The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1878-03-30
The Robbery or SOuth carolina,

THE mania tor exposure still con
tinue> in South Carolina, aud as uu'
rogue follows ann, her with his accoun
of rascality in that State, in the day
of carpet bag ru'r, there seems t" b.
not IA little emuiation in the matter "
disclosure. The stories first told wet
bad enough and disyrarrtul rn"ngh
but as each witness tries I" "i Il" hi
predecessors and thus ia! has me
with tnlrrahlc sncrr>> the aggregate
of shelf and plumber which has |"r'
laid bare to the pu''ir Sazr has toe
come rn"rm"nS. 1t is not possible
however, that this eau r"u'iuH" n"rI
longer, for W"odlui1> di>rlo>nlr>
which are )a'c>t IN point y! time
bring the hiSt"'; Of robbery down T.
Il date when the State had uu'|Iit!
left for the carpet (ay.rr> to >t"H
and when p|nn'lrrinS had pcltorrr It
cca>t.
Some of the minor items of plum
der we have already alluded To-. it
cludiny the ''loot' which members y
the LcyiSIa ,lrc made off with, in the
shape "t furniture, carpets, station
cry, horses and carriages. But be-
sides the actual ">teal" in mony, Ties.
appropriations of what til" art|rS
Wrmnirk used to call "prr~ona
property sink into utter in>iyniti
canoe. The thieves were royal i,
their desires, if not in their tastes. AM
right royal, did they steal while "p
portunity lasted. The common TO, II
adopted was the procuring of pay Ger.
titicatrS from the Speaker Of til,
House and President of the Senate
In a single session of the Lryislainr.
these certificates were issued to the
amount Of 81, lt;9 ,22j5, the nc,nal pay
of Legislators and employees amount
ing to but 5000 600. The rxres.
went to the Legislative ring and til,
bond ring, the latter being engineered
by franklin }. Moses and Senate,
Patterson. Most of tho participant,
in the fraud had assumed names nm.
der which they received the money
+. l.. Cardoza was &c. l.. Frankfort =
Senator L. c. Andrews was sc. r.
Andlon John Lee, the Speaker OF
the House, was "John Lca,y.' Moses
and Patterson diSdainrd at Such sub.
terfuSe aud pIundrrcd openly in tllci,
own names. For that matter all the
plundrring was done openly enough
the franl Of which Cardoza was con-
victed and for which he was cent to
prison showed plainly on the books
of the Republican, Printing Company.
So did another fraud, for which no.
body has been punished as yet, by
which $l6,7ll ~ in certificates
was divided between the printing
company, the State officials and the
Senators. Certificates were drawn.
also, +" the amount of thousands of
dollars for the joint committee that
visited New York in 1871. The mem
bers OF the committee, five in num-
Der, took Il lccess for a month, but
expenses during that time were law
ishly paid, the amount being Sl7 900.
In doing what they did they acted
under the advice, it is said. of Cham
berlain, whom the Republicans have
since held up as the one faithful man
among the taithleSs of Soutl, Carolina.
The details of all this pecuation,
larceny and robbery wou|d fiji vol
ume. Indeed, it does fill many vol
umes OF the state records. A good
general idea of tho 1epacity mani
Tested can be gathered from a con-
parison of the legislative expenses
under Republican and Democratic
rule, as shown hy the report just
made Of the investigating committee.
In 1901 the cost Of the session was
1904 297. In ISL , it was swclrd to
81 ,Al ,255, in 1923 it rcccdrd to
$3.50 ,G222, and ia 1873 / to SG21 .G5l.
These were Republican years, In the
session of 1917, when the Democracy
had control of the Legislature, the
cost was 81 ,Il9, or ~ triie over one
ninth what it was in 1873 4. Qnite as
instructive as the comparison Of some
of the items. Thus, there was paid
for clerks in the year 1912 the sum
of$2O5,G26. In lo77 the sum paid on
the same account was SOILS. Mes
sengers were employed during the
session first named ut an expense Of
'5s.7M. Th" last Legislative paid
SloS. The p"rters six years agn re-
ceived the magnificent sum OF SI4,-
ABS. Last year they were compelled
to content themselves with S94.
Revelations like these show the
true significance Of the statement,
once so vauutingly made. that there
was five years more good stealing in
South Carolina. Unfortunately for
those who rejoiccd in this belief, it
was founded in misrepresentation
otherwise there can he no doubt that
they would have shown their faith by
their works. The mistake was one
OF time only. Jodicious|y distributed
the stealing would have lasted five
years; but the repacious rivalry Of
the carpet. baggers compressed it into
= much shorter period. But, as we
jntimated before, it was all done,
short as the time was. And if there
had been any more to steal, that, too,
would have been takcn.-Erec Press.