St. Landry democrat., 1878-03-16
The Revelations of Moses.
From the n. @. Pfeayuue.i


10. Perhaps the most refreshing reading
! that has been given to the public OF
| late, ia the confession of ex-Gov. Moses,
of South Carolina, as published itl4he
! New York Herald. It has always been
suspected, and often charged, that the
"outrage mill" was invented for the
purpose of grinding ont reports OF
murder and conspiracy in order to fire
the Northern heart, and thus enable the
carpet bag governments to carry ION
their work Of plumber with impunlty:
| Nevertheless, until the able scoundrei
who ran the machine in South Carol ina,
made the revelations referred to, there
was no way to verify the suspicion, and
| the public mind was brought to q con
victi0n of the facts only by the dis
reputable character Of the actors in the
conspiracy,
Now that Moses has turned iuformer,
we begin to see something of the work
| ing Of that shocking system OF frand
and falsehooa by which 80 many Ut the
| Southern States were held in servitude.
! We learn from him that rot only was
| Ku-Kiuxism myth and q phantom
| but it was deliberately planned by
Moses and his confederate villains to
turn away the public opinion OF the
country from sympathy will, the plum
dered and outraged people OF South
Carolina. Whenever q danger of this
kind seemed to threaten them. they
dispatched agents through the State
to stir up trouble that might lead to
popular outbreak. They armed all
the negroes as milltiamen, and instruc-
ted them to assert by violence the kind
of rights which they had been instruc-
ted to claim, while white men were for
/ hidden to drill except in colored COM
| panies commanded by officers expressly
chosen from among the most desperate
classesoin the community. These Off
GERS were ordered to drill their COM
panies at midnight, and the militiamen
were directed to terr:fy the women and
irritate the men by frequently discharg-
ing their guns. In order that the work
might be thoroughly done twenty five
desperadOes were imported from New
York and scattered through the coun-
try with instructions "to work up the
outrage business BY this means they
succeeded, sometimes, in exciting the
whites to overt acts OF resistance, and
these were represented as ku Klux
conspiracies. Among the worst OF the
agents employed in this yillainous work
was one Major Merrill, O person OF whom
we, afterwards, had some experience in
| Louisiana. For the services rendered
| by him to the thieves Government in
South Carolina he received $35, 900.
| Moses does not limit himself to vague
generalities in these revelations. He
gives dates, names and places, and
among those whom he duplicates are
ex-Gov. Scott and ex-Gov. Chamber
lain. Perhaps it will be said by the
New York Times and other Republican
organs that Moses is confessed scoun-
drel, and therefore cannot be believed.
But he is one Of the scoundrels whom
those journals have supported. and at
times euloglzed and his story, taken in
connection with the report of the
Committee on Frauds" recently pub
| lished, bears SO many marks of truth,
aud corresponds SO closely with the be-
liefs of the public, that no effort to dis
credit it is likely to be successful.