The daily gazette., 1878-02-27
BURLEsQUE AT THE SOUTH

nnsfsal kAAek AQn 0feees suddenlY aYak-.
ened TO sense Of the outrageous corrup-
ten tbas has honsycbmbsdI our political.
Institutions for ten yesu past, should ap-
point 4 joint special committee with full
power TO investigate the era OF plundsr
and procure evidences TO convict the
thieves. Suppose that after sitting In
secret for many months and thoroughly
averbauling the Credit Mobilier, the
frauds 10 the Navy Department under
4ccor Hobeson's brigand rule, the iniqui-
ties OF the Wbiskey Ring and the cop
spiracy by which Hayes was put In the
White House, this committee should be
accused OF suppressing the truth for poll
tical purposes, and finally driven by the
force OF public opinion TO report the re-
suit OF their labors. Suppose that their
report was something In this fashion:
"History records no parallel TO the car
nival Of rascality that has been going
on ut Washington since Grants fret
election! No language can fitttingly
characterize the rascality of this era OF
stupendous frauds. A simple statement
Is enough to brand the perpetrators with
everlasting iufamy. We make that
statement boldly and without regard TO
consequences. Here It Is: For ten years
the Congressman Of the United States,
Republicans as well as Democrats, have
habitualiy provided themselves with
newspapers. pocket knives, and scented
| soap at the expense OF the nation; the
funeral ofa colleague has frequently
been made the pretext for robbing the
People of the price of black kid gloves;
and Senator Ingalls, of Kansas 1--WE fluid
with sorrow aud shame) has made and
still makes the contingent fund of the
Senate pay his subscriptions TO several
magazines and other periodicals, includ-
ing the Nursery for his children. Let
the stern hand of Justice seize and crush
the guilty ones. irrespective of party~
| This might be tolerably funny in a
stage burlesque, but in real life, where
the crimes were great and the people
dead in earnest in their demands for
Justice, II would hardly amuse the most
sensitive humorist.
| Nearly year ago, when Wade Hamp-
ton came into power In South Carolina
through Hayes abandonment Of Cham
berlain, the honest taxpayers loudly de-
uanded that the thieves who had plum
dered the State to the extent of twenty
five or thirty millions should be pursued
and punished. To satisfy this righteous
cry for justice legislative investigating
committee was appointed, with Senator
Cochran as Chairman. The Committet
has heard the confessions of Ex-tiover
nors Scott and Moses, of Niles G. Parker
Woodruff, Dennis and hundred othe
rascals, greater or lesser, who have beer
concerned in the ,monstrous steal. L
has obtained and has in its possession
documentary evidence of Chamberlain
guilt, enough to convict thas chief of th,
robbers a dozen times over. The SuI
has been able to show what frauds th,
Cochran Committee has investigated
wha. testimony has been taken,a and wha
documentary proofs are in the hands o
the investigators. Meanwhile the peo
pie Of South Carolina, aud everybod,
IOutside of South Carolina who is interes
ted in honest government and th,
punishment of crime, have become sus
picious Of Gov. Hampton's Committee
for the reason that IL has seemed to b.
working not in good faith but rather 70
the suppression of evidence and the es
cape of the greatest criminals.
One more specimen will give fai
notion OF the character of this report
The Committee have discovered iha
the corrupt carpet-baggers and ignor
ant negroes in the General Assembl,
used to furnish their private room
out of the continent fund, and as Mr.
Cochran graphically puts it, "reclin
on Oriental spring and sponge mat
tresses, while their constituents wer
being bounded down by the iaexora
BILE tax gatherer to pay the price o
these luxuries." We quote again from
the documents evidence submitte,
with the report:
AS further illustration OF the inordi
ate greed of this horde OF robbers, we pre-
sent the following, for nothing, howeve
small. escaped the Argus-eyed committe
men who so dexterously played the gam,
of addition, Division, and Silence" "
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE,
To JAMKs NJ. ALLEN, DIR