The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-05-10

fact that Woodruff procured and WHITE
more received wines, liquors and cigars
which we're ordered as being for the us
of the State, and were directed to be pait
for out of the public treasury, although
applied exclusively to private uses. Thi
was both breach of trust and theft
The evidence is found in the orders fo
the wines; liquors and cigars, signed b!
Woodruff as Clerk of the Senate, and II
the testimony of the merchants who sup
piled the goods, that these were delivered
to Whittemore and others, and paid for
when paid for, in legislative pay certi6
Gates, signed by Woodruff as Clerk, ant
by Gleayes as President of the Senate
Nothing that may be said, or has beer
said, against the Ne,us and Courier vii
lessen in any way the damaging weight
of the evidence of their guilt. This the
public must bear in mind. 1t would moi
be wise to allow thieves who are about ia
cross the threshold of the common Jail tc
divert attention from themselves by cry.
ing aloud against others. All the same
we do not regret that Whittemore, down
whose capacious throat flowed the wines
and liquors that the impoverished State
vas expected to pay for, should, in an.
other sense, become the mouth-piece oi
Clerk Woodruff.
For ten years the newspapers which
the present proprietors of the Ne,us and
Courier have owned and controlled, have
been engaged in the work of unmasking
fraud. and corruption in South Carolina
and for the same period of time we have
been slandered and abused By the thieves
whose yillainy we upheld to public rep
rotation, and by malignant Democrats
who we're Jealous of the success Of our
efforts. It was in the nature of things
that the MeWs and Courier should be de.
nounced by those whom it exposed,
Every manner of accusation has been
brought up against us. When our pa;
tience was exhausted, and we defed our
accusers and demanded the proof, no
other proof than an iteration Of the
charges was ever forthcoming. Particu-
larly bitter has been the Printing Ring,
otherwise the Republican Printing Com.
pany. This concern beginning and end
ing with Jones of the House and Wood
ruff of the Senate,) we have fought in
season and out Of season, for the past five
or six years; that is to say, ever since we
became aware of the corrupt character OF
their transactions. For rs many years
as we have denounced and branded them,
have Woodruff and Jones sought to
silence us by threats. Never until yes
terday, have we brought them to the
point of disclosing the terrible letters
that Woodruff said be possessed. These,
if they are our letters, were read by
Whittemore in the Senate yesterday.
They will be found in the report of the
proceedings of the Senate published to-
day. e-- .e.. =,
We do not know, as we have not yet
seen the originals, whether the letters in
question have been garbled or altered.
Thieves easily. become forgers. Assum-
ing that they are substantially the letters
we wrote, they prove ~ that We ad-
dressed Woodruff familiarly, ~ that we
sought to obtain the State printing, (3)
that we paid him q commission of 20 per
cent. on the bills be collected for US (4y
that we did not say as much against the
credit Of the State as, if we believed all
that we heard, might have been said.
The familiarity with which Woodruff
was addressed is easily accounted for.
He was an industrious reporter for the
Charleston Courier during the war, thrift
ty, humble, and laborious. AS such he
was known to the senior member of our
firm. To have addressed him as Mr..
Woodruff would have been, in those days,
as much out of place as to attach the
Same handle to the name Of a waiter at
the Charleston Hotel. The familiar use
of the first name was continued. when
Woodruff became Clerk of the Senate.
When such time came that he could not
be spoken to familiarly, he was not
spoken to at all.
We did seek to obtain the State print
ing or advertising; and we are prepared
to show that the rate mentioned in the
letters published to-day is less than is
charged by us to private individuals for
the same amount of work. For example,
our regular published rate for the inser-
tion Of an advertisement once, in the
daily, tri-weekly and weekly editions is,
in all, S5 cents line; the price charged
the State was 20 cents line. /.
1t. is equally true that We paid Wood
ruff commission on what money he COL
lected for us. Otherwise no money would
have been collected. What we paid
came out of our pockets, not out of the
pockets of the State. The allowance of a
rebate or discount is too common and
usual to need explanation. What we in
sist on is, that we did not add on to the
bills an amount equal to the discount we
took of, but, on the contrary, is no in
stance charged the State more than was
charged the public, and, in most cases,
charged it much less. IT,. non
Ofthe publication, in connection with
Governor Perry's letter, we have no spe-
cial recollection. We presume that COM
plant had been made that we were injur.
ing the credit of the State. The Charles
ton Democrats, at that time, were as SEN
sitive as Woodruff on that subject. We
remember how bitterly they resented all
efforts to kick out the "Bayonet' bonds
from the money markets in 1868 and
1869. -
The whole purpose of the publication
of our letters, if such they are, is to injure
our personal character; and as we now,
for the first time, have an opportunity of
meeting such charges squarely, we shall
demand that they be thoroughly investi-
gated. Before the Senate the charges
were made. Upon the journals of that
body the lying speech of the scoundrel
Whittemore is recorded. Of the Senate
we shall ask that our conduct, as journal
lists, be examined into from 1867 to this
present time, and to the judgment of
that body we submit ourselves. The op.
portunity for which we have yearned has
come. They who have charges to prefer
against the Ne,os and Courier shall prove
them, or eat their words. To ask Of
the Senate that searching investigation
which is due to US, Capt. Dawson, in hie
own behalf and in behalf of his asso-
ciates, went to Columbia last night
Me7ue md Gou,-;er