The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-11-20
has the law and can indict aud punish
us. We have her consent n, uae the con.

..lSo nave her contract In writing through
her officer and agent to the same effect,
and We intend to stend upon our legal
rights, until either the Legislature re.
peale the Act granting us the labor or
until tbs courts shall order us to surren-
der the convicts.
We are the more resolved on this
course, because medical committee,
consisting of three well-known and skill
full phyJicians of Edgefeld, TO wit: Hon.
IL. A. Shaw, now d member of tho Leg
islature, E. M. Bnrkhalter and q. s. Mer.
riwether, have this day reported, after
careful Investigation, that the health OF
our convicts has much improved of late,
and that the whole of them are capable
of performing the ordinary labor required
of the ordinary laborer-except ak who
are resting in tho yard-not one in tho
hospital, and only one de,.th during the
last month, from heart disease, of q con-
vict formerly injured on the Edgefeld
and Trenton Railroad, whence he was
returned to- the penitentiary as worthless
but was deemed good enough to be cent
to our road. We feel confident that the
narrowing experience we have acquire /
wsn prevent rs ever having any Slore
scurvy among our conviots.
In reference to the grave charges which
have been preferred against either us or
our agents in the public prints, We say
boldly once and for all, that we invite
impartial investigation by the courts or
by o committee Of the Legislature. Our
self-respect as men,.to say nothing of our
pride of character as citizens, would have
prevented us from Intentionally wrong
ing or permitting the conyicts TO be
wronged. Moreover, We have had aud
still have deep, direct, personal and
pecnniary intereat ia treating the con-
sicts well, so as to get our road COM
pleted. For these reasons q Just or gen.
erous man would think tho terrible sick
ness and mortality among them had suf.
ficiently distressed our feelings and en-
barrassed our enterprise, without also
making. us the recipients of wholesale
and undeseryed abuse. ....i
More convicts diei in the penitentiary
last year than died on the Greenwood
and Augusta Railroad, and about as
many died in the penitentiary last year
as have died on our road. We have also
been reliably informed that the general
| symptoms of the disease which has
proven 80 fatal to the convicts on both
| the railroad and in the penitentiary du-
ring the two last years have been identi-
cally the same-general debility, ernp-
tions and dropsies of the lower extremi-
ties, alternating with chronic diarrhea,
| which are attendant symptoms of scurvy,
according to all the medical books.
| Now, as the health Of the coi,victs in
the penitentiary this year has been cx-
ceptionally good, and as the health of
our convicts has hGen wretched. especial
| iy that Of the last lot of seventy-five we
received without medical examination in
April last, the public can draw it's own
| inference; as tS how the mortality ceased
so suddenly in the penitentiary and why
it broke out 80 alarmingly on our road
Immediately afterwards.
| When 30 many conyicts died in the
penitentiary last year, no clamor was
raised in any quarter concerning it, but
| when only about the Same number have
died this year on our road, and died, too,
ofidiseases contracted in all probability
TO a. large extent in the penitentiary, OF
in tho jails, before being sent to us, q
great hue and cry is heard all over the
land.
Our company got its first hundred con.
| yicts from the penitertiary on the 24th
of September, 1877, and as our own sur
i geons examined each one before receiv-
/ ing him, they were for the most part a
very healthy lotof laborers among whom
I only six deaths occurred, even when
counting several who were kiiied for try
lug to escape during the first eight
| 1873. & - 3,t 2
Bit after we obtdined second lot 9!
fifty convicts On the End of May, 1873,
tho sickness and mortality among them
soon developed at fearful rate, and
| when We got still q third batch of forty
more, December the 9th, 1878, the NOR
tality again swelled to an undue proper
ton. However, it is but the simple truth
that when we received the second and
third patches of conyicts above mention
toned, Mr. Parmele, the then Superin-
| tendent of the Penitentiary, strenuously
objected to our taking them, .becatige. ns
he said, most of them wers badly diseased
and would die on our hands. We unfor-
tu1ately failed TO heed his counsel in our
eagernessNt 10 get labor of any sort, They
have died, as no predicted they would, IN
! great numbers, but the last lot of seventy.
five received from Superintendent Lips-
comb, on the 9TH Of April, 1879, have
died at far more appalling rate, cctsid-
ing the time we have had them, than any
| Of the other lots. -.
| ln,August, 1878, Superintendent Par
] nlele visited our Stockade No. 8 at q time
whenthere was nearly as mucn sickness
and as many deaths among the conyicts
as there were at Stockade No. s in Au-
gust, 1879, when Superintendent Lips.
i comb Waited il at onr request. Superin-
4 tendent P&rmelei highly praised the
| general plan of our stockade as we'll as OF
our management. of the prisoueEs, both
pick and syelB saying .-'el NeEs doing q
better part by the convicts in our tempo
/! rary country quarters than he could do
Tor. them in the permanent quarters OF
| the penitentiary. tAltho.igh our Stock
| ade No. 70, In 0ital appointments and
| discipline, Is almost duplicate of Stock.
! ade No. 3, which ELECTED the warm
encomiums of Superintendent Parmele in
1873, yet Superintendent Lipscomb was
! not satisfied with anything he saw al
s5sovas 40, . iIr SoT1.
/ In submitting this statement OF facts ia
| the public, we claim that IL mistakes
| have been made they were unintentionai
/ 2. That cohvicts have always been we'll
/ fed, and generally we'll clothed.
| 8. That the Secretary's minutes ehow
4 that the Directors have issued every
| ordor and used all due vigilance. TO. pro.
vent cruelty, hardship or fnhumanify.
| 4. That the mortality was due largely
| to previous condition OF conyicts, and "a
diseasc beyond the pale OF me dicine. =
5. That the convicts have been attend.
ed by physicians who are the peers oi
any in the State.
/ 6. That the hospital treatment was as
/ good rs conld be given to inanacled pris.
oners, and equal to thgt received ny the
ordinary laborerlof tho country.