several years; that u.s.
ever since the criminal character Of their con-
duct was discovered
The reply in question was by leave read In
the presence Of the Senate. Failing In their
effort to divert attention from themselves,
Woodruff and Whittemore have not attempted
to prove their charges. and Whittenore has
fled the State.
Further than this, only care to say that IL
you were well acquainted with the course Of
political affairs in South Carolina, you would
know that the policy of running no Demo-
cratic candidate for Governor against Mr..
Chamberlain at the last election was favored
year ago by Gov. Hampton himself, by Gen.
Conner, the present Attorney General by
House OF Representatives, and by other DEM
oerats of equally high position, by large
majority of the people OF Charleston, and by
little short of @ majority of the people Of this
State.
am your obedient servant,
f. W. DAWSON.
The following is Mr.. Dawson's letter to the
South Carolina Senate, in reply to the charges
against him referred to In the above letter to
the editor of the DEMOCRAT:
COLUMBIA, May Q, 1877.
To the Senate of South Carolina:
/ have read this morning the remarks OF
Mr.. B. r. Whittemore, Senator from Darling
ton, delivered In the Senate yesterday.
These remarks cover q gross attack hpOn
my character and upon the character Of the
gentleman who Is associated with me in the
soon as the news that the attack had been
made reached me i'm Charleston, / came to
Columbia, that | might meet our accusers
face to face; for that purpose, and none other,
am in Columbia to-day.
feel that, in any Statement that may
make before this body, 1t might seem out Of
place to suggest any special reasons why this
particular attack upon us might, with pro-
griety, be disregarded; inasmuch as, TO Mr..
the public by one who seeks to cover his own
corruption and corrupt practices by aecusa-
tions Of fraud and improper transactions
against me- and my associate But owe an
answer to the good citizens OF South Carolina
who through good report and evil report,
have honored me, these ten years, with d
large measure Of their confidence; and TO
them, not to the Senator from Darlington,
make, In this place. my reply.
The letters puIrporting to be written by me,
or by Mr.. Riordan, read by Mr.. Whittemore
in the course of his remarks, have not been ex-
amined by me, and therefore / am unable to
say whether they are wholly or in part
genuine. From grand larceny to forgery. Is
no great distance, even when measured by
the penalties of the criminal law take, how
ever, the letters as they stand and find that,
IL genuine. they prove
I. That the proprietors Of the Charleston
Ne,cs, who are the present proprietors of the
Ne,cs md Cb,riey, desired to obtain, and
made price for. the printing Of the laws
and other official notices.
2. That they agreed to pay Josephus Wood
| ruff a commission of twenty per cent on the
gross amount OF their bills for printing, as
| the money was collected.
3. That Mr.. RiOrdan and myself addressed
| this person, Woodruff, in an exceedingly TO-
| miliar manner.
| The first charge needs no special answer
| The printing for which we made.a price was,
| by the laws OF the State, authorized to be
| done, and the price that we made was fal
less than has ever been charged by us to pTi-
vate persons for the same amount and char.
| acter Of work. For example, the published
| advertising rates Of the Netcs and Cb,atier is
by measurement, ten cents @ line In the daily
edition, ten cents a line additional for the trf
weekly, and fifteen cents q line for the weekly
editions; making for all three editions thirty
five cents a line. In 1871 the rate was eonsid
erably higher. The rate at which the worl
was offered to be done for the State, and was
DONE was twenty cents q line for all thre'
editions.
| 2. It Is true that we agreed to pay Wood
ruff q commission OF twenty per cent on sucf
moneys as he should collect Such practice
is common in the newspaper, business as il
every other business; and there was tn
special reason for it in the case of Woodruff
| that we were satisfied that without the dis
count there would be no collections. Toin
sure the collection of our bills as rapidly 81
possible we allowed the commission whei
paid. Whenever Woodruff collected an
| money for US he deducted commission for hi
services, and paid over to us the balance. Th
commission was paid by us, and was no los
| to the State.
8. It Is true that Woodruff is addressed il
the letters in question with what may seen
and now would be, an undue familiarity, bu
it must be remembered that Woodruff wa
well known to Mr.. Riordan from 1861 as Oh
Industrious local reporter for the Charlesto
as laborious and thrifty as hs was humble an
unassuming: Itwould have been as much on
Of place in those days to address him as MI
Woodruff as to attach similar handle to th
name Of any one OF the numerous walters a
the Charleston Hotel. The accustomed us
Of the first name was continued when Wood
ruff emerged into politics and became cler
Of the Senate.
When such time came that we could no
with propriety address him familiarly, W
ceased to have any communication whateve
with him. This was several years ago. Eve
since the sNeaes and Courier has opposed an
exposed the swindles of the printing rim
with unabated vigor and systematic pert
nacity
OF the letter dated March 49, 1871, have n
knowledge, nor has Mr.. Riordan. Our pre-
| sumption is that it was written in reply to
complaint that publications made BY us ha
: affected injuriously the credit Of the Stat
We had from 1868 TO 1870 diligently endeavo
: ed to bring the public mind to the point Of r,
pudiating entirely the bayonet bonds Of tx
reconstruction government. In this we wei
not sustained by the moneyed interest, bl
were openly denounced as wanton destroyer
of the public credit Of the State. III in 1871 v
, had suspended our efforts in that direction
we were fully in accord with the large body
, those citizens, with whose opinions we ha
, | haeomn nainfIliIv familiar