The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-11-20


first visit to our stockade on the 21st of
August last. In that report, which bears
date End of September, 1879, he says he
came to inspect our convicts, in conse-
quence of "having received letter from
Gen. P. H. Bradley, President of G. & A.
R. R., stating that great deal of NOR
tality and sickness existed among the
convicts leased to that company"
The Surgeon of the Penitentiary, DR..
Trezevant, never visited our convicts
until the 25th day of August, when he
was ordered to do so by Superintendent
Lipscomb, yet both of these officers, if
we are correctly informed, had been COM
manded by an order of the Board of Dl-
rectors of the Penitentiary as far back as
the 22nd of April last to visit every con-
vict camp in the State. Why did the
Superintendent and Surgeon of the Pen
itentiary slumber over discharging this
duty so long? They could not plead
ignorance of the fearful mortality among
our convicts, because regularly euery
month the Superintendent of our Road,
J.sJ. Cahill, made report to Gen. Lips
comb of time lost or worked:by each con-
vict as well as of the list of the sick or
dead since his last monthly report. The
Superintendent and Surgeon of the Pen
itentiary ought to be and doubtless are
skilled in the best methods to treat con-
victs at work on railroads, and if either
of them had visited our road in the
spring or early summer, his suggestions
would gladly have been put into prac-
tice, perhaps, to the benefit of the con-
victs, particularly if it had been impress
ed upon US as it has been since, that all
prisoners long confined are predisposed
to scurvy. When at last Superintendent
Lipscomb and Surgeon Trezevant did
make reports on our treatment of con-
victs, those reports contained such
charges that our company was summoned
to appear before the Board of Directors
of the Penitentiary to answer those
charges.
On the 18th day Of September our
President, Vice President and Superin:
tendent did appear before that Board and
made thorough showing in written an.
swers, and by numerous certificates of
gentlemen and ladies near the stockade
and line of our railroad that the burden
of the charges was without foundation.
Yet as the substance of those charges
has been published in the newspapers,
we respectfully submit that j. would be
but fair to publish the answer to the
charges also. Let all the charges and all
the answers, therefore, go to tine world
together, and we do not fear being ac-
quilted of any intentional guilt or gross
negligence in our treatment of the con-
victs. Fair play is a jewel, and both
sides ought to be heard. As result of
the investigation by the Board of Direc.
tors of the Penitentiary on the 18th of
September, it was agreed by and between
the Penitentiary Board and by our Board,
through its President, General Bradley,
that DR.. Pope, Hospital Steward of the
Penitentiary, and DIR. t. ]. McKie, who
had been the Surgeon in charge of rail-
road Stockade No. 4, should make a
thorough examination of all the convicts
on our road, both sick and we'll, and order
such of them back to Columbia as they
deemed advisable, because of being unfit
to work on the road, or for better treat
ment in the permanent hospital in the
city than our temporary hospital on the
road afforded. Those physicians selected
twenty-five convicts to be thus returned,
and they were promptly returned at the
expense of the company, although h several
able bodied ones were taken from work
on the railroad without complaining of
being sick at all. Several others rapidly
convalescing on the sick list under treat
ment for scurvy, and who would soon
have been ready forlabor on the road, in
opinion of number of physicians, in
cluding two of the undersigned, who saw
them the day before they started for
Columbia, were also included in the
twenty-five before mentioned, while four
or five obviously feeble ones were left on
our hands. One of those twenty-five
convicts sent to Columbia died on the
road and another one shortly after arriv-
ing in Columbia, but if they were too
feeble to be removed thither, it was no
fault of our company, as DR.. Pope, who
represented the penitentiary, when re-
monstrated with, said carry them, no
matter if they should die on the road, he
would take the responsibility.
After carrying out the wishes of the
Board of Directors of the Penitentiary,
we hoped our troubles were over, and
that we should be permitted to proceed
with our road prosperously, especially as
appropriate treatment for scurvy had not
only improved the health and strength of
the remaining convicts, but their spirits
also. Judge then of our surprise when
on the 9th day of October Superinten-
dent Lipscomb and DR.. B. NJ. Taylor, of
Columbia, turned up at the stockade, in
spected the same and the convicts with
out giving any notice to our President,
Surgeon or Superintendent, or saying q
word as to their object. We never knew
their purpose until General Bradley re-
ceived on the 18th day of October last a
copy of resolution of the .Penitentiary
Board, passed at special meeting of the
Board, when only - members were
present, ordering US to Immediately re-
turn all the remaining convicts at work
for us except eight, in conformity with
the recommendation of DR.. Taylor, dated
9th instant. From all this it would seem
that there was desire to break up our
railroad entirely, and have all the con-
victs returned to the penitentiary, either
to be supported in idleness at the expense
of the taxpayers or to cut q canal and
build factories, as we'll as operate them,
for the benefit of Columbia, at the ex-
pense of the rest of the State. 1t is true
the Greenwood and Augusta Railroad is
on the extreme western verge Of the State,
but it is an important link in the railroad
system of the State, as it will be prac-
tical extension of the Port Royal Rail-
road, especially when completed to Spar
tanburg and also to Anderson, as it will
be in time and connect our greatest sea-
port, Port Royal, with the great North
west. Therefore, all the people in wcs-
tern Carolina are deeply concerned in its
early completion, particularly the coun-
ties of Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton,
Barnwell, Aiken, Edgefeld, &c. Now
that we have no serious sickness among
a,. a,>l H. a Ill