Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-01

sell them land. This commission, by charging the State five or six times as much as they paid for lands, succeeded in stealing over half million of dollars The treasury was annually rifed of the taxes till it became bankrupt.
 The executive of South Carolina has
 unusual powers. With the approval of the senate he appoints the justices of the peace (called trial-justices here), county auditors, county treasurers, and many other local officers. The appointees for six years were corrupt whites, or equally
 corrupt and far more ignorant blacks, all
 rabid partisans. The colored justices could rarely read or write, and sent out their warrants signed with cross-marks.
 These officers were paid by fees, and were eager to listen to trivial complaints against whites, or to stir mp litigation The treasuries of the counties were often in default; and as they owed their ap-
 pointment generally to the state senator
 from their county, they were compelled
 to supply him with the public funds
 whenever he called for them The local
 officers elected by the people were on a
 par with the appointees of the governor.
 To make matters worse, the fountains of justice were corrupted. The Supreme
 Court was composed of one carpet-bag- ger, one scalawag, and one negro. The circuit courts, however, were not degra- ded. There were only two or three white
 or colored republicans competent to exer- else judicial functions; and the whites, 1t
 was we'll understood, would not allow 8
 perversion of power in this direction. So
 native white lawyers generally selected
 for circuit judges-men who, retaining
 their honesty, would consent to keep qui- ct on politics, or openly profess republi- canism But to offset this there were ju-
 ries composed chiefly of illiterate and de-
 graded negroes, who thought their only 9-~sy was 10 Huu bill .aes guilty in all cases of blacks prosecuted by whites.
 Negro felons sent to the penitentiary were pardoned out by the wholesale. The highest number of prisoners in the peni- tentiary at Columbia (our only state pris- on) at any one time since the war has been four hundred and eighty. Yet in 1870 two hundred and five convicts there confined were pardoned. Pardons were granted as freely to men sentenced to serve for life or term of years as to fel- ons of less degree of guilt Negro con-
 victs were generally pardoned, for politi- cal purposes, but money could obtain par dons for undeserving whites.
 The demoralization became inconceiv- able. Larceny was universal. If man hung up his coat at one end of field, be- fore he could blow to the other end and back It was stolen. Cows turned loose to browse came home milked dry. Live stock of all kinds was killed in the woods in the daytime. Cotton was picked from the fields at night, and corn ''slip shuck- ed." Gardens and orchards were strip ped, and water-melons actually became 6 rarity on white mems tables. Burglary, of smoke houses and barns, was common. Every body had dogs and and guns, and thousands kept watch at night over their property.
 In short, from 1868 to 1874 inclusive, the government of South Carolina was grand carnival of crime and debauchery. saf9 f9f if hf9 s shs egpRHsssien gfax so Klans were organized. But their excess- es soon carried the score over on the oth- CT side, and drew down the just indigna- tion of the national government. They existed chiefly in counties where the whites outnumbered the negroes, and which had escaped the ravages of the war.
 All these matters were aggravated by the management of the state militia. The militia officers appointed by the govern ors were all blacks, and the negro popu- lation eagerly enlisted. The whites scorn- fully refused to enlist under colored off, cers. The governor had power to receive any organization of private individuals, as part of the militia; but if he refused them, it was made highly penal to continue the In several places the whites formed companies of their own, and offered themselves to the governor, who invariably refused them, and caused them to disband; T but for the negro militia, one thousand Winchester and nineteen thou. sand Springfield rifles, with plenty of am- were purchased. Armed with these. they drilled in manner highly in- sulting and alarming to the whites. The military companies were used to tickle the negro's taste for martial pomp, and keep the negro vote consolidated.
 It IS now time to contemplate the other side of the picture.
 For years after the fall of the Confed- eracy the people could not hear renewal of war mentioned without a shudder. Politics fell into adherence. The leaders of secession lost their influence We had been told that the Yankees would back up against the North Pole before they would fight; that one man could drink all the blood which would be shed. But the North had warred promptly, progressively, and successfully, and rivers of blood had run; consequently, the commands of the North were obeyed, the ordinance of se- lo1 hn t,k11 abolishing slavery was rati- fled, reconstruction was not resisted. The old leaders, indeed, were not disposed to submit. They bitterly protested against the enfranchisement of the freedmen, railed at the military government. and the convention, tried to stir up enthusiasm for Seymour and Blair and a white-line democratic state ticket in 1868. and in every manner to rouse up the peo- pie; but their exertlOns were but lII-sec- onded. There were state conventions of the democracy, indeed; but 1t is a remark able fact that, for nearly eleven years after the war, there were except here and there, no democratic primaries-precinct clubs--in South Carolina. Efforts were repeatedly made to form them, but the people would not join them, or, having 1OAhOUs otOOdts 4b OOCdLu0 btlG CuSbOm UO elect delegates to the state conventions by calling mass-meetings of the county democracy at the county court house These meetings elected the delegates, or made county nominations. Their only attendants. generally, were ten or dozen gentlemen who had been our statesmen before the war.
 . The people regretted their defeat, and looked with hostility on both the emanci- patton and the enfranchisement of their slaves. The war and it's results had cost them blood, property, and liberty; ''But. " said they, 'it's no use trying to resist the current; the North is too strong for us, and IS bound to have its way" To the solicitations of their more sanguine lead CTS they replied. "You have misled us once; we will be more prudent in the fu- ture: The course of President Johnson inspired them with hopes, but those fled
 when the unity of the North was per celved. The prospect of electing Seymour animated them to some extent, but events soon chilled them again. For years. vot- ing was regarded as mournful and oner- ous farce, and thousands refrained from it, l Even the new reginae. with all It's hor-