The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-02-28
SOUTH CAROLINA 7HLEHLNG.

The Investigating Committee of the
South Carolina Legislature submitted a
partial report upon the olicial thieving
carried out in that State during the Car
pet-Bag Carnival. 1t was most active
from 1869 to 1873, but did not close en-
tirely till Wade Hampton became Gov.
ernor. Nothing in history compares
with it, 1t was thievery wholesale and
retail right and left; backward and
forward over and over again and again.
The New York Herald of Saturday
says "Tweed's rule was pure and spotless
compared with the regime of the South
Carolina ring" Never was stealing so
iovial, cordial and unanimous as the
plantation statesmen and their white
guides and philosophers praCtiCed.
The committee have been investigat-
ing for year, and are only able in their
report to cover one field ofinquiry, name
ly that of the fraudulent and extrava-
CANT expenditures authorized by the
Legislature under the head of supplies"
For the last twelve months the COM
mittee has been investigating the details
of the villainy, yet in the report present
ed last week they merely covered one
field alone that of the fraudulent and
extravagant expenditures authorized by
the Legislature under the-whatever a
legislator wanted-was ordered in the
name of supplies" and paid for by the
State, on the principle promulgated by a
sable Senator in debate, that "the State
had no right to be a State unless she
could pay and take care of her states
men," At one session the bills of this
kind paid by the State amounted to
$950000, including $l2500O for wines,
cigars and other Refreshments" A spe-
cial room was fitted up in the State House
for the dispensation of liquors and to-
baCco, and large quantities were sent to
the private rooms of legislators from 1871
to 1874. One day in March, 1872, the
liquor bill of a single dealer was 81 65l,
and three days later he had bill for
$1.852 more. Of course the prices paid
were enormous, twenty dollars gallon
being the price charged for brandy, $40
for sherry, $40 case for champagne, $40
a dozen bottles for port wine, and 500 a
hundred for cigars.
In four years the State paid more than
two hundred thousand dollars for furni-
ture, although a liberal appraisement
makes the value of the furniture now in
the State House only $177l5. Dealers
testified they furnished at least forty pri-
vate bedrooms, and all the committee
rooms we're fitted with costly furniture,
which was stolen as soon as the session
closed. Houses of prostitution-w hite
and black equipped with furniture
purchased by the State under the sweep
ing title of Legislative supplies" Dur
ing one season 1858 yards Of CarpetiDg
were purchased, one thousand yards be-
ing the finest Brussels, some of which
was shipped to Massachusetts,. Under
the head of Stationery" jewelry, dry
goods, horses and carriages, clothing, etc,
were provided. Items were generally Of
personal expense set down to the public
account. Senators and Representatives
left their private bills with the Radical
accounting officers, and they were re-
turned to them settled and receipted.
During this lavish expenditure, the
teachers in the public schools were un-
paid and the schools suspended; the
State asylums for the unfortunate and
afflicted closed; and convicts were set
free from the Penitentiary to save them
from starvation. All this time Northern
Republicans were voting to sustain these
pirates in power under the influence oi
the bloody shirt" cry, invented to cover
up their scandalous and beastly depre-
dations on the treasury. We shall en-
deavor to give extracts from the report
next week.