Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-11-17

OuT SIOT 10 IOlus NO IOil Whoo tAiS -"
per told US, and what we saw. We leave the
reader to explain what may seem strange
or supernatural-we cannot.
Mistellaneun5 Reading.
THE RISE AND FALL OF F. ]. MOSES, JR.
From the New York Times.l
There appeared recently in the Jefferson
Market Police Court, to answer to the charge
of obtaining money on false pretenses, man
who has held many Offices in his day, from
Judge to Governor of great State, and who
is now beggar and penniless vagabond.
There was a time when be had control of al
most unlimited wealth, rolled in luxury and
sported with wantons and libertines with the
profuseuess of an Eastern Prince Today he
has hardly friend in the world, and, broken,
gray, and seedy, he ekes out a slender subsis'
tence by his wits. If a novelist were to weave
into romance the main incidents of the
career of Franklin J. Moses, formerly Cover
nor of South Carolina, people would say that
his story was Sensational" but somewhat
improbable. The life of Moses furnishes a
capital example of the ease with with which
a bold and reckless man may seize on power
and pelf in times Of political unsettement
and revolutions The period Of reconstruc-
ton in the South was Moses opportunity.
His fall was the natural consequence OF his
ill.spent life, not of the end of the era IN
which he fourished.
1t was said of Moses long ago, by one who
knew him we'll, that, "he was noble hearted
man, with paralysis on the moral side." Ex-
actly what constitutes a noble-hearted man,
however, is not easily determined. AS long
as Moses had money he scattered it like chat.
But that which be tossed about him with
prodigal hands was not his own, and the
creatures who lived on his bounty never gave
him credit for genuine generosity. So when
the day came to him when he, like one OF
DID, "would fain have filled his belly with
the husks the swine did eat," bis fine weather
friends had all forsaken him and fled. The
man who made the streets of the capital Of
South Carolina resplendent with costly equip
ages, jewels and gay attire was brought down
so low that he stole an overcoat from an Office
into which he had gone on pretended er-
rand of business. Where were his boon COM
panions, the men whom he had enriched, the
favorites of his brief and brilliant career,
when he was reduced and humiliated?
Born of good old Southern family OF
Jewish descent, and gifted with rare personal
and mental qualities, Moses might have made
for himself q name of which South Carolina
would have been proud. The rapidity with
which he ran the whole gamut of ordinary
ambition proved his native genius. At the
close of the war. although he had thrown
himself heart and soul, into the Confederate
cause, he saw, as but few others did, that the
leader of the newly enfranchised freedmen
was sure of power; and he took up their
cause with an enthusiasm that seemed almost
real. Hissagacity and audacity were reward
ed. Speaker of the Assembly he engaged in
a career of corruption, bribery and robbery
which has had no parallel in this country.
He "made no bones of his rascally inten-
tions. If he wanted money, horses, or any
species of property, he demanded these of the
men who sued for his influence in the passage
of bills in which they we're interested. He
procured the enactment of law which gave
him, as Speaker, unlimited power to draw up.
on the State Treasury, and from that day, his
warrants taking precedence of all other de-.
mands, were plentiful as the leaves of the
forest. He owned money mill.
Having issued nearly two millions of dol
lars in "pay certificates as Speaker, it was
obvious that Governor Moses would rule the
State with all the profigacy and extrava.
gance that he had shown in his influential
position. There was almost no limit to the
mans reckessness. He seemed utterly de-
void of moral sense. He levied toll on every
public and private legislative measure with
money in it" which required his signature.
is matter of record, for example, that a
valid claim of 100000 held by banking
company against the State, could not be paid
until $4,000 was handed over to Moses He
involved one of his underlings, Humbert, in
a scheme by which the State was plundered
of $4,000, and what seemed to be grand
larceny was attempted against the State, and
when her officers went to arrest his Excellency
they found him entrenched in his palace,
guarded by the State militia. He gave away
pardons like holiday baubles Pimps, black
legs, criminals OF every ColupleAlou, "eio Pai-
doned by telegraph, by letter, by verbal orders
to iailors, and with a freedom which prom
ised immunity to crime so long as the often
der owned in Moses friend.
A spendthrift, Moses laid up nothing for
the proverbial "rainy day" He ran his
brief career, and, in two or three years, out
of power, out of place, and out of money,
he drifted to New York His life in South
Carolina, after he had emerged from the re,
bellion was crowded full of exciting episodes.
He lived life of debauchery, intrigue and
sensuous excitement. He schemed and plan
ned, but he never built for the future.
While it lasted the golden stream that flowed
through his hands was royalty spent. While
he had the opportunity he schemed to some
purpose, and his plans for gaining possession
of ''the potentialities Of great wealth. by un.
lawful means were admirably laid. But the
end came at last.
His term of office expired. His chances
for gain we're gone and he had saved none OF
his pIunder He had consorted with lewd
persons and his own wife and family were
E,roaJ y, ohaLa him off The 1nWnhill road