Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-08
IFiom the Atlantic MonthlyI { THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF SOUTH iCAROLIMA. 5-

,#- [Flom the Atlantic Monthly] 1
 THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
 CONCLUDED.
 The republican convention met on the 18th of September. Governor Chamber. lain used all his official power and person. al influence to pack it with his adherents and The honest element of the party; but the corrupt element was in the majority. The governor was candidate for renomi- nation, and he urged as candidates for the other high offices men o; acknowledged integrity and uprightness. But so bitter ly had the corruptionists come to hate him that they made violent onslaught on him; and although they knew that without his interference the whites would out Mississippi Mississippi in the cleo tion, they gave him plainly to understand that they must no longer be trodden on by him. That 1t was necessary to success to renominate him they bitterly admitted; but beyond this they bitterly refused to go. The governor had either to stoop, o5 turn over the state to the strongest and fercest spirits of the section which had tried to tear the Union asunder. A com promise was effected, and the governor WdS E0uO1u1udbOus d LOW O1 t1Ic u6Sb offices were given to his adherents, and the rest were given to the corruptest men 1n the corrupt section of the party. It was sorry ticket; but. thanks to his efforts, it was the best put forward by the party convention since reconstruction Similar compromises in the nominations were eff fected afterwards in many localities; but in a majority of counties the cor uption- ists broke out in open rebellion, put up their own men, and refused to give the Chamberlainites showing; and the Cham berlainites and Mir. Chamberlain acuui- eSced.
 The coming of the troops was terrible backset for the democrats; but they had gone too far to recede. The troops were loudly welcomed, and their gentIemanly West Point officers entertained at formal but polite dinners to keep up appearances; although the furious department of the negroes soon made the whites, now unor- ganized, really glad that the troops were among them to prevent overt violence. A day of prayer and fas ing for democratic success was appointed by the central com mittee of the party, and, at their request, religious services with the Same object Gan unknown thing were held in every church even Episcopal and Catholic In the State. The preference policy" was stern- ly pursued. Thousands of colored re- publicans lost their situations. Negro tenants Republican, were everywhere warned to leave. Or trying to rent new lands they were coldlv asked, Are you going to vote for Hampton?" Republi- can craftsmen were everywhere idle. The papers and orators unintermittingly de- clared that every democrat should make l. l,,A~x Ao oA vote for Hampton. by fair means or foul, and watch him deposit his ballot This was the famous ''one man apiece" policy. In consequence, all the whites, especially gentlemen of property, ,emulated each oth- CT in purchasing voters. Thousands of negroes had liens on their crops released. promised @ for ts9 ns19 yea netHgo Sl H%onsy pad them outright in consideration of their turning democrats, or of staying away from the polls. In consequence of the discharge of colored laborers, the torch began it's terrible work all over the coun- try, and the whites were compelled to keep watch over their property at night. The streets of every village were patrolled All the more bravely did the whites face the torch, all the more zealously did they work, after the significance of the demo- CIaGlC E1CUOEy HI 1uu1Aud OCk6A tO dppSdI It was we'll known that the republican ''bloody shirt" and the "solid South" :" aud on that issue had been defeated. Grant was furiously denounced from one end of the state to the other, and the peo- pie loudly called on to aid in electing a democratic president who would keep his hands off the South in the future. And the leaders, thinking everything was going | for Tilden and the democrats, bee ame ab- | solutely frantic with the desire, which had been strong enough before, to partic- ipate in the victory, to get back to Wash ington. Rnd to restore Palmetto ascenden- 1 cy in the national councils.
 As the election day approached, there were signs that the republicans, frighten- cd at the immense depletion of their strength, would attempt performances in repeating unparalleled in the history of elections; and the democrats began on all sides to say that if the republicans tried 1 that game the democrats should try it too The rowdies and fre-eaters among the l lower classes of whites were worked up with the notion, and made ready for any thing.
 The election passed off amid terrible excitement. but, on the whole, peaceably. United States troops were posted at a large proportion of the polls and places where trouble or overt intimidation was apprehended, ,and were called on frequent | ly to repress incipient tumults. Both par ties turned out in full force. and stayed at the polls all day. Guns were brought by both parties, and concealed in houses near many polls, but the troops would not allow any to be shown. The whites, though, to a man, wore pistols as usual, as did all the negroes, few in number, who had been able to buy them. In Barnwell County, however, the ballot-box at rural poll in negro section. where no troops I were posted, was fired on by an unknown party (supposed of course to be whites) 1 from a neighboring swamp, and a stam- pede occurred. The poll was closed. Af- 1 terwardS the managers reopened 1t in an adjoining place, and the negroes were rallied, inspired with mob courage, and deposited 2027 votes. The democrats af- rewards protested against the counting of these votes. In Charleston County the colored militia turned out at rural polls under arms, stood on guard near such as | had no troops near them, and prevented scores of colored democrats from voting, or intimidated them into 'voting right l The election itself was one of the granl- 1 est farces ever seen. In counties where the negroes had terrorized affairs, streams of colored republicans poured from poll to poll all day, voting everywhere. The largest vote ever cast before in Charleston County had been twenty thousand. Yet on election day, although three or four thousand negroes were .bribed or led by fear of starvation to refrain from voting, and although five or six hundred who did vote cast the democratic ticket, the total i vote thrown reached the amazing figure of 23. .891 and the county went republican by 6391 votes-six thousand having been the average majority in the past. In counties terrorized by the whites. white bravoes rode from poll to poll. and voted time and again. Hundreds of Georgians and North Carolinians crossed the borders and joined in the work. In Edgefeld County the influx of Georgians and the repeating were simply tremendous. The total number of voters in that county, &C., cordipp to the recent state census (aUhich