The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-07-04

fer their cases to the United States Court,
where they claim that the indictments
will be pigeon-holed and themselves dis
missed unwhipped of justice.
They hold our State laws and courts in
the most supreme contempt, and verify
believe that the General Government,
or some one of its coordinate branches,
will uphold and protect them in the most
open and fagrant violations of the laws
of the State, and, indeed, late proceed
ings in the United States Courts have
given coloring to their convictions as
the following statement will show:
Something more than year ago, a
party of these men entered the house Of
Mr.. j. M. Porter, highly respectable
citizen of this county, and began thor
ough search of his dwelling. Mr.. Porter
objected to this high.handed outrage and
demanded their authority for searching
his premises. They thereupon fell upon
him and beat him severely with pistols,
and one of them attempted to shoot him,
crying "kill him, d-.n him, kill him !"
All this because Mr.. Porter objected to
their searching his dwelling unless some
authority was shown him. They then
arrested Mr.. Porter on charge of resist
ing an. officer in the discharge of his du-
ty, and bound him over to appear before
the United States District Court for trial.
BE appeared, and when the facts became
known he was at once discharged. For
this outrage Mr.. Porter had the parties
arrested on State warrant, but before
the sitting of the Sessions Court, writs
of habeas corpus were issued out of the
United States Courts, and the case trans.
ferred to that Court where il, now sleeps
but the culprits were Immediately set
free, and some of them at once retutned
to this county, where, for several months
past, they have taken the most fendish
delight In persecuting our people. 1t
will be observed that there was no war
rant, for Mr.. Porter, or to search his
house. The law presumes every man
innocent until proved guilty, and. is so
careful of life and liberty that it will
permit ninety, and nine guilty to 90 un.
punished rather than punish sne inno-
cent. These humane, wise and Christian
provisions Of our law have been most
radically reversed by these emissaries of
great Republic that boasts of the liber-
ty. of its citizens motto being,
Every man is to be presumed guilty IN.
til proven innocent, and better that nine
ty and nine innocent suffer than that one
guilty escape. 80, 90
They have arrested and bandcuffed re-
spectacle citizens Of our county upon the
mere suspicion Of guilt, without war
rant and without a charge being made
against them. -.
They have broken open and searched
private dwellings, wilfnlly and malicious.
ly destroyed private property, cursed and
abused citizens against whom there was
and could be no charge, and have in
some instances resorted to the torture,
that relic of barbarism, to extort con-
fession or to force from their victim in
formation pointing to the quito others.
They have forced their way into the bed
chamber of private. citizens, at the hours
of midnight, and rudely torn the cover
ing from off the sleeping bodies of hus.
band and wife, who, on awaking, found
their bed surrounded by body Of armed
men. This was done in the case of Mr..
Micajah Hudson, United States mail
carrier from this place to Fall Creek. On
the night in question they Uttered Mr..
;Hudson's room, between the hours of II
and l, on the 10th. of March last. MIR.
Hudson was forced to dress aud accom-
pany this band of midnight providers
until near daylight, when he was sum-
marily discharged. They could show no
authority for their acts, and since then
Mr.. Hudson has come to this place twice
regularly in each week, and yet he has
not been molested since the midnight in
,trusion referred 70. '-..is,. ,.,..-'.,.
The officers claim the authority to
search dwellings and arrest citizens with
out o, warrant. They. claim this right by
virtue of their Office, and, acting upon it,
peaceable citizens travelling the public
highways have been met by them and
forced, at the muzzle of the gun, to fol-
low them for miles around the country
and then discharged without any expla-
nation of their conduct.
Even the privacy of wife's sick cham
ber, with an infant only q few days old,
is not free from the heavy tread, the un-
warranted search and violent language
of these men. This was done in the case
of Mr.. Neal, a highly respectable citizen
of this county, who was at the same time
arrested and required to appear before
United States commissioner. Upon ap-
pearing before the commissioner. Neal
was Immediately discharged for want of
proof
Our citizens have borne these outrages
with patience almost unparalleled in
the history of the world, but there is a
point beyond which forbearance ceases to
be virtue, and, unless it is stopped, the
people will Of their own volition devise
the means to protect their families and
theit firesides from insult and oppression.
We therefore earnestly urge the Court
to throw the agis of its protecting arm
around the people and to bring these
men To speedy justice, who, under the
guise Of law, commit all manner of dep:
relations.
In asking this, we do not wish to leave
the impression upon the Court, upon our
fellow-citizens, or upon the country at
large, that we desire to see one class of
criminals punished and another class 60
unpunished. We sympathize with law.
lessness of no description, and while we
believe that the revenue law, as it now
stands, is oppressive in the extreme to
many of our citizens of the noun
tain districts, who, from the inaccessible
localities in which they reside, are una
BILE to transport their corn, almost their
only product, to market, yet so long as it
is law it should be obeyed, and if vio-
lated the parties should suffer the laws
just penalty. :,
: But, in the name of civilization and
humanity, we protest against their barba-
rous treatment of prisoners; their whole
sale oppression Of both the guilty and
the innocent their unwarranted searches
and seizures, and their shameful desecra-
ton of that holy sanctuary-a wife's
sick chamber.