The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1881-08-18
A Plea For Justice.

. APiea For Justice.
The following article, from the An
derson MteHigencer of the 11th inst.
has truth all through it. 1t shows
what an infamous set of scoundrels com-
pose the revenue force in our mountain
districts, and what great injustice is
done by the government in placiug such
a villanous set of men over those people.
The article is well worth reading:
Under instruction of Commissioner
Raam, Collector 4. NJ. Bravton has put
a special force Of eight men to police the
upper counties of this State in the
interest of the internal revenue service.
The killing of Deputy Collector Bray
ton by Mellow is the occasion for the
creation of this force, and with the
usual perversity which characteriz"s the
actions Of the revenue department in
this State, they have, with one or two
exceptions, appointed men Of bad char
acter, VIII are exceedingly obnoxious
to the people they are placed over.
Three of the men appointed were i'm
plicated iu the murder of Amos Ladd,
and are now under indictment in the
United States Court awaiting trial for
this crime They are 10 the meantime
put in Office by the government, thus
sanetioping the murder they have com
mitted, and giving them an opportunity
10 commit another, without danger Of
punishment for the crime, or the plea
that they we're in the discharge of their
duty, and therefore entitled to aremoval
to the United States Court for the trial
of the case. While such course is
pursued by the government, il is not to
be wondered that revenue officers are
occasionally killed. 1t is remarkable
that more of them have not fallen be
fore the mooushiner's rifle, for when
men feel that every instinct of justice,
and every principle Of law, is being Vio-
lated in the determination OF yenal par
tisans to hunt them down, and that a
reckless administration of the laws con-
,inually puts the liIe of the citizen at
the mercy Of murdcrers, who arc pro-
tected by mockery of law from respon-
sibility for their crimes, it is not strange
that bold and desperate mooushlners
should occasionally be found who will
kill their pursuers, rather than submit
to their insults and wrongs, with no
possible redress. We do net sustain
the moonshiners. The whole Illicit
whisky business is wrong, and should
be discontinued. The crime which Nc
Dow committed was murder, and moth
ing but the most palpable murder. 1t
was, however, not so unproVoked and
uniustifable as tho killing of poor Davis
by Mattison in this county, or the kill
ing Of the inoffensive mountain boy,
Amos Ladd, in Pickens county by Cane
and others. Yet Mattison, for his in
famous murder, was promoted without
even trial, and in defiance Of the au>
thority of the State Courts, to a mail
route agency by the government, while
Cane and two Of his fellow murdererS
are continued as revenue officers with
out a trial, and likewise in defiance Of
the State Courts. Mellow deserves
punishment for his crime, but no more so
than Mattlson, Cane and others of tile
revenue officers do for theirs, and while
the government shields its criminals
from the lew it cannot be expected
that there will be much commotion if
single individual shields himself by
flight.
IF the government wants the hearty |
concurrence Of tho community in The
execution of it's laws it must deal fairly |
by the community, and then it would
secure the hearty cooperation Of all
good citizens in the enforcement of
these laws. As long, however, as tho
infamous wrongs, perpetrated under the
cloak of official position are permitted
and sustained by the government
against private and unoffending citizens,
80 long will it be found that there is
little sympathy for the officers engaged
in the service which is so grossly abused.
IF revenue officers can kill citizens with
impuDity, and be rewarded with Office
for their murders, We, for one, cannot
wonder that occasionally q misled cit
izen kills revenue officer and runs
away. When ono side ofthis question
is presented the other should be also,
a1d the action of the revenue depart
ment will be sure to be equally as villain