Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-28
Thursday Morning, April 2S, 1881.
SOUTH CAROLINA PoLJTIcs.

SOUTH CAROLINA POLITICS.
 The testimony in the contest between R.
 Smalls, Republican, and G. D. Tillman, Democrat, for seat in Congress as represen- 1 tative of the Fifth South Carolina district is | all in, and presents the usual array of incl | dents of Democratic fraud intimidation and violence. It shows that at Edgefeld Court | house nearly 2,O0O ,colored Republicans were
 not allowed to vote At Johnstones, in the
 same county, between 400 and 800 of the same class of voters were not permitted to deposit their ballots. A colored man was also killed at this poll, and no efforts have been made by the State to bring his murder | CTS to justice. At Aiken Court house a piece of artillery, loaded with grape shot by ". W. Williams-the judge of probate-was planted l in the street facing the poll the Palmetto
 Guards-s militia company-kept their arms at the town hall, and twice assembled in the street armed to prevent Republicans from voting, and when even the fear of being shot did not deter few from entering behind the Darrlcade erected in front of the poll to de-
 posit their ballots they paid for their temeri- ty by having cayenne pepper thrown in their
 eyes; those who protested against this bar
 parity were threatened with arrest for melt ing riot. Democratic Iawlessness reigned
 supreme at every poll in this county, and
 very few Republican votes were boiled. At
 Buford's Bridge, Barnwell county, band of
 armed men drove about 400 colored Repub-
 licans from the poll, and Confederate flag
 was hoisted over the precinct At Barker's
 and several other precincts armed men pre-
 vented Republicans from voting In Hamp-
 ton county, near Beach Branch, nine armed Democrats waylaid the three colored men who had the Republican tickets for that vi- cinity, and compelled them to deliver them up st the mouth of the pistol In Collector county the commissioners of election refused to count the vote of Jacksonboro-a large Republican precinct-because the box was full at o'clock, and the managers closed the poll At Summerville-another Republican stronghold-the poll was not opened at all At the Ridge" the vote, heavily Republican, was thrown out because the managers pro- cured a second box, as the first could not hold all the tickets.
 These are a few of the leading points of the testimony, all properly attested under oath. Mir. Smalls says that he found it very difficult to procure legal assistance on ac count of the social ostracism threatened any colored people in his district are suffering under worse state of slavery than before the war. "A white man," he says, would then protect his niggers against ill-trestment from others but they no longer enjoy this protection and they are utterly cowed and dejected-" In this connection some remarks recently made by the Charleston (S CD Neaos are interesting. They were as follows:
 Senator Hampton in his speech in the Sen ate on Thursday admitted that there had been irregularities and fraud at elections in this State, and announced his unalterable de- termination to try at the earliest moment to rectify the wrong that had been done. The irregularities" or whatever else please to call them, were justified and iustifable- just revolution rebellion is permissible when there is no other escape from tyrannical government, under which neither life nor property is safe. It Is manlier to rest on the right of revolution, whatever form it takes, than on denials which do not carry convic tions, and on evasions which deceive nobody worth deceiving. Senator Hampton, in his speech at Blackville on July A. 1878, said frankly that if elections were to be carried by fraud the State would soon cease to be worth saving. What was done in 1876 ill 1878, and in 1880 was necessary. Similar work is indispensable no longer, and the peo pie will not put up with it. The Democratic masses cannot be whipped or spurred up to the point of taking the chances of Albany penitentiary. It is not right that they should, for there Is not the need now that there was before. Nothing but the unalterable deter imitation of the white people of the State to carry the elections, by hook or by crook, put the Democratic party in position to prove, in practice, that under Democratic rule, the taxes would be lowered, that the laws would be justly administered. and that the condi- tion of the whole people would rapidly i'm prove. These are faets not promises. And they spring from the opportunity given by the frauds and irregularities which our op ponents insist on treating mere devices to take offices from one set of persons and give them to another set For such purpose the people would not tolerate chicanery at cleo tions. This is one reason why there IS de-
 termination to have free vote and fair count hereafter. The means which can be justified where the very existence of the people is at stake are uncomfortable when the objective point is the qualification of person al greed No one can tell at this moment in what particular way we shall contrive to maintain respectable and equal government and at the same time do away with fragrant abuses at elections. Somehow it will be done. The Democracy know what is want ed and are well able to put their political household in order.
 This is frank and at the same time some what encouraging. How much it really means remains to ha seen