The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1880-09-08
Postmaster Boone Interviewed.
From South Carolina Direct--A Tale OF Vio-
lence and Fraud.


The following tale of terror is told
in the Wheeling, (West Ea.) lntelli,
gencer:
MIR. Boone, of Newberry, South
Carolina, was in the city yesterday.
He is a native Of North Carolina: but
has lived in South Carolina for twelve
years past, and is postmaster at New
berry, which is an important town
near the centre of the State. He is
also an Intelligent and respectable gen
tleman md Republican. lie gives
some interesting political experiences,
al of which 60 to confirm what the
Democrats are pleased to term the
"bloody shirt stories Of the Radicals:
or, as the Wheeling Register would
express it, the ':base fabricatlons" OF
carpet-baggers. Mr.. Boone is not
et-bagger. He is what the native
rebels down there term ''scaIlaWag
which means, in their eyes, re.
creant Southerner-that is, person
who does not 60 in for bull-dozing the
negro and defrauding him at the polls
of his vote, aud who sympathizcs
with the Republican party.
He says that his county has Re-
publican majority of about $500,
but that such is the terrorism that has
been inspired by violence and fraud
that the party has pretty much quit
voting. and allowed the Democratic
bull-dozers and tissue ballot suffers
to have their own sweet way. He
was asked whether the claims of the
Democratic papers that the negroes
voluntarily vote the Democratic ticket
is true, and he replied that it was far
enough from being true. They are
Republicans almost to the very last
voter among them, and the sight of a
Democratic negro voter is one of the
very raress kind. He knew Of two
negroes who were called Democratic
voters who carried two sets of tickets
to the polls as blind, but when
about to deposit their ballots took good
care to put in the Republican ticket.
This they did from the necessity of
their surroundings, as We could easily
show if it was just or prudent to par
ticularize them.
Mr.. Boone fully confirms the stories
about the violence and blood shed,
that have so alarmingly paralyzed the
opposition to complete Democratic
sway in the South. He tells of the
tragic fate of Plumbers of leading Re
publicans who have stood at the polls
in order to see that the negroes were
not imposed on in the matter of tick
ets-tickets distributors as they we're
called. Incredible as it may seem, he
says that nine out Of ten Of those men
paid for their activity and prominence
with their lives. They were shot on
some pretext or other at the polls, or
by the wayside, or in their cabins.
It was not an unusual thing some
time ago for the Democrats to arrange
a row at the polls-a sham fuss among
misunderstanding which they would
shoot negroes around the polls, killing
or manning them, taking good care
to single out the most prominent and
influential among them. Sometimes
assaults of this kind: would find pre-
text in stories about an intended at
tack on the part of the negroes
The approved method n, vogue
is to stuff the ballot boxes with bogus
Democratic tickets. It is less trou-
blesome, and more effective than
shooting. This follows as sequence
to the former method. The negroes
being demoralized and under cow, it
is easy to poll big vote, and let it
pass as a negro Democratic 5Qte.
Mr.. Boone says that while be has
nothing to complain Of in the way Of
business intercourse with his political
opponents, yet his social ostracism is
about as complete as it could we'll be.
He receives next to no consideration
at all in social life. And simply be-
cause he is Republican. Some time
ago, when his term expired, an effort
was made to prevent his reappoint-
ment. A petition to this effect was
presented by Congressman Aiken to
Postmaster, General Key. Mr.. Key
asked if there were any charges against
him. The Congressman had to say
no, but said that the petitioners did
not want him reappointed. The Post
master-General replied that it was not
the policy of the Department to pay
respect to petitions of that sort, and
sent Boone new commission. This
circumstance he allsded to simply to
show the lengths to which Democrats
90 down there to make life among
them annoying and intolerable for Re-
publicans of any prominence or ac-
tivity. He had been careful to not
talk politics to them, simply because
he knew it was idle to do so, but the
fact that he was ''scalawag" was an
objectionable crime in their eyes.
The readers of the lntelligencer
can judge from the actual experience
Of Mr.. Boone under a Republican ad-
lninistration about what the lives of
Republicans would be, in any point Of
view, under a Democratic administra-
tion. If they have no social recog-
milton or freedom of citizenship DOW,
what will be their fate when their
bulllozers have complete control under
the patronage and favor Of a Dem