The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1881-11-03
MiscelIansous.
%
THE RISE AND FALL OF
MOSES.
y. Y. Times, Oct. 5tll.

There appeared in the Jefferson
Market Police Court yesterday, 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 d
| great State, and who is now a
beggar and penniless Vagabond.
There was q time when be had
control Of almost unlimited
wealth, rolled in luxury, and
! sported with wantons and liber-
! tines with the profuseness Of an
Eastern Prince. TO day he has
hardly friend in the world, and,
broken, gray, and seedy, be ekes
! out slender subsistence by his
wits. If q novelist were to weave
into a romance the main incidents
of the career ofFrankin J. Moses,
formerly Governor Of South Caro-
lima, people would say that his
story was sensational but some
" hat improbable. The life Of
Moses furnishes q capital example
Of the ease with which a bold and
reckless man may seize on power
and pelf in times Of political un-
settlement and revolution. The
period of reconstruction in the
South was Moses opportunity.
His fall was the natural conse-
quence of his ill.spent life, not Of
the end of the era in which he
fiourished.
1t was said of Moses long ago
by one who knew him we'll, that
'he was a noble e-hearted man, with
a paralysis on the moral side
Exactly what constitutes noble
hearted man, however, is not
easily determined. As long as
Moses had money he scattered it
like chaff. But that which he
tossed about him with prodigal
hands was not bis own, and the
creatures who lived on his bounty
never gave him credit for genuine
generosity. So when the day
came to bim when be, like one Of
old, would fain have filled his
belly with the husks the swine
did eat,' his fine weather friends
had all forsakea him aud fed.
The man who made the streets of
the capital Of South Carolina re-
splendent with costly equipages,
jewels, and gay attire was at last
brought down 80 low that be stole
an overcoat from an Office into
which be had gone on pretended
errand Of cusiness. Where were
his boon companions, the men
whom he had enriched, the fav-
orites Of his brief aud brilliant
career, when he was so reduced
and humiliated ?
Born Of a good old Southern
family Of Jewish descent, gifted
with many rare personal and men
tai qualities, Moses might have
made for himself Q name of which
South Carolina would have been
proud. The rapidity with which
be ran the whole gamut Of ordina.
ry ambition proved his native
geniue. At the close of the war,
although be had thrown himself,
heart and soul, into the Confede-
| rate cause, he saw, as but few
others did, that the leader of the
newly enfranchised freedmen was
sure OF power; and be took up
their cause With an enthusiasm
that seemed almost real. His sa-
gacity and audacity we're reward,
ed. Speaker Of the Assembly, be
engaged in q career of corruption,
bribery and robbery which has
had no parallel. in this country.
He made no bones Of his rascally
intentions. If he wanted money,
horses, or any specie of property,
| ne OenaQOCu GueSo -. tuc ul0u
who sued for his influence in the
passage Of bills in which they
were interested. He procured the
enactment of . law which gave
him, as Speaker, unlimited power
to draw upon 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 o money
mill.
! Having issued nearly two mil
lions of dollars in pay certificates
as Speaker, it was obvious that
| Governor Moses would rule tbe
State with all the prOhigacy anC